YEAR: 2003

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: October

DATE: 14

STATE: California

COUNTY: Trinity County

LOCATION DETAILS: right on trail, where trail first breaks into open meadow--about 50 ft or so of prints; the trail surface becomes too hard to sustain prints before and after the tracks, so i couldnt follow them very far.

NEAREST TOWN: trinity center / lewiston?

NEAREST ROAD: Rt3/road to trinity alps resort

OBSERVED: Was hiking/running the Stuart Fork trail (Trinity Alps)yesterday, and came upon about a dozen footprints right where the trail enters Morris Meadows. The trail gets very heavy use (tho didnt see anyone yesterday) so the prints are most likely a prank or maybe superimposed boot prints, but they interested me enough to make this report (i personally dont believe in bigfoot). They werent very clear, but each print was about 15" long and the they were a good 4+ feet apart. They were much deeper than surrounding boot prints, which is what caught my attention. I took a few photos; ill send you a copy when they get developed.

ALSO NOTICED: I looked for hairs, didnt find any; only strange thing i noticed was that i found a squashed hornet in the center of one of the prints--just seemed kinda weird.

OTHER WITNESSES: no

OTHER STORIES: not in Morris meadows, ive heard of sitings in lewiston i think.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 4pm, great weather!

ENVIRONMENT: dense pine forest adjacent to open grass meadow.

Follow-up investigation report:

After a telephone interview with this witness, the following details can be added to his report:

- The witness reportedly spotted the tracks while running in the mountains, as he had his attention focused on the trail to be as safe as possible.

- The witness states the prints he saw were to the side of the trail, where he observed many boot prints, although he actually saw very few other people in that area.

- He stated again how impressed he was with the depth of the tracks, and how there was debris smashed into some of the tracks. The most notable was a hornet that was apparently stepped on and smashed into the print.

- He also reported other strange occurrences several months earlier while camping alone not far from this meadow within the Trinity Alps Wilderness area. He stated he heard what seemed to be bi-pedal footsteps and grunting around the outside of his tent during the night. He says he checked the area with a flashlight immediately, but saw nothing.

-The following are photos the witness took of the footprints.