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Geographical Index > Canada > British Columbia > Report # 11570
 
 Report # 11570  (Class B)
Submitted by witness on Wednesday, May 4, 2005.
Shuswap: Possible tracks in snow ; Possible sighting by child years later

YEAR: 1974

SEASON: Winter

MONTH: December

DATE: Christmas

PROVINCE: British Columbia

COUNTRY: Canada

LOCATION DETAILS: Directly across the Shuswap Lake from the Sicamous Channel (a distance of two miles) or by road around the lake (a distance of 50 miles).

NEAREST TOWN: Sicamous

NEAREST ROAD: The Trans Canada Highway at Sicamous

OBSERVED: I actually have two incidents to relate to you. Both occurred at Shuswap Lake, British Columbia, although several years apart.

The first happened when I was 20 or 21 years old, (in 1974 or 1975). I had gone to a resort at Shuswap lake called Totem Pole Resort, which is still in existence, but at that time was relatively new.

The resort was located directly across the lake from the Town of Sicamous. To get there by road, you had to drive around the lake and up the other side of the arm. The last 17 miles or so was down what was then basiscally a one lane logging road.

It was in December, and the resort was closed for the season, but my grandmother knew the caretaker. He had agreed to let me stay in one of the cabins for 2-3 nights, because I wanted to cross-country ski on the beach, which was totally covered with snow.

There was no one else at the resort, other than me, the caretaker, (who had a small farm about 5 miles away), and my girlfriend at the time.

She and I got out our cross country skis about 2-3 p.m. one afternoon and went down to the beach to try them out. The resort was located at one end of Bastion Bay. There is a long beach which goes for about two miles along the edge of the bay. We had not gone more than 50-100 yards from the resort, when we came across two sets of footprints in the snow, which appeared to have been made earlier that day. One set was very large, and the other set was smaller. Both prints were considerably larger than the print from my own boots.

I recall that the distance between the footsteps was much longer than my own stride. The footprints went all the way down the beach, from the North end of the bay, where the resort was, all the way down the bay, to the South.

We followed along on our cross country skis for probably 1/2 mile, and came to a spot where whatever had made the tracks had both lain down in the snow and made "snow angels", like kids do by lying in the snow and moving their arms up and down, and opening and closing their legs. (I know this sounds ridiculous, but it's true!)

I laid down in both of the impressions in the snow to try to measure compared to my size - 5' 10" and 190 lbs. I could not reach across the smaller imprint, and the "arms" of the larger one were at least a foot past my own arms on each side.

The "body" of each imprint was much wider than my own body. I was a bodybuilder and was quite "stocky" and I could not reach the furthest part of either imprint with my feet.

I would estimate that the smaller one was probably at least 6 1/2 feet long, and the larger was about 8 feet long. I looked around the imprints for hair or other evidence of what might have made them, but could find nothing. We then followed the footprints quite a way farther down the beach, and at a point where there was a large dock. We found a large fish which had several "bites" taken out of it, and had left it in the snow. The fish was not yet frozen, so we assumed it had not been there long, and as it was getting dusky, and we were quite a way from the resort. We decided it was time to leave the area. I spent the night looking out the cabin windows, but saw nothing further. We left a day or so later.

Twenty years later I and my family went to a remote area of Shuswap Lake called the narrows. We went in a large cabin cruiser that I owned at the time. My daughter was on the beach, and had wandered up into the bush with a friend, when she saw a large "gorilla" looking at her from behind a bush. She said the things was squatting behind the bush, and she could see its face and hands. She came to get me, but when I went up with her it was long gone.

We have never told anyone "offically" about either incident, although friends and family have certainly been told

OTHER WITNESSES: In the first incident my girlfriend also witnessed the tracks.
In the second it was my daughter, some 20 years later, who had the sighting

TIME AND CONDITIONS: In the first incident it was a winter afternoon and Shuswap Lake was frozen. In the second, it was during the day in the summer.

ENVIRONMENT: A large popular BC interior lake. It has many isolated portions to it. High mountains rising straight out of the lake.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Blaine McMillan :

The lake mentioned is east of Kamloops, BC, on the way to Banff.

About BFRO Investigator Blaine McMillan :