Two separate encounters with "thing" leave three friends scared, shaken and curious. witnessed in Essex County, New York

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1st encounter: Walking with two friends looking for one of the friends' brother. Walking down abandoned Lake Champlain and Moriah railroad trackbed. It was approx. one thirty AM, June 25, 1989. Heard a godawful screaming noise coming from over the bank on the south side of the old railbed. Metal was being ripped and thrown. Over that bank, there were a series of junked out cars (some Subarus and an early sixties Chevy station wagon). One of my friends uttered the obligatory "What was that?" and the noises stopped, almost like it heard us. The next thing we heard was the sound of something very large breaking through the heavy brush of the woods below us. Before we knew it, It was up the bank and standing right in front of us. In the dark, I couldn't see it, but I could tell that it as huge. There was a smell, as well, almost like crossing a dead skunk and deep bog. Nasty. My buddies took off, leaving me, because I was slow to react. I mean, I was scared, but sort of curious too. The thing, whatever it was, was right in front of me. I could feel its breath, hear it breathing. I was only there for a second or two and then started running. The thing took off after us, I could hears its feet on the gravel behind me. It stopped chasing us just as we broke out on to the road an headed up the main street. I chanced a look back and I could see its shadow just inside the brush. Whatever it was, it was BIG, a lot bigger than a man and i have never seen a bear move like. The bank it climbed was at over a forty-five degree angle, loose gravel and stone, and covered with vines and heavy brush. We tried to climb it the next weekend and it took the best of us over five minutes to climb it! At the time, we never bothered to look for tracks, but one interesting note. I stated above that there were junked cars on the south side of the railbed. One of these being an early Sixties station wagon, a big HEAVY car. My friends and I had been in that area the week or so before and the car had been on its wheels. The weekend after the occurence, the car was on its roof, pieces ripped from it and scattered around. That really scared me and I haven't been back since. The second encounter I had, that was just as strange as the first. Me and a buddy of mine were cruising in his 85 LTD station wagon, the ultimate touring vessel as it were, just out enjoying the late September weather. It was a beautiful September night, the 23, 1993. We drove up this four wheel drive trail to the point where everyone parties (every hick town has one) and the trail heads for Westport, NY. He wheeled the car around and parked with the rear facing the woods, the nose facing down the road we had just came in on. We just talking about the town, friends, plans, just stuff. I happened to look out the back window and I could see something coming up behind the car. The LTD wagon had huge tailights and there was no guard over the license plate light, so the back of the car lit the area up nicely. This thing was big, black and had its arm out like it was going to open the door on the drivers side. The part that scared me the most was the fact that the rear hatch of the wagon did not latch, it just kind of moved around, thumped when you hit a bump, that sort of thing. It was one of those things Matt was going to fix but never did. Anyway, I looked at Matt and asked, "Did you lock the doors?", calmly, almost deadpan. "Why?" "Somethings about to open the door." Matt slammed the gearshift into drive and we took off out of there. I looked back and the thing stood up. It had to be over seven feet tall. It was huge and black. Its eyes must've caught the tailights glow because there was a red flicker in them. We never stopped until we got down to Port Henry (six or seven miles away). I live in a rural part of NY, just outside the blue line of the adirondack park. i know what bears look like, i know how they behave. each one of these encounters was no bear. I still don't know what to call each of them. It seems to fit the Sasquatch theory, but why in the middle of nowhere? Where I live, they already have the tourist hook, the Lake Champlain monster. each year people with out-of-state plates flood the little town looking for the elusive critter. It's been almost ten years since my first encounter and a scant five since my last and I still have no idea what exactly chased out of the woods we played in.