YEAR: 2012

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: September

DATE: 1

STATE: Oregon

COUNTY: Deschutes County

LOCATION DETAILS: Take Cascades Lake highway south out of Bend.
Go past Elk Lake
Left on Elk Lake Loop
Continue on Mud Lake Road
Take right on NF-600
Drop boat in and head to far shore, go up river more
Water opens up again, go to head of lake again.

NEAREST TOWN: Bend, Oregon

NEAREST ROAD: Cascade Lake highway

OBSERVED: We were paddle boarding at Hosmer Lake and on the far backside of the lake where the water is only about 1 foot deep we saw a track or trail through the water with very clear and apparent large footprints. The foot was completely decked and toes were clear as day.... We found an easy dozen or more footprints in the water in the mud... Not all were apparent... The trail lasted approx a couple hundred feet ... We saw Elk prints and the 'footprints' seemed to occasionally jolt to the side... As if it were trying to jump onto a fish or duck... The prints were very large... The water in the lake there is way too cold to walk through....

OTHER WITNESSES: 3 of us all paddling together

TIME AND CONDITIONS: We were paddling at sunset

ENVIRONMENT: Very squatchy area....

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Jason Wells:

Three of them went to paddle at Hosmer late in season. They were in sweatshirts it was so chilly. It was at the end of day and they were rushing to get on water. She's unsure if it was a weekday or weekend but believes weekend. It was not crowded at all. Nobody was out. No campers. They paddled to the back side. To the waterfall….really shallow can totally see the bottom, only 18" deep if that and can see everything. They saw tracks come in off the west side of bank and walking through, the tracks appeared to be following animal tracks.

They veered off and went over to a bird nest, it appeared as if there were broken eggs, the tracks then went off to the east side. They think the current would have wiped them away relatively quickly. Strides were 6 - 8' apart and they believe there were about 200 yards of tracks. Water was freezing. Could see outline of footprint, not clearly defined. Size of tracks were about twice her foot size about 18" x 7". She remembers only one set of tracks, her husband believes there could have been two sets as he states stride was about 8' while she said 6' which could indicate two or multiple paths it took. He says there were multiple sized prints, but pretty close in size

One of the guys went back the next day and the tracks had washed away.

When I went to the site with the couple, I began to appreciate how remote this part of the lake is. It took us about 45 minutes to paddle up the lake channels to get to the head of the lake where a small stream feeds the lake. Kiley and Lynnette showed me approximately where the elk tracks and the unknown tracks came off the bank and meandered up the shallow lake. The possible tracks followed the approximate three elk track ways the entire way except for a couple of instances where it veered off to the east for some reason, then it returned to the elk tracks. Kiley believes he recalls two tracks, one larger than the other. Lynette believes there was only one. Back to the veering off. When the tracks veered off they went over to what appeared to be a birds nest under water. There were what looked like egg shells in these dug outs in the mud. The tracks did go around these mud holes. On the way up the lake I saw white shells along the shore and I considered they could be fresh water mussels, however upon inspection, they were goose eggs or the like in the muddy bank. We saw more in the water as well. We found it odd that they were under water but I did learn the water levels change seasonally and perhaps the year they had come here, the water had been lower in the spring, low enough for goose nests to be in the muddy shores. However I still cannot rule out that something was digging for freshwater mussels, but they have yet to be confirmed at this lake. The other bit of additional information I gathered from them during the second interview on site was that Kylie believes he could make out the toes in the prints, this interests me because the next day, they say their friend could barely distinguish the tracks due to the flow of the river into the lake, they were washing away. To me this indicates the trackway was created the same day and perhaps very recent to their arrival.

We paddled further up stream to a waterfall and there is a horse trail that we believe comes from Quinn Meadow horse camp. We will be camping along the shores of this lake, perhaps in September to try to recreate the scene.

They were not true believers until coming across this trackway. They have considered all options for what could have created these prints and land at the same conclusion I do, Bigfoot tracks.

About BFRO Investigator Jason Wells:

I'm a network/server engineer with a degree in Anthropology from OSU. I studied under Dr. Brauner and Dr. Hall. The latter introduced me to the reality of Sasquatch during our human evolution/bone studies. I had already been interested in bigfoots and concocted ideas on ways to demonstrate its existence in the 90s. I've been seriously pursuing since about 2012.