YEAR: 1998

SEASON: Summer

STATE: California

COUNTY: San Diego County

NEAREST TOWN: Boulevard

NEAREST ROAD: Jewell Valley Road

OBSERVED: Two years ago while camping at the lake (without permission) we were walking at the south-western inflow to the lake (a seasonal creek.) The water level of the lake was high due to the El Nino rains and the "creek" extended out from the lake covering the dirt road with about two feet of water.

Three of us were returning from climbing Boundary Peak when we had to take our shoes off to wade across the creek. Our footprints were clear and distinct in the silty/sandy bottom -- however, near the other side we saw a set of footprints that looked like someone had walked into the water and then back out. These footprints were about the same size as ours, however, they were blurred and had kind of fuzzy marks all around. They had not been there when we had crossed the same spot an hour before.

We all commented about how weird they looked. Later that evening when we sat around our campfire a U.S. Border Patrol Agent stopped by to chat. He had been dragging some old tires along the dirt roads near the border so that he could return later to see if any illegal aliens had crossed the border at that point. We told him about the weird tracks we had seen and he said: "Oh, yeah, we call him Little Foot -- 'cause the prints aren't big enough to be a Big Foot. Nobody's seen him, though." The Agent went on to say that everybody in his office just thought it was a Mexican with hairy feet.

OTHER WITNESSES: There were three people in our group. I talked to one of the other guys in our group (the other one has moved out of the area.) The guy I talked to didn't remember much detail. He said that it was probably a joke, or someone wearing fuzzy animal slippers.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: It was in the late morning. 10 to 11 a.m.

ENVIRONMENT: There is a small lake called Lake Domingo and a unique pyramidal peak called Boundary Peak. The lake always has water even in dry years. It is high desert. Sage brush and chapparal. Huge granitic boulders abound. Very broken country right against the U.S. Mexican Border. Probably 4,000 ft.