YEAR: 1997-98

SEASON: Summer

DATE: various

STATE: California

COUNTY: Plumas County

LOCATION DETAILS: The different locations were around Slate Creek, Plumas National Forest, Plumas Co, Ca., approximately 12 east of La Porte, Ca.

NEAREST TOWN: La Porte, California

NEAREST ROAD: Quincy-La Porte Road

OBSERVED: Various things observed during 2 summer field seasons working on my Master's degree thesis in the Northern Sierra ( 14 months total).
1) I stopped to look at a topographic map about 20 miles west of Quincy,Ca on the Quincy-LaPorte Rd-heard a modulated guttural scream-did not see anything-area is open Douglas Fir forest.
2) 3 different instances smelled a strong human feces smell while hiking -mostly in trailless manzanita/Douglas Fir/Talus slope areas-Slate Creek area. This area has great topographic relief.
3) Set of footprints and 3 pieces of feces -Upper Slate Creek. Footprints were found in soft fine silt overbank deposits on a meander of the creek and were approximately 11 inches long. I could very easily see the dermal ridges of the 5 toes, ball and heal. No discernable ball of foot was observed. Footprints were "square"-almost all toes were of equal length,ie: flat across the top.
The 3 pieces of feces were approx. 3 inches long and 2 inches wide -light and dark brown mottled. A very faint human feces smell was observed.

ALSO NOTICED: no

OTHER WITNESSES: None- Only other person I saw in this whole area was a miner friend, that hiked with me on one instance in 14 months-did not observe anything on this one trip.

OTHER STORIES: no

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Daylight-warm and very dry

ENVIRONMENT: Different locations in mountain country-roadless area of high relief Douglas Fir forest with Manzanita and brush that is very difficult to hike through (many times I had to use fluorescent colored strips to find my way out )-a few trails from hobby placer miner's and remnants of hydraulic mining flume ditches from the 1850's.

Follow-up investigation report:

Talked with the witness by phone. The following details can be added to the report:
--The area is very rough country. There is a 2000-foot difference between the creek bottoms and the ridge tops. Witness spent 14 non-continuous months in the area doing his Masters degree work (camping more than 150 times in the area). He saw very few humans during that time. Only trails were those near mines. The best way to walk was by using the historic ditches. The area was so remote, he had to use flagging to get in and out of the area. Did see bear sign, but little else.
--The print had dermal ridges across the entire foot. No instep was visible. It had a very wide ball. Track was about 10-11 inches long, with a 20-inch stride. He compared the prints to those in Grover Krantz' book and they looked very similar. Also checked a podiatry web site to check different human foot types, none had the straight across features that the prints he saw had.
--Scream described as a high/low-modulating scream. He has heard lynx and cougar before, and it was not like that. The screams/howls on the website were not similar.
--The feces were three inches long by one inch wide. He can't believe it would be human, as it was located more than a 15-hour hike from the nearest road.