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Geographical Index > United States > California > Tuolumne County > Report # 18403
 
Report # 18403  (Class B)
Submitted by witness on Tuesday, March 27, 2007.
Possible road-crossing sighting in daylight near Strawberry

YEAR: 2007

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: March

DATE: 25

STATE: California

COUNTY: Tuolumne County

LOCATION DETAILS: Already posted....left turn on old strawberry road. Pass a water tower on the left a turn or two more down the road. There are some walking sticks (I figure) leaning against a large tree right where I parked (left side of the road)...they were there last week when I was by the area as well so they are probably still there.

NEAREST TOWN: strawberry

NEAREST ROAD: old strawberry road off of 108

OBSERVED: I was up off old strawberry road on sunday afternoon about 4pm. Take left before you get to strawberry proper off 108. I was getting the dogs out of the truck. Its a one lane old road, there was a turn about 300 yards away. I caught something out of the corner of my eye, looked up and saw the top halves of what I took to be two people walking across the street very quickly with their hoods up (I assumed hoods because of the peak on the head). They were almost across the street and at the point in the curve where I could not see them anymore... when I looked up. I figured they would be coming toward me or I would be able to see them going away from me as there is no trail up the hill from where I saw them and they crossed at a turn in the road where I could not see, but could see the road before and after the turn. Never saw them again. I didn't worry about it, took the dogs for a walk down to check out the river for opening trout season in a couple days.

An hour or so later I got back to the truck after letting the dogs romp around in the stream for a while. I drove down to the turn to take a look. There was a slip mark running about 2 1/2 feet down the muddy slope and what looked like another ball of the foot impression in the embankment as well. There is no trail going up the hill here...there is a fire / private road directly across from where I saw the 2 figures crossing the road.

ALSO NOTICED: No, but I did notice several what looked like small tree breaks that had regrown to right angles on my hike. There is at least one large bear in the area judging by very fresh tracks. Dogs kept catching a scent that was up and behind me the whole hike. They didnt bark just stared every few minutes. Also stopped and various times to lift noses and sniff something upwind, i took this to be a bear.

OTHER WITNESSES: Just me and my dogs.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 3:45 - 4pm, very clear and sunny, but under shade. Some snow on the ground which made everything muddy.

ENVIRONMENT: pine forest...swampy (meadow right down the trail) due to melt and converging streams. Creek is about 1/4 mile down the slope.

A & G References: page 99 Northern CA, 7-C


Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator B Brewer:

Conversation with witness added this info: The larger of the two was closest to him, the smaller one seemed to be "trying to catch up" or hurrying to stay next to the larger one. Witness saw arm swing and upright posture of the figures, which led him to first believe they were people crossing the road.

Survey of the spot where they crossed and the fact that they were both darkly colored with "hoods on" made him think that he may have seen two bigfoots.

He found a 2' slide mark on the upper road bank where it looked as if something tried to step up the bank in one step and slid down a little from the top, and a possible bare footprint next to the slide mark where it appeared to him that it "caught" itself as it slid. Just the ball of foot and toes (which is what a bear track looks like, but these figures were bipedally walking across road).

The witness is articulate, and non-committal on his identification. He says he did not see them long enough to say for certain that they were bigfoots, but the circumstances surrounding the event led him to believe that its a strong possibility.


About BFRO Investigator B Brewer:

Former student of Anthropolgy and Primatology as part of studies at the University of Oregon. Currently architectural designer/fabricator in CA. Active field researcher in Western states. Attended the following BFRO expeditions: California Redwoods - 2005; California Redwoods - 2006; California Sierra Nevadas - 2005: New Mexico 2005 ; Arizona Mogollon Rim - 2006 , Oregon / California Border Expedition in November 2006. Oregon 2007, Sierras 2008, 2009, Redwoods 2008, 2009, 2010, Bluff Creek 2011, 2012, Shasta 2012.