>>904137I normally carry a pistol in the field but didn't have it belted. It was on the passenger seat, so I unholstered it and watched out the passenger window that was down from my earlier drive. The creature made another loud grunt and then began coming towards the edge of the guardrail that runs across the bridge. I admit I was in a state of panic, so I pointed my Taurus concealed-carry .357 out the window towards the ground and fired two shots. The irrational part of me just wanted that creature to stop coming towards me, and the rational part thought that if I fired shots and it behaved like an animal it would bolt, and if it were a human being I was seeing it would yell something like “Don’t shoot!”.
Its reaction to the shots was neither. It just stopped in its tracks, now about 30 feet away. I did the only sensible thing I can recall that morning by fixing it in my view, noting where it was in relation to the guardrail and below the top of my side window and then I decided to get out of there.
All I got on the cam were some raccoon and coyote pictures. The woman moved out to Louisville with some kin so she's happier I suppose. Never had another encounter since then and I'm thankful for that.
Approximately 7 1/2 feet in height, with massive shoulders – maybe 3 ½ feet across-- and arms, but a trim-looking abdomen. Size was determined by visiting the location a couple of weeks later and using an extending paint-pole to measure from where I was parked to the place I fixed its position. The hair on the chest area was grey, running to anwhite coloration at the centerline. No distinct features were clearly visible except for a larger, flattened almost human-type nose. There seemed to be a crease running down the center, but it was definitely not an “ape” nose. Darker mouth area that moved and sometimes made an “O” shape when it vocalized. Coloration on the shoulders, arms was reddish. Hair length seemed a pretty uniform 2 to 4 inches overall.
