Heads Up Rock Creek Runners and Hikers

Photo by PoPville flickr user wolfkann

“Dear PoPville,

I just wanted to tell people what I saw on Saturday August 30. It was about 0745 AM and I was hiking In Rock creek Park with my dog (70lb Redbone). We usually take the Western Ridge trail Moderate route. As we turned off the main trail to begin the ascent my dog became very alert. I looked up to the top of the ridge and saw a 5’8 to 5’10 Hispanic man with long black hair wearing a blue and red jacket. I got a really bad feeling and my dog wouldn’t take her eyes off of him. He was watching us from up there so I decided to take a different route that was more heavily populated.

The next day (Sunday August 31) I was having brunch with a friend who had mentioned that on her morning hike with her dog a man came out of nowhere in the woods and walked right up to her until her dog went into guard mode and started barking and snarling at him. He stopped dead in his tracks (She has a 90lb Bluetick Hound) and left. When I asked her for a description it was the exact same as the man that I saw. I had mentioned to her that it fits the description of the Mount Pleasant groper. We both got a little weirded out and decided to call 311 and report the sighting. I’m not sure if it was him or not. My gut instinct says, whoever he was, he was bad news. So ladies hiking/jogging in that area, please be extra alert.”