YEAR: 1970

SEASON: Winter

MONTH: November

DATE: Exact Date Unknown

STATE: Oregon

COUNTY: Douglas County

LOCATION DETAILS: Roseburg, take diamond Lake hywy, through Glide to fishhatchery , left on Rock Ck. rd,(abt.8 miles) to county gravelpit, rt on ames ck abt a mile or so. Take cat rd up hill on left, passed an old sm. gravelpit, stay on cat rd.This area is full of poison oak and very steep.

NEAREST TOWN: Glide Oregon east of Roseburg

NEAREST ROAD: Diamond Lake hywy.

OBSERVED: Back in the 70's my wife ,friend and i hunted the black powder season up Rock Creek east of Glide, Oregon. I don't remember the year, but we hunted Blacktail Deer every year for over 20 years in this same area. We were north of the County Shop a few miles, and camped in a large gravel pit on the left. A road takes off directly east of camp crossing Rock Creek and goes east and connects with the next road towards Steamboat Creek.(Ames Creek Rd.) We took off one morning at day-break (about 7am in November) and deceided to park and check out an area we had saw game in before. As we walked up a steep cat road in about three inches of new snow,(it was snowing pretty good) my wife noted some sm. tracks and asked what they were. They looked like coyote or dog. Then we saw some larger tracks that looked like bobcat tracks. A little farther along my wife said,"some one is up here walking bare foot." We followed the track and it was smoking fresh, the water was just starting to form in the tracks. We came up on and area that this thing had layed in the middle of the road and had left the snow all dirty. I commented that it sure was dirty. Apparently we kicked it out ahead of us ,as the tracks went straight down the hill and crossed the rd. we had came in on. I told the wife it was bear tracks so as not to scare her.(we had 3 shots between all of us) The track smashed down the snow and made ice as it walked. The tracks were about 14 or 15 inches and 4 inches wide at heel. If it was a bear ,he had to have stepped ontop of its ft. paw marks, because all that we saw were the hind feet marks in the snow. I didn't see any clawmarks and the track looked kind of human. It was snowing quite heavy and visability was only a few yards.

OTHER WITNESSES: My friend from roseburg, my wife and I We were walking ,checking the area for deer track

OTHER STORIES: no

TIME AND CONDITIONS: About 7:30 am,early daylight, Snowing heavy

ENVIRONMENT: Very few evergreens, mostly scrub, poison oak, above ames creek, on a steep ridge. Lot of Alder and old stumps from logging

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Kristi Sanders:

This area has a history of activity. Here is additional information from the witness, with relevant details from another account as well:

"The tracks were really fresh, and we followed these bipedal tracks 50 yards down to where something very large had laid down right down on the cat road itself. It made a dirty spot in the snow. It looked like we had spooked it from where it was laying and it had taken off."

"There were no claw marks whatsoever at the front of the 14" to 15" long prints. There were five toes, and very human-like. This was around 1970, and we hunt in a different areas now, due to permits and restrictions."

"It’s a kind of a spooky area, and I hunted there for 25 years until the permits became hard to get."

"On another trip, there were five of us, and we heard this weird, crazy sound, like a crazed woman laughing."

"I fired a shot in the air, and the noise stopped. I saw no tracks when I went to see the next day. These were weird sounds, and I wondered if they were related to the tracks I'd seen before. It was so high pitched, then the sound dropped into a sobbing sound, too low-pitched to have been human. I know it was an animal, there were no other people out there."

About BFRO Investigator Kristi Sanders:

Kristi Sanders, a twice-qualified National NPC bodybuilder, personal trainer, gym owner, and business CE lecturer, was raised in a hunting and fishing family. When Kristi is not working, she is camping with her daughter (rain or shine) and exploring the Pacific NW to pass on her love of the outdoors to the next generation. Kristi attended the 2009 WA Cascades Expedition.

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