YEAR: 2001

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: September

DATE: 22

STATE: California

COUNTY: Fresno County

LOCATION DETAILS: Area is remote and very few hikers travel through this area.

NEAREST TOWN: Huntington Lake

NEAREST ROAD: 168

OBSERVED: There were three of us hiking through the rock creek area of the Ansel Adams Wilderness. Michael discovered the tracks and brought them to our attention. The tracks were heading in a northern direction across this large meadow. The tracks were eighteen and one half inches long and had a width of eight inches. Some of the tracks were up to three inches deep. The stride varied from four feet to six feet in length. There were over twelve tracks that were idenafiable. Then to our surprise we found a broken branch next to one of the footprints that had three hair samples clinging to the bark. We have no results from the hair samples because we lost two of the hairs and we only have one in our posession at this time.

ALSO NOTICED: No other incounters

OTHER WITNESSES: Three persons total, had just finished setting up our base camp

OTHER STORIES: None

TIME AND CONDITIONS: four o'clock,clear day with bright sunshine.

ENVIRONMENT: Location was in a large meadow in the rock creek area of the Ansel Adams Wilderness.

Follow-up investigation report:

I talked with the witness by phone. The following details can be added to the report.
--It had rained hard about 10 days before this discovery.
--Due to the rain, when the animal had walked through the area, the pine needles were pushed down deeply into the ground.
--The group looked for other human footprints in the area and saw none.
--One spot looked like the animal had sat down. The nearest twig was broken and that is where the hairs were found.
--The witness has photos of the footprints and "cheek" prints.
--The witness collected the hair and the BFRO analyzed it. It is not primate in origin.
--There is a water source close to this location.