Campers report 'Ohio howls' and stalking near Mt. Jackson in George Washington National Forest witnessed in Shenandoah County, Virginia

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I'm an experienced outdoorsman, for what has been most all of my life. I was always 100% confident while in the woods, even at night. It was mid August of 1985, myself and a good friend went camping in the George Washington National Forest. One of the most heavily forested areas around. At the time you would be hard pressed to find more desolation in Virginia than what we had. We drove up a fire road well past the few houses in the hollow. We made camp in a fire break between the mountains, but close to the bottom of the west ridge. I knew this little spot from previous adventures in that area. After making camp, we went back down in the valley for some fishing, shooting, and some time in town. We got back to camp around 9:30pm. It was pitch black out, no moon that night. We couldn't see a thing without the car headlights on. We finished unloading the car, and got a fire going. We sat around the fire for an hour or so. We had dinner, just some canned goods. We started talking, h...