Indiana April 2001

It was early spring and I was taking my fiancee on her first backpacking trip. We parked at the Horse camp in the Hoosier National Forest where we chose a new trail I had never been on. About 8 miles in it was getting late so we chose a camp site. I built a fire we built camp which consisted of a 2 man backpacking tent, sleeping bags food and cooking gear and our head lamps. We settled down by the fire eaten our food and crashed kinda early because we were tired from hiking all day. Later that evening I was sound asleep when my fiancee Jennie awakened me and whispered there's something in our camp it was breaking a lot sticks and brush and walked over to the campfire which was slowly burning away. She said she could here it breathing and it smelled really bad. I immediately listened and could here foot steps walking around our tent. But I didn't smell anything. She encouraged me to go outside and check it out. Armed with my hiking pole and head lamp in hand I unzipped the tent fly and stepped out. There was a small tree maybe 4 feet from the tent where I had a propane lantern hanging. I managed to get it lit while shining my head lamp in all directions searching for our uninvited guest. I could here footsteps running across the trail to the forests edge.It began making chattering sounds and huffing noises. By now my fiancee Jennie was out of the tent and we both kept shining our lights towards these sounds which by now it had moved into a thick grove of pines with dense undergrowth. TBE creature stopped localizing and began breaking branches and shaking the lower limbs of the pines so we knew where he was about 30 feet from our camp. This went on for maybe 5 minutes shaking the trees and breaking branches the whole time Jen and were yelling out to it asking what do you want leave us alone go away. After 5 minutes it ceased and seemed to have went away. I restoked the campfire and we set up for awhile talking about what just occurred before going back to the tent to get some sleep. Must of been around 2 in the morning. About half hour later I was awakened by the sound of heavy foot steps walking up to the back of our tent. It let out a blood curdling scream then grunted. This creature was standing a foot from our heads behind our tent. The grunts were deep low guttural sounds then changed to a best I can describe would be gazoo sound then cracking. Sharp cracking sounds.This put me into a paralysed state where I couldn't move or talk and the feeling of fear I had never e experienced before. It was like being a scared rabbit that was about to be killed. My paralysis only lasted maybe 10 seconds then I awakened Jen and whispered to her it's back and it's right behind our tent. We both quickly grabbed our hiking poles and lights and proceeded out the tent. This creature was all Black and I'd say at least 9 feet tall ran across the trail into the pines then let out a scream sounded like a viloceraptor on Jurrasic Park then more clicking. It was about 50 feet away behind some very large pines then we watched it run down a steep hill toward the reservoir. We both were frightened and were afraid this thing return so we opted to slack hike without our combersum gear to a nearby Forestry road where we could get back to the Horse Camp and my truck. It was about 3 in the morning and we feared this thing would follow us so we covered the 8 miles in good time arriving back at the truck early daylight. To our knowledge it didn't follow. With hind sight I wonder if being in that area so early in the spring upset this beast. Few people backpack that trail that early.