possible tracks princeton / coalmont early january

[princeton12]

My son and I took this photo of possible sasquatch tracks (if I can figure out how to attach it) in the first week of January this year between princeton and coalmont. There were a lot of deer tracks, but we couldn't explain the larger ones going up the same hillside. They crossed a plowed road, and were the same on the other side, but as there had been overnight plowing, there weren't tracks actually crossing the road. This was miles from anywhere people would be walking. Of course I suspect a bobcat or cougar bounding through the snow, or even a small deer, but I've never seen where any of those animals wouldn't place at least one random step somewhere, especially on the raodside where they could easily have stepped on the more frozen snow. These tracks led straight up from a ravine, across the road and on up the hill out of site with a space of at least 4 feet between them. there was a light skiff of fresh snow, blurring the definition, but deer tracks nearby clearly showed the hooves .
I thought they were just too damn big to be a bigfoot, despite his name, until I did some research and found out about the size of the tracks found near coalmont in the 80s, which would correspond to the size of these in the same area...well over a foot long.

We returned to the site last weekend and the trail is still there, but fresh snow has of course blurred the tracks considerably.

I did also witness a sasquatch crossing a snowy hillside on the coquihalla connector in the late 90s so I have no doubt as to their existence at all. To this day I question why I didn't stop the truck I was in that afternoon, but honestly, it just didn't occur to me.


At any rate, I'm going to keep an eye out from now on. We spend an awful lot of time in the hills between Manning park and Penticton. Every weekend, so if anyone ever needs to have an extra set or two of eyes, just ask.



sasquatch2.jpg

[Deleted]

Good eye, great story , I have ridden that area on my atv where exactly did you see them ? I ride the kvr trail with my bike.

[vilnoori]

Mulies will stott up a hill and leave tracks that are similar. But they are closer together and wider than you would expect sasquatch tracks to be. Look for a separation between individual tracks of about 5 feet, and a very straight line of tracks. Too bad you can't post a picture. Did you go up the hill and see if the trail stops at the top? Deer that stott will go up a hill but rarely down with the same gait.

[princeton12]

I'll be out there again this weekend to get the exact mileage from princeton, but I believe the kvr is directly down the hill, on the same side of the river: the tracks would have come from down there.
As for the deer, I have seen vaguely similar tracks for short distances, but they seem to walk or stop when they can, terrain permitting, that's what struck me about these. Also, though some are in a more or less straight line, the overall pattern struck me as a human walking pattern, which is why I noticed them in the first place, among the myriad trails. I thought it was maybe a snowshoer, if that is even a word, but the stride was too ridiculously long for that. I assumed the space between prints was just too large until I read reports on just how big these critters can get.

If I can, I'll follow the trail, what remains of it up and down to see what I can. If I discover that they do actually break into a more identifiable pattern of some more mundane animal, I certainly will take my lumps and report that, too.

[vilnoori]

OK, great! Take a shovel along and try to dig down, slicing sideways into one of the tracks to expose it, the track is still there at the bottom where the snow has compacted. That will also give an idea of the weight of the animal. A hare or rabbit also leaves a similar track but would not compress the snow to any great extent, and it is more variable in distance between track marks. Again, at some point you would see it break stride, take a couple steps out or something if it was a bunny. A sas will just keep on treading, for a long time, up and down hill with an even stride that is almost in a straight line, and that is deeply impacted into the snow. Hey, good luck and have fun!

[Deleted]

Good suggestion about exposing the compacted track underneath. It is unlikely to show toes but should give you a good idea of the shape. During our recent snow in the fraser valley I kept my eyes on my boot tracks on the driveway and at one point during the melt they were clearly visible again after many smaller falls covered them. They were quite close in size to the original boots.
Please try to post your pictures again. You will need to upload them to a site like www.photobucket.com and then use the link which photobucket creates to add them to your post.
My attempts to get up into the hills around here have been thwarted by icy snow on the logging roads so maybe a trip to Princeton is in order. How much snow is on the ground where the tracks are? I don't suppose the Coquihalla-Tulameen road is open?

[princeton12]

I'll do all that, thanks. when I first saw them, they were freshish so I did see the shape, which led me to wonder in the first place.
Like I said, I'll be up there tomorrow, so I can check better. The following weekend, I'll have snowmobiles, so if I do find anything untoward, I'll be able to follow pretty much anywhere, though the trail's a month old by now...

[princeton12]

here's the lowdown.....
if anyone's going through the area, it was 9.5 km from the brown bridge towards coalmont.
That being said, I returned there this weekend and with the snowmelt, peter rabbit could be andre the giant if you get me.
Anyway, as I can't stand before a judge and state that the tracks were made by a sasquatch, though I've never seen any like these in snow before, I'll give this one to the common creatures of the forest. This is of course assuming that one happened to hop at least 4 feet in a purposeful line without breaking its stride for obstacles or terrain.
Still, I'm out there an awful lot and now that I know of the area's history, I'll look twice before I assume everything big and hairy is a bear.
thanks for listening.

[sebastian]

Interesting report! Princeton12! Thomas Steenburg, in his book "In Search of Giants", listed a series of events between Coalmont and Granite Creek. Apparently, there are a few cabins out there and some logbooks of the cabins recorded strange activities such as rock throwing, vocalizations, and a couple of sightings of a female. I will like to go out to check it out sometimes!

cheers,
seb