Source: The Charlotte Observer

The series of images was reportedly taken about 2 a.m. Saturday, and posted on Facebook by Bigfoot 911, a research group devoted to creatures of folklore like the Bigfoot.

Bigfoot 911 is the same Marion-based team that reported seeing a Bigfoot two years ago in McDowell County, but it may have came closer this time to getting the proof that has long eluded believers in the Bigfoot.

“I locked right onto this creature and knew immediately it was a Bigfoot,” Bigfoot 911 member John Bruner told McClatchy news group. “He was standing there watching us, swaying back and forth. I guess he felt safe because the four of us were in a boat and he was on shore.”

The encounter lasted five minutes, he says, and ended when the ghostly figure appeared to turn and walk away.

“I didn’t feel we were in any danger,” Bruner says. “Bigfoot are curious. They want to watch us, but also want to get away from us. They don’t want to engage us at all.”

Believers in the existence of Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, do so in defiance of wildlife experts, who say there is a lack of undeniable proof. National Geographic notes most of the evidence is circumstantial, including eyewitness accounts, blurry photographs and mysterious footprints.

However, the Indian Army surprised the world in April by tweeting an Army expedition in the mountains had found “mysterious footprints of mythical beast Yeti,” believed to be a type of high-altitude Bigfoot.

Bruner says the photos taken Saturday were captured with “night vision cameras” while the men eased into one of the lake’s northern coves. Lake James is a 6,812-acre lake, 45 miles northeast of Asheville. It has 150 miles of shoreline, much of it densely wooded.

The men were “scouting” the area, after receiving reports that night fishermen had seen something watching them from the shore, he said. At least one of the sportsmen believed he’d seen a Bigfoot in June, Bruner said.

Reaction to the photos on social media has been a mix of support and skepticism, which Bruner says he expected. Some see only a shadow while others easily see a creature.

“I think it’s just where there was no foliage or trees kinda like a trail or opening of some sort,” posted Kristi Dodson on Facebook.

“I thought the same thing but in the other pics it definitely changed positions,” A.J. Crawley responded. “So it’s not stationary, plus once you see that shape, you just kinda know it’s not a stump either.”

“I blew it up on my tablet and then studied the pics under an old school magnifying glass. Definitely a creature there,” G.L. Johnson wrote. “…It’s the real deal. It’s no shadows.”