YEAR: 2000

SEASON: Winter

DATE: Winter 2000

STATE: Idaho

COUNTY: Bonner County

LOCATION DETAILS: Go from Clark Fork and cross the river on a small one car bridge. Take the dirt road parallel to the river and turn off on a "fire road" to head towards the waterfall. The locals know it well but it's been years since I wintered there and can't recall the names of the roads and landmarks off the top of my head.

NEAREST TOWN: Clark Fork

OBSERVED: It was during the winter of 2000-2001 and a friend and I were trying to pass the long winter in rural north Idaho with a "snow hike" to a waterfall. The closest town is called Clark Fork, population: a couple hundred.

There was deep snow on the ground and it was cold, dark, and snowy on that day. We drove up a dirt road as far as we could until it was chained off. We parked the car and walked up some snowmobile tracks to where the trail usually is. I say usually because it was totally covered in deep snow. Most people would have thought us crazy to be hiking that trail that day but like I said before, it was something to do in N. Idaho in the middle of winter.
So we managed thru the deep snow up a slight ravine. There were no other tracks that a human would make such as footprints, snowmobile, or snowshoe going up this ravine. Probably about half way up the trail/ravine, we crossed some tracks. The hair on the back of my neck stood up as I looked down at the tracks. I knew instantly what I was looking at but I tried to explain it some other way at first. The friend I was with grew up in Clark Fork and had lived there all his life. Without mentioning the word bigfoot or sasquatch, I looked at him and said "Is this what I think it is?" and he non-chalantly replied something to the effect of "We see this kind of stuff around here all the time".

I definitely believed in the possibility of the existence of sasquatch at the time but these tracks really sealed the deal in my mind.
I know what bear tracks look like in the snow. Moose, deer and elk also have a certain kind of track. The tracks that I am reporting were huge. I could fit my boot covered foot into them and they were definitely bigger than my boot. What was even more telling was the distance between the tracks. I would have had to jump from track to track to make it.

So to sum it up: the tracks were roughly human foot shaped but very large-too large to be human. They were obviously made by a two legged, upright walking creature. The path of the tracks came across the ravine and up the other side- from "nowhere" going into "nowhere". This area is miles and miles of national forest on the Idaho/Montana border. There is no other rational explanation for tracks of this size and shape to be found where they were, when they were. Believe it or not, but I know what I saw.

ALSO NOTICED: My friend mentioned that "unusual sightings" like that were common in the national forests surrounding Clark Fork, Idaho.

OTHER WITNESSES: 2. Myself and my friend Tim.

OTHER STORIES: Too many to list at the moment. I'll repost later.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Middle of the day. In mid-winter in N. Idaho, the days are short and dark... and of course very cold and snowy. Deep snow was covering the ground at the time of the incident.

ENVIRONMENT: Ravine heading up a mountain to a waterfall. Doug fir/ cedar/ evergreen forests. Creek running down ravine.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Nancy L. Jones:

8/26/07 I spoke with the reporting witness, D, today and learned a couple additional details about the trail of footprints he and his friend Tim found. In the report, D mentions that his boot was much smaller than the individual footprints. He wears a size 10 1/2 boot for reference.

He also remarked how amazed he was at the distance between prints. He said he would have had to leap from left to right to even come close to matching the print-maker's walk. D remembered that he and Tim carefully examined several prints and could see no evidence of rear feet overstepping front feet (as bears sometimes do). They became convinced that the tracks had been made by a very large individual walking on two legs.

Lastly, D reiterated how remote the area was where the tracks were found. He and Tim had not seen any sign of other people exploring the winter woods. The wilderness is vast and the human population small in this northern part of Idaho, particularly in the winter.

I asked if Tim, the other witness, would be willing to talk to me. D said he thought so, but unfortunately the two had lost contact with each other after D moved out of state. D offered to try to find contact information for Tim by checking with mutual acquaintances.

D now lives in California. He thanked us for the work we are doing and said he hopes it will lead to protection for this unique species. I invited him to join the BFRO on an expedition and mentioned the upcoming November one to the Sierra Nevada Mountains. D said he would like that and will see if he can fit one into his schedule this year or next.

About BFRO Investigator Nancy L. Jones:

Nancy L. Jones is an M.B.A., presently doing occasional special projects for her husband's business and being a full-time mom. Formerly she worked as an IT Project Manager for Hewlett-Packard. She attended the 2007 Central Oregon Expedition.