Chapter Two: Hunter In Tree; Someone On Ground Below, page 1

Last week, I found a middle-aged hunter at Wayne Cox's C&S Sports and asked him if he had not seen the gorilla or baby bigfoot. He had and related the story to me in careful detail. Like every conversation I relate, I am paraphrasing unless I specifically note that I am recording conversation verbatim. "I was up in my tree stand and had seven deer come by.The leaves were so dry you could hear them coming from a long ways off. It was almost dark when suddenly he was there, on the ground just under me. I had not heard a sound. It was so dark all I could see was a form. He continued walking around the tree until he hit the scent trail I made walking up to the tree. Then he ran about ten feet. Again, he was absolutely silent. At this point Ida Rae walked into the store. She was obviously tired of waiting for me in the car and ready to go so I did not ask him if he had been afraid to come down from the tree, what the creature did when he did come down, and if he could see if the person was standing or on all fours. This hunter is a regular at Wayne's store so I will try to ask him these questions next time.
Do gorillas know to walk silently in the jungle-woods? If not, they could probably learn very quickly. Don't they share about ninety percent of the same genes we humans have? One would expect Bigfoot to be very woods-wise. I guess the first question to ask is if it is even possible to walk and run in the woods without making a sound. If you say no, then the hunter was either mistaken or we obviously have an animal with that ability. Where did he come from? To be complete, I knew an excellent hunter in Newport News, Kenny Something. He would set his decoys up and sleep in his boat with his Chesapeake all night to be there when the ducks came in the next morning. Kenny told me that many times he had deer walk right up to him, and he never heard them. I can remember one time that happened to me: I was on a stand waiting for the dogs and drivers to push a buck my way when suddenly there was a buck and his small harem of does in the leaves about fifty yards away staring at me. It was like God had placed them there. I had not heard a thing. But for an animal to run ten feet without making a sound?
If anyone has any comments or sightings, please call me, Two-Guns, at 352-359-0850.