Report 26646: Daylight sighting by mother and daughter at the Illinois River outside Cave Junction

I had lived in Indiana for a few years and had returned to Oregon in 2005. I was so excited to be back home; even the air smells sweeter when I got back. I would get in my car and just drive sometimes. One day, winter of 2006, my daughter and I drove up to the Oregon Caves and then meandered back towards Redwood Highway. I decided to stop at a park on the outskirts of Cave Junction to smoke and stretch my legs. It was winter and nobody else was in the park, very quiet and cold. We walked down to the river, randomly talking about how pretty it was. Out of the corner of my right eye I saw someone walking in the river. My first thought was of concern because it was so cold and I could not imagine anyone being in the river except if there were an emergency. I turned my head and all I remember seeing was a very large dark person (It walked like a human). I don't remember much after that except sheer panic. My hair was standing on end and I yelled at my daughter to "RUN"!!! I didn't even look back to make sure my daughter was behind me, I figured I could hear her footsteps and that was good enough. All I could think about was whatever that thing was, it wouldn't take long for it to catch up to us before we made it to the car. Once we were in the car I don't even recall how fast we got back to the highway. I stopped in a parking lot once we were in Cave Junction and tried to calm down. We hadn't even spoken to each other until then. My daughter finally asked me, "Mom, what was that?" I told her that I had no idea, maybe it was a bear. Her reply was that it didn't look or walk like a bear and it was too big to be a bear. I agreed with her but I didn't have any other answer at that time. I honestly cannot recall a time when I have been that panicked especially considering that there really was no reason to panic. This thing was far enough down river that I could not make out details of its face and it was just "strolling" through the water. It was not making threatening movements at all. I had pretty much convinced myself it had to have been a bear and forgot about the incident until recently when I saw a bear while hiking. I have seen bears in the past but this bear was quite close and it didn't really bother me. I just turned around and walked back the way I came in. It occurred to me as odd that being alone, seeing a bear ahead of me (with my car quite far away) I felt no panic and very little fear. I couldn't understand my fear of whatever was walking in the river. It was much farther away than this bear had been, my car was much closer and I was not alone...I was in a public park not far at all from Cave Junction, I mean it really bothered me.