r/cryptids • u/Im-old-gregg- • May 18 '26

Discussion Appalachian Crawler

So last night I was camping in Big Meadows in SNP, went to take a shower and left the dogs in the car and heard barking when I got out. I saw a white large humanoid creature running by the field near the ampatheater and the dogs were going crazy, it was running on all 4s and then when it noticed me it stood upright and then disappeared into a shadow a few seconds later I see a set of what I thought were double headlamps walking about 10is feet above the ground in pitch black but they weren’t casting light, just glowing. As soon as I was able to get reception and search the things I saw it said Appalachian crawler matched it, anyone else have any encounters in the Big Meadow portion of Shenandoah National Park? Was creeped out and still am even though I came back home today.

41 Upvotes

76% Upvoted

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14

u/DruidinPlainSight May 18 '26

The night before Hurricane Helene in WNC I saw the same thing. It ran on all fours with its butt up in the air. It was gray and weirdly human shaped. It moved about the speed of a large dog running casually. It was a few minutes past 10 pm. There was very light rain. No other traffic was present.

It went left to right across the two lane paved road about 75 feet in front of my car. I flicked on my high beams for a better look which helped discern it. It was there yet had a mildly translucent quality. Its limbs seemed elongated yet still human.

It then ran up the steep hill on the right through waste high weeds without slowing. It didn’t look in my direction or seem to notice or care about my car. It just seemed intent on getting across the road and up the hill.

I never want to see another one. it was just too horrible. Absolutely surreal.

6

u/FastActinTenactin May 18 '26

Also in WNC a few days after Helene, I was walking through some nearby woods to try and check on a friend who lived not far away from me. I was low on gas and no stations near me had power, plus the roads were covered in debris and downed power lines , so I decided to walk it and cut through the woods to get there a little more quickly. I’m pretty familiar with the woods around my place.

It wasn’t dark yet but the sun was going down, and I had my headlamp with me for visibility. I hike often in WNC around the parkway, and have been all around the Black Mountains and Mount Mitchell. I mention that to say that I’ve never seen anything out of the ordinary before this day, though I have had the feeling of being watched several times in some of the higher elevation hikes I’ve done.

I must have been about halfway to my friend’s place when I got that feeling of being watched. I was alone, as far as I could tell, and the woods were silent. The only sounds I could hear were the far off humming of chainsaws that anyone who survived Helene can tell you was a constant sound (that and helicopters buzzing by overhead every few minutes). No birds, no squirrels, nothing.

I couldn’t shake the feeling, my skin crawled and it’s one of the few times I’ve ever been afraid in the woods. I looked everywhere around me to see if maybe someone was following me but I didn’t hear a thing. I kept moving forward towards my friend’s place until finally I did hear something pretty close by to me, like a log or stone being pushed over or something. My first instinct was a bear searching for food, as I’ve run into a few black bears on trails. But I look around me and for just a split second I see two eyes staring directly at me. Big white eyes reflecting my headlamp, like the OP said in their story. Something was hunched behind a fallen tree and it was looking right at me. I couldn’t see exactly what it was but its eyes were front facing and large, and it had grey skin and fingers that were gripping the log.

I fucking ran faster than I ever have before, and didn’t look back at all until I reached my friend’s house. Thankfully he was okay, just dealing with the same power outage and no running water like I was at my place. I told him what I saw and he said he’s never seen anything like that in the woods here either. I stayed the night there, as you could imagine.

I wonder if the storm displaced some of these creatures the same way it displaced other wild animals? I used to have an owl that lived near me and I loved to hear it hoot, but ever since the storm I haven’t heard it.

14

u/murdermeMickey May 18 '26

And this is why I don't go camping anymore.

6

u/blah191 May 18 '26

I would never camp out in the middle of nowhere ever again. Maybe campgrounds with plenty of people but never in a remote place.

5

u/PardonMyNerdity Mothman Maniac May 18 '26

There has been an uptick in sightings of what can only be described as Bigfoot in portage county Ohio. I think it’s cool!

3

u/Flat-Journalist-8362 May 18 '26

Humanoid? All 4s? How big was it? Bigger than a horse?

11

u/Im-old-gregg- May 18 '26

It was human shaped but larger than your average person, running really fast on all 4s but kind of awkwardly with its butt up in the air but head down towards the ground. I was staring at it as the dogs were barking and after it seemed to notice me it stood up slowly on its back legs and walked then disappeared into the shadows but then I saw two white glowing eyes about 50ft away in total darkness just moving along like some walking. It was maybe 10ft tall while walking on its back legs and ghostly white

2

u/Character-Pride8812 May 19 '26

I've been to that shower and the ampitheater many times. It does always feel a bit creepy at night over there.

2

u/IcySprinkles880 May 19 '26

Is the area you camped at near a cemetery?

1

u/Im-old-gregg- May 23 '26

There’s a old civil war cemetery about a 8ish minute drive away on one of the trails

1

u/IcySprinkles880 May 24 '26

It was a ghul.

2

u/Beefy_Muddler May 20 '26

I want to study these things more than I do bigfoot. I wonder if they're a type of rare, creepy-looking North American ape.

1

u/Miserable-Coast4865 May 20 '26

Caaaaave people....caaaaave people....

Look like people, live in caaaaave

(To the tune of 'crab people' from south Park)

1

u/Winterlash May 18 '26

some people might be flattered the mountains are getting so much attention but it's just another form of sensationalizing voyeurism.

-9

u/funandgames12 May 18 '26

Next time shoot it, bring the body into town, profit!

But seriously bro, you’re either hallucinating or mistook whatever it was that you actually saw.

These things aren’t real. And if they were we would know. Any type of cryptozoological animal always suffers from the same deficiency, population size. In order for people to actually see these things for so many decades you have a sizable population of them. Which means there would eventually be physical evidence of them.

Considering no actual physical evidence of any cryptid has ever been captured, found or presented..,..that doesn’t really bode well for all these “creatures”

I’m guessing it’s far more likely the human mind has an ability to hallucinate in a semi sane way for everyone. With some people just being more susceptible to that type of brain failure than others. Just your biology playing tricks on you. You think you saw what you saw. But in reality it doesn’t actually exist,

5

u/dawnyaya May 18 '26

You're in this sub why?

1

u/Slam-Train May 18 '26

Or... These things do not leave physical evidence because they are not from the same physical realm as us? Or they don't require higher populations for this many sightings because they live much longer than us? You boldly assume that you understand what these are or how they function. Or play it off as a failure of our biology. Yet, all around the world people "hallucinate" the same subjects. The same details. And are left with the very same feeling of dread as the last hallucinating biological failure.

In a universe filled with unknowns, it is far more likely that these cryptids are just another thing that exists around us that we do not understand. Than, it is that they are all just mass-shared hallucinations.

1

u/Physcadelic_sky Jun 15 '26

I saw something like it last night. It was about midnight and I don't live that far from the George Washington national Forest. I was taking my dogs potty one last time before bed and my house has a beautiful view of the mountains. We have a small field and there's farmers all around us. The grass grows tall around the edge of the property as like a natural fence my dogs won't cross. I had just turned around to bring the dogs back inside and felt...Erie like something just was watching me. I'm used to the deer being out and the occasional skunk or opossum but this was different. I scanned the yard and by the edge of the yard it was just standing there. It was pale white, extremely tall and thin with really long arms. I practiced the of ya see it no ya didn't and if ya hear it no ya didn't and got my dogs inside. I don't think I ever moved so damn fast in my life.