Report 2696: Nighttime sighting by three in car, on Sprucevale Rd. near Calcutta

This incident occured in 1982 or 1983. I haven't told too many people due to the usual reactions one would expect. I was with my best friend and my girlfriend (now my wife)and we were driving around in my friend's car for something to do. He was behind the wheel, my wife in the passenger side, and I was in the back "hanging" over the seat. We were traveling on Sprucevale Road toward Calcutta. We were crossing the bridge at Gretchen's Lock, and as we started to make the bend after the bridge and climb the steep grade the car's headlights swept into the wooded hillside along the road. About halfway up the hill in the woods the lights showed what looked to me like a monkey type of animal crouched down on it's haunches with it's arms extended in front of itself and between it's thighs. It appeared to be brownish and very hairy. It's face was apparent and appeared monkey like, no snout or pronounced nose. I couldn't judge the overall size well due to it being in a crouch. I didn't say anything as we drove on. About a half a mile later I finally asked if the others had seen anything on the hill. At once my wife stated "you mean that monkey thing?". My friend stated yes and also described the same thing that I had seen. It was frightening because we all remembered it the same after the fact without having stopped to observe it and compare notes so to speak. We turned the car around and went back, and as we retraced our trip we could pick out the spot we saw the figure, but it was no longer there. Nothing in the woods such as a tree stump etc. resembled what we had seen on the first trip. I believe that whatever it was had been surprised by the vehicle and moved on as soon as we had passed by. In any case we decided not to venture into the woods, and left the area. To be honest just writing about this makes the hair on my neck stand up even after all these years.