Report 63398: Photographer's daylight encounter west of Coldspring in Sam Houston National Forest

I don’t know if you want a report this old. I just saw a program on TV that made me think of it. It was either May or June of 2009. I was on assignment as a photographer for Texas Highways Magazine and The Texas State Travel Guide to photograph the Sam Houston National Forest among other East Texas locations on a multiple days trip. I found a place to park my state car and hiked into the woods, camera in hand, in late afternoon light to try to get some definitive shot of the woods. I was maybe a mile to two miles into the forest and came to a clearing where vegetation had been removed for power lines. I stopped for a while to watch the opposite tree line for a deer or rabbit or such to come out, get my shot and move on. After a few minutes there was a loud crashing noise on the other side of the clearing that startled me, as deer make almost no noise. Before I could react, a small juvenile black bear came out of the trees, stopped in the clearing edge and put its nose up in the air sniffing. It then abruptly turned around and ran back into the woods. I started to go after it for a photo, but thought better of it as its mother would undoubtedly be nearby. I decided to go back the way I had come to give them space. I had barely turned when I saw a huge dark shape about ten to twelve feet away through some very thick yaupon brush. I’m 6’3” and I was looking up at a twenty to thirty degree angle to its head and huge shoulders. Texas bears don’t get anywhere close to this size, more like an Alaskan Kodiak Bear in size. I froze. All of a sudden it’s hand moved and a 2-3” diameter tree trunk about fifteen feet long came flying toward me. I ran like a werewolf was after me, and it might have been. I was back at the car in just a few minutes, clothes torn and bleeding from cat’s claw and briars trying to stop me. I jumped in the car and peeled out, not stopping til I reached Coldspring. I parked the car and sat there until quite late as I pondered what had happened. It was only then that I concluded I might have just encountered a Sasquatch. I never told anyone but my wife as I might have gotten fired for being “unstable”. I had to go back two weeks later to a different part of the forest to get my photo I had missed previously. I’ve been retired for ten years now, so it doesn’t matter what people think.