Oregonbigfoot.com file# 00467

REPORT OVERVIEW

Date: , 1982
Sussex county, NJ
Nearest town: Newton
Nearest road: Fairview Road
Conditions:
Time: late evening
Location: Fairview Lakes YMCA Camp.

REPORT DETAIL

Description of event: This is a Story that I have told maybe a handful of people since it happened when I was about 16 back in 1982. I was at a Sleep-Away Camp that I attended every summer for many years up in Newton, NJ, which is a heavily wooded area around a mile long lake. Having gone there for many years, I knew pretty much every trail that when around the whole lake and walked them countless times alone at night as well as during the day.

Being 16, I was in an Older Boys unit called Wakeegan and our cabins were the furthest away from all the other younger boys units. On the Other side of the lake the main Trading Post where us older kids hung out at as well as the girls side of the lake. Basically the walk from there to our cabins took you down a long trail by the lake, up past a small swamp pond, across a very large baseball field, and finally through about a ¼ mile trail through a dense wooded area. At the end of the trail was the open area to the Wakeegan Boys Cabins.

At night, most of the boys, including myself would hang out at the Trading Post until about 9pm sharp when we would be required to leave and return to our Camp by no later than 9:30pm "OR ELSE". Well, I had a girlfriend and as it goes at 16, Didn't want to leave at nine. So being almost 17, I made a deal with the Head Counselor of our unit that if I could beat him at poker each week, Id get anywhere from 15 minutes to a half hour extra. Well, I beat him often enough, thus, I usually made the trip halfway around the lake alone every so often. Well one night, that trip wasn't alone.

Leaving my girlfriend and the Trading Post alone at 9:30, I started the trek back to my camp sight along the waterfront trail. One side of the Trail is dense woods. The night was pretty clear but not much moonlight gets through the trees. I then get this real strange feeling that something to my left in the woods is paralleling me as I walk. Now, I'm thinking someone is playing games with me so I just ignore it. Now and then I hear the snap of brush but that's typical in the woods. But the feeling there is something there and being watched never goes away.

I'm a bit spooked because the woods are pretty dense around me and whoever or whatever is there has no problem traversing landscape that without a path, would be nearly impossible to easily do. I pick up the pace, Stop Sudden and whatever is there matches me movement for movement. Now I am positive something is there because every now and then a bit of light gets through the trees and I catch a shape and movement of something big. There are bear there but no bear does this sorta thing without growling and with such stealth.

This continues past the frog pond until I hit the open ball feel. All of the sudden, that feeling of being watched is totally gone and I am relieved. Well that relieved feeling disappears real fast when I enter the last ¼ mile trail at the other end of the ball field. Now to my left out of eyeshot a get that watched feeling again and feel something definitely shadowing me, matching me step for step. I'm now pretty much scared but I'm also getting pretty mad at whoever could be playing games on me. I ruled out an animal because whatever it was, was not only big, but smart enough to keep out of good eyeshot yet ghost me. I'm thinking it's the head Counselor screwing with my head because he knows I am walking back alone about this time.

Finally, I'm mad enough at being scared that about ½ way down this path, surrounded on both sides by dense woods, that I stop dead in my tracks and look right towards where I think the stalker is. I start walking towards it and yell, "Whoever the F***, you are, you better show yourself or run because I'm gonna beat the ever loving snot outa you!!".

Then whatever it was, bolted right through the woods really loudly the other way. I could see a really large dark shape that was definitely taller than any counselor, but it was only a short glimpse. I turned around and ran like a bat out of hell the other way right into my campsite, right into my cabin, and NEVER again played poker for an extra 15 or so minutes on the other side of the lake. I never mentioned it to anyone nor went and looked for any tracks. At the time, I was sort of hesitant to actually know what it was. If I had found tracks in there, I doubt I would have been able to convince myself to finish out the summer there, let alone walk outside my cabin door without anything smaller than a shotgun after dark.

I'll say this much: As I think about it years later I have come to a conclusion that the only thing that could have tracked me like that that night was as good as a special forces soldier. Absolute stealth through dense brush and all the time, remaining an eye on me would have not been easy by a long shot. Well this was a kids camp and not a military base. Also, whatever it was, was also a great deal bigger than I am and knew I was angry when I turned towards it that night because a bear would have just mauled me or made a sound but this took off, apparently just as scared of me as I was of it. It was definitely on two legs and not four because it easily stood 8 feet high when it bolted. I am not positive that it is a Bigfoot because I know of no other sighting ever in that area. I also didn't see it clear enough to make out exactly what I saw. Make of this what you will. It happened exactly like that and I remember this experience as if it happened a night ago, not when I was a 16 year old kid many years ago.

PS. As to being contacted if you dont have any questions, I would appreciate it if you knew of anyone ever sighting anything in that area, exspecially in the late summer of 1982.

Editor's Note: According to the BFRO, there is a history of sightings in Sussex County.

Source: oregonbigfoot.com
record updated:2002-12-16 00:00:00