What Is It?

[SWWASAS]

A researcher in SW Washington submitted this photo to me and wanted to know what I thought about it. She claims it was found in the frozen mud along side a forest road. A game trail led down a steep road cut to the road. It appears to be about 6 inches across and slightly longer but not long enough to be a footprint. The appendages look too long to be toes and there seems to be no indication of the rest of the foot. The toes or fingers look too long to be bear toes however the length is consistent with a large bear. There were no other prints in the frozen road and this one pointed out towards the road. Her theory is that a BF slipped coming down the frozen embankment, which showed signs if recent travel, and put out a hand to avoid falling into the muddy road. She said the road was recently graded before freezing and her footprints were the only prints other than this and some deer tracks. I cannot read this one and thought someone else might have some ideas. What do you think, bear or something else?

[Guest Cervelo]

Looks like multiple partial boot prints

[NathanFooter]

 I believe Cervelo is right on the money here.   It looks like someone pulled over to check their car or something squatted down shuffling around in the position.  

 

 I have left very similar looking prints doing this.

[Guest zenmonkey]

T rex

[SWWASAS]

I believe Cervelo is right on the money here.   It looks like someone pulled over to check their car or something squatted down shuffling around in the position.  

 

 I have left very similar looking prints doing this.

She said there were no cars on the road or any sign of human traffic on the road since it was graded. I don't see a boot print at all due to the size but I just could not be seeing it. Who has a boot 6 inches across? I wear a 12 and it is only 4.5 across at the laces. Probably one of those things we can never be sure what made it. If what looks like toe impressions were more lined up I would think it was a front and back elk track in the same print. As of now I don't know that it is.

Edited December 21, 2013 by SWWASASQUATCHPROJECT

[Guest Cervelo]

Sure looks like boot lugs to me....

This image isn't very good...

Edited December 21, 2013 by Cervelo

[Guest DWA]

Which is the apparent direction of travel?  I would presume from left to right of the photo for a putative handprint.

 

What else did she see that made her suspect this?  I mean, what were the 'signs of recent travel'?

 

Not a bear.

[SWWASAS]

She thinks the direction of travel was left to right towards the tape measure in the picture. The road cut with the disturbed vegetation and game path was to the left. Vegetation had been compressed by something walking on it after it was frozen. The road was frozen when she found it and she says she saw no other tracks in the road other than the tracks made by the road grader that had very recently graded the road before it froze. If it were boot lugs each lug would be 3 to 4 inches long and one inch wide comparing with the 2 inch tape measure. Length and width of each lug in the picture you included would mean this boot would be 12 inches wide if it included the area in the center between the lugs. Normally boot lugs run across the boot. Even without the center area, just lugs, would mean a 6 to 8 inch wide boot. Not sure what size boot that would be but my 12s are only 4.75 inches across at the widest part near the laces. It is a boot that would mean someone with a very large boot size. My boot is 2.74 times longer than it is wide. So a 6 inch wide boot would be 16 inches long. An 8 inch wide boot would be 22 inches long. Both are large for a normal human and probably not common. So depending on the lug pattern, it could be anything from a size 15 to a size 21 boot if that is what it is. Anyway it is helpful to have other people look at it. Boot or not I don't think there is enough there to determine with any great probability what it is other than it is some sort of track left in the now frozen mud.

[JanV]

I am with Cervelo on this one. It is a partial boot print.

[LeafTalker]

SWWASASQUATCHPROJECT, you seem like a very good and very careful analyst. I would go with your own gut on this.

[Guest DWA]

I've never seen a boot print, partial or otherwise, that looks anything like that.

 

You'd also see at least one other print if it were a human.

 

But I don't know what it is.  If context - which doesn't seem very strong here - makes the researcher think sasquatch, well, not even sure what you'd do then, other than look for hair or put up a game cam.

[salubrious]

At first I though this was something from a boot. On studying the track, you can see that there is a pivot point in it. This killed the boot idea.

 

The appearance is the right foot.

 

The arrow points in the direction of the toes. The front of the toes are about even with the end of the tape measure. They are not all that easy to make out, IMO this track was made prior to the rain.

 

The heel seems to end even with the beginning of the body of the tape measure.

 

The subject pivoted on about the ball of the foot, and when done the foot was about 90 degrees off from the initial position. In neither position was there much weight on the heel, which got raised off the ground as the foot came to its new heading. You can see a wall of soil pushed around as the foot pivoted. I would expect the next track to be in the direction 90 degrees off (to the right) from the red arrow.

 

As the foot was pivoted, the weight on it was also released. This is why the digits are much harder to make out in the second position- they were hardly touching at all.

 

My take on it anyway....

[Guest]

Sort of looks bird-like from what I can see of it.  Do people still raise ostriches and emus for meat anymore?  Is there a possibility that one could have escaped?

[SWWASAS]

Not an emu. I found emu prints in my yard one spring in the snow and they really had me head scratching for a while. You look in a North American track book and they are not there, because emu's are not from North America. Obviously bird, I finally looked at emu tracks and the stride and size of print matched emu. Since they are human size their stride length is similar to ours. There is an emu farm a few miles away and one must have escaped. My brother in law used to raise them and they escaped all the time.

I see the pressure ridge in the mud that indicates rotation or thrusting of some sort. Maybe both. Certainly part of the print is obscured by that. It is a good exercise to look at this but I don't think there is enough there to determine what it was that made it. Randy

[Guest]

If enough emu's escaped, and started eating humans, that would be an awsome cryptid. That would actually make a great movie, or an X-file. Where's my producer?