My Husband and I just spent July 3rd through the 7th camping in southeastern Ohio at private lake, which we prefer not to name. On the night of July 4th around 11:30 p.m., we were on the private lake, which borders the west side of a stretch of power lines.

One of our friends in a kayak smelled a strong musk- skunk odor from the west side of the lake. The wind was blowing to the east. At the same time we heard crashing branches like something running through the woods over on the east side of camp on the other side of the power lines.

She brought the kayak back to shore and then her boyfriend took the kayak out to the deepest end of the lake. All the sudden a huge rock about the size of a full grown German Shepherd flew across the road, which runs all the way around the lake, over the bank, over the grass line and into the lake! This was approximately 20 yards from the kayak. Then our friend in the kayak antagonized it, really just trying to scare it away, by pounding his paddle on his kayak and yelling "Hey you Big Ape". Then the Grassman threw a 2nd rock, even bigger than the first! It landed a lot closer, within 10 yards of his kayak. The three of us on the bank were approximately 100 yards from the creature, and our friend in the kayak was about 30 yards.

We ALL saw the creature. He was peeking out from behind a tree. He rocked his body back and forth from one side of the tree to the other. Then he moved to the water line and back. At that point my husband set off three bottle rockets thinking it would scare the Grassman off. He then loaded his 12 gauge shot gun; he didn't want to harm or make it mad, just didn't want it to get any closer.

The creature seemed to stand about 4½ to 5 feet tall with no neck. He may have been a juvenile, or he was crouching down. He looked very thick in the chest, thick torso, broad shoulders and glowing dark yellow eyes. He was light/med brown. The color of the tree bark. We had our really bright Mag-lite with new batteries pointing right at him.

We thought we heard another one just south of us possibly calling the creature with a WHOOOP sound! Then our Grassman disappeared to the south. We think there were two adults around the outside of the camp, and what we encountered was a juvenile. We were all so excited from our encounter that we stayed up until about daylight.

The whole time we were there, before and after the encounter, we heard a baby crying, a woman screaming, and even heavy breathing at different times. My Husband also heard strange whistles, whooping sounds and even a tree fell over in the woods on the other side of the lake, we all heard that.

In years past, at this same camp, we’ve heard things and smelled things, but never had the encounter we had this year. WHAT A RUSH!! My Husband believes they use the power lines as a trail. We truly believe there was more than one Grassman around our camp this year. It was a full moon that night, so he possibly could have been a darker color, but his hair was shinny from the moon glow & flashlight. This is true to the best of our account. It’s changed the way we think about going into the woods for the rest of our lives.

Sincerely,
Sally and Neil de la Fuentes
Thursday, July 12, 2012 7:00 PM