#162 STARTLED ON THE SUSITNA RIVER

An account from Simeon and his wife details a daylight encounter along a game trail upriver from Deshka on the Susitna River. While exploring away from their relatives waiting in a skiff, both Simeon and his wife experienced an object or stick lightly brushing against them on separate legs of the trail. Upon returning, Simeon's wife was struck by two thrown pine cones, leading them to spot a large dark silhouette 15 feet away. As they retreated to the riverbank clearing, an 8-to-10-foot-tall figure with wide-set black eyes, flat nose, hairless dark tanned leather face, and grizzled multi-colored hair tracked them to the tree line. When a relative advanced from the skiff with a firearm, the figure aggressively broke a tree and threw it over their heads before grunting and retreating into the brush.