YEAR: apx 1979

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: August

DATE: unknown

PROVINCE: Ontario

COUNTRY: Canada

LOCATION DETAILS: This cottage or cabin was a co-worker's of my mothers. I do not know if they still own it or even know the exact location of where it was on the lake

NEAREST TOWN: between lombardy and portland ontario

NEAREST ROAD: hwy 15

OBSERVED: I was probably 10 years old, my sister 8. My parents had taken us on a vacation in northeastern Ontario, Canada to a place called Otter Lake. It is a heavily wooded area, and as I recall not close to any large towns or cities. I am now 39, so this was a long time ago but I will never forget it. While out on a walk one afternoon with my mother and sister we all heard loud branches snapping around us as we walked on a gravel road near the cabin we were staying at. I can remember looking at my mother and her walking pace picked up very quickly. We thought it was a bear, or something large to have been snapping branches that loud. We had also heard our garbage cans being jostled at night but chalked that up to raccoons. One morning after experiencing these things I awoke to see my parents looking down from our cabin to the dirt covered ground below (it had been raining off and on the entire trip) I remember my sister and I saying "what are you looking at?" and my parents kind of looking at one another, then back at us without saying anything. My sister and I then looked and saw several large footprints outside our cabin. I can recall my sister began crying "I want to go home... I want to go home" My dad put his foot, size 12, inside of one of the prints and his foot was dwarfed inside. We packed and left that day. Why we didnt make a cast of the print I dont know. My mother says she has a picture of it somewhere. Like I said, this happened several years ago but I still get chills thinking about it.

ALSO NOTICED: My mother says she took a picture of the print and knowing her will dig through her whole house to find it

OTHER WITNESSES: My parents, grandmother, grandfather (now deceased)and sister.

OTHER STORIES: None that I am aware of

TIME AND CONDITIONS: morning-prints
afternoon-walk with branches snapping

ENVIRONMENT: cabin on a lake, heavily wooded. secluded

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Onil Das Gupta:

I spoke with the witness over the phone and although the incident occurred many years earlier it impacted him greatly and was still fresh in his mind.

The cabin they stayed at was on a small 5.3-km long lake known as Otter Lake in Leeds-Grenville County, which is located between Portland and Lombardy. This is a spring fed lake in a deeply forested area that contains plenty of wild game.

The witness remembers seeing his parents on the front porch looking at the ground and then at themselves. He went over with his sister to see what they were looking at and then saw huge footprints in the soil. The prints were so large that the witnesses father put his size 12 foot inside it and was completely dwarfed. He does not remember how many prints there were. They appeared to lead across the front of the cabin from one tree line to the next.

He also remembers hearing their garbage cans being rustled in the night, but thinking at the time that it was raccoons or bears.

About BFRO Investigator Onil Das Gupta:

Onil Das Gupta is a Police Officer and works as a member of the Special Weapons and Tactics ( S.W.A.T. ). He is a wildlife and outdoor enthusiast and currently works voluntarily with Jungle Cat World , a Big Cat Wildlife Park and the Jaguar ID Project. He attended the several BFRO and private expeditions and he organized the first BFRO Ontario Expedition in September of 2007.

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