YEAR: 2004

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: November

DATE: 23

STATE: California

COUNTY: Alpine County

LOCATION DETAILS: 1 mile south of Hwy 4 along Spicer Reservoir Road.

NEAREST TOWN: Bear Valley, CA

NEAREST ROAD: Hwy. 4

OBSERVED: My family and I were driving in a remote area of the Sierra Nevada mountains last Tuesday looking for a place to ride our sleds. The sites we were seeking were few and far between as the area had no significant snowfall in over 3 weeks. We were above the 7,000’ altitude marker along Hwy 4 and it was a mild, sunny day. The ground was covered in snow. We had exited Hwy. 4 at the snow-play area west of Bear Valley and proceeded along the road to Spicer Reservoir despite patches of shallow snow still in the road.

We were driving slowly along the road and, approximately 1 mile from Hwy 4, we noticed deep impressions in the snow along the right hand shoulder. We stopped to examine these “prints”, although I am hesitant to use this term as no details - like toes - were present. These had obviously been here quite some time and had melted and frozen several times. They were large and deep, measuring 16" long. What impressed me the most was that these prints were in a straight line. I recalled this was an attribute of bigfoot track trails, having read this in Dr. John Bindernagel’s book and in other texts. I retrieved my tape measure and discovered the distance of the step (that is, the distance between one impression to the next) was 60” in the first measurement and no less than 56” in the others. I am 6’ tall and was not able to match this step, especially not in shin-deep snow. I decided to submit a report of a possible track trail along with this photograph.

OTHER WITNESSES: 1 adult (child did not care to witness the scene)

OTHER STORIES: I have read of other incidents in the Ebbetts Pass area.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 3:30 pm; sunny and clear, temp. in high 50's

ENVIRONMENT: Mixed conifer forest at high altitude. Granite outcrops were present.

Follow-up investigation report:

I talked personally with the witness. The witness is well educated on sasquatch behavior and evidence. The tracks appear to be of a large upright walking mammal. Although freeze and thaw might have made the individual tracks larger, there is no way for that process to make the distance between the tracks outside the average human stride.