​Sycamore State Park 2016

It was a hot, muggy June night in Southwest Ohio and me and my friend decided to go catfishing at local Sycamore State Park. We got there around 6:00pm and noticed a family having a birthday party in one of the large shelters near the parking lot. We think nothing of it and walk down the trail to the pond. Fishing was slow that evening with each of us only catching 2 each. We decide to leave the pond at around 10:30pm and we make our way up to the parking lot. As we're walking up, we can hear the trashcan rumbling around by the shelter that had the birthday party. We assumed it was just raccoons seeing how they're known for being trash diggers. As we get up hill, we stop talking to see if we can startle the raccoons digging in the trash. We sneak up to the bend and freeze. It wasn't raccoons we were hearing, but a large ape-like creature digging in the trashcan. We were about 30 yards away and not making a peep, it had no clue we were even there. Then out of nowhere, one of the catfish on our stringer that was still alive starting thrashing making the metal stringer jingle loudly. The creature then sharply raised its head up from the trashcan and starting swaying back in forth like a chimp would do if it was getting worked up. It then let out a howl I can only describe to be a mix between a howler monkey and a canine. We backed away slowly and as we did the creature starting slowly walking away back into the brush, never taking its eyes off us. We then dropped the fish and ran to the parking lot and our car as fast as we could. The creature was in between us and the parking lot so that may have been why it showed aggression as I believe it felt cornered. The creature was not insanely large, maybe 5'10ft at the most so it may have still been young. Needless to say, we never go into that park after sunset anymore.


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