>>> Back when I lived in South Florida I was highly skeptical of bigfoot reports. <<<
You mean the famous Florida Skunk Ape?
Yep. I did meet a guy who swore he saw it. Says he was (illegally) camping/hunting in the Everglades when he woke up to a horrendous smell. He thought it was a skunk and so he started making noise in his tent in an effort to scare it away.
Next thing ya know he hears this ROAR like he has never heard before. It started low, lower than a human voice, and crescendo up where it rang for what seemed to be an eternity.
His involuntary reaction was to yell as well, which was answered with another unearthly howl, seemingly right outside his tent.
He backed up away from the sound, which put him pushing against the zippered opening. The zipper gave way and he scrambled backwards, almost going butt first into the remains of his campfire.
Looking towards the source of the sound he saw a large bipedal creature turning away from him and running for the trees. It seemed to be taking huge steps. It was gone in seconds.
I was skeptical, but he did admit that he had wet his pants in his terror.
Don't know if he would have admitted that if it weren't true.