Second Annual Pennsylvania Bigfoot Conference
and Chest Ridge Excursion
By
Marcus Adams
On September 23 through the 25 Enigma Project members David
Jones, Marcus Adams and Mike Frizzell made a trip to just outside of Pittsburgh,
PA. This area, over the past 25-30 years has been a hot bed of paranormal
activity including UFO, bigfoot and other strange animal sightings. We
were invited to the 2nd annual Pennsylvania bigfoot conference by Eric Altman.
Our trip began with a 4 and a half hour drive west from northern Carroll County,
MD. We arrived at the conference with only moments to spare and enjoyed an
intriguing presentation by a well known local UFO and bigfoot researcher Stan
Gordon. His discussion included an in depth talk on bigfoot history in the
Chestnut Ridge area as well as slides and several unknown animal casting that
included the controversial (among bigfoot researchers) three toed tracks
sometimes seen in the eastern US. After Stan's presentation we were
delighted by the talk from Don Keating, an Eastern Ohio bigfoot researcher.
His discussion included several slides of past and recent bigfoot activity in
the Newcomerstown, OH area. After some good dinner at a local restaurant,
we started a great evening of lively back and forth discussion about the bigfoot
phenomenon. We met several bigfoot investigators from the Maryland/Virginia
area that added some great viewpoints. We were even treated to some very
high tech equipment that indeed made this investigator envious. On Sunday
we began our planned excursion up to the top of Chestnut Ridge for a hike.
The weather conditions were not optimal as you can see in the photos to follow.
Our elevation was about 2400 feet above sea level. The cloud deck that day
was at about 2200 feet above sea level. Needless to say we were in fog for
most of our hike. This area of Chestnut Ridge, where several members of
our hiking party had seen the mysterious beast, is quite rugged and we needed
4x4 vehicles to traverse the top of the ridge. Due to the fog and
fantastic overgrowth visibility in the dense forest was no more then 25 feet on
either side of the trails that we hiked.