YEAR: 2004

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: May

DATE: 22

STATE: California

COUNTY: Mendocino County

LOCATION DETAILS: North of Hwy 162 on Murry Range on the lower road. This was reseravation land.

NEAREST TOWN: Round Valley, Covelo, CA

NEAREST ROAD: Off 162 Hwy

OBSERVED: This past Sunday, 5/23/04 at 10:30 am, we found strange foot prints in the muddy parts in the road along Murry Range, Covelo CA. The print did not resemble bear tracks. These tracks where longer and had no claw imprints in the mud. After taking pictures of several different foot prints with a tape measurer, we started to look around for other sign. We did not see any thing but more foot prints and a smaller version of the foot print.

ALSO NOTICED: There was a lot of Poison Oak in the area.

OTHER WITNESSES: There was a total of 6 people.

OTHER STORIES: Yes, too many to count. On the Big Bend Ranch, my father, uncle and nephew heard to sound that did not come from a bear, cow, wild or pig. They did not see anything, but just kept looking and stated that the sound was very different. One of the Britton boy stated that he saw a big hairy guy carry a wild hog over his shoulder when we was logging a couple years ago. It was stated that a big hairy guy was seen crossing the road early in the morning when going to work. The old Indian talk about this all the time.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: It happened at 10:30 am to 12 noon on a sunny day. We took a picture of the foot print with a digital camera.

ENVIRONMENT: Pine forest and some time we go hunting in this area. At the lower part of the montain there is a creek with running water.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Tom Yamarone:

I spoke with the witness by phone and have the following details to add to this report:

-The witness, his uncle and the uncle’s girlfriend were hiking on Saturday, May 22, 2004 when the uncle discovered the tracks on a dirt road.
- The prints did not look like bear tracks. They identified a bear track nearby and noted the difference.
- They returned Sunday to observe and photograph the tracks. They followed the set of tracks for 20 yards. One solitary large track was discovered some distance from the other tracks further up the road.
- There were 3 sizes of tracks. One single, very large track in mud (larger than 13” long and 3” deep), a set of 13” tracks, approx. 1” deep in the mud along the dirt road and a set of 8” long tracks.
- They also found old tracks off the road that wandered up the hill another 30 yards.
- A friend saw one cross Hwy. 162 early one morning just outside of town as he was driving to work in Willits, CA.
- There are many stories extending over several generations on this reservation. The Native American tribes that share the Round Valley Indian Reservation are: the Nomlaki, the Wailaki, the Pomo, the Pit River and the Concow.