DATE: 08/09/00

TIME: 9:30  A.M.

LOCATION:   Bazetta Township, Ohio, Trumbull County

TERRAIN: Swampy

OBSERVED:    At the XXXXXXXX area, there is a small trail that leads back  to an overlook to the lake.  The trail head is probably a good 200 yards from the lake itself.  The trail opens to a observable wildlife area complete with benches and computerized drawings and descriptions of what type of wildlife you may encounter there.  Mostly birds. Which after what I saw may have to be changed in the near future.

I went there prior to my morning class at college like I usually do.  It is a great place to unwind.  I sat down on the first bench which is located near a maintenance access dirt road for garbage pickup, etc.  We had been getting rain showers off and on daily for the past week and the ground was pretty muddy.

This area is actually a flood zone for the lake itself.  It is heavily wooded with thick undergrowth.  The center part of the area is covered with waist high grasses and underbrush with a few trails leading into a thick stand of douglass firs which surround it. The maintenance access road branches off going east into the pines and west down to the lake.

I was just sitting there by myself smoking a cigarette and watching the birds and waiting for the sun to get overhead enough to clear the trees.  There were no other cars in the parking lot and no boats on the lake this morning.  I was looking down at the access road and approximately 2 feet on the otherside of a drainage ditch which crosses the access road was what appeared to be a large footprint.  I noticed the footprint from where I sat on the bench which was approximately 15-20 feet away right in front of the bench in the mud.  I sat there staring at it for about 5 minutes or so before I decided to go take a closer look.  I wasn't sure at that time if it was a footprint or what.

As I approached the print, you could clearly see 5 (FIVE) visible toes from a right foot.  The print was huge.  The toes angled off from the larges to the smallest.  The great toe appeared to be approximately 3-4 inches long and at least 2 inches wide.  The footprint was facing the opposite direction of the bench as what ever had made it was walking away.  I was wearing sneakers and I wear a size 13 EEE and I put my right foot beside the print to guestimate the size and I would say that it was at least 6-7 inches longer than my shoe and probably 4-5 inches wider at the widest part.  The footprint did not appear to have an arch, it was placed squarely and firmly into the mud.  It appeared to be flat footed.  Its depth appeared to be 1/4 to 1/2 inch in the mud.  I stand 6'2" and weigh approximately 250 pounds and I was leaving barely visible prints next to it.  I would say that the print was fairly fresh as the maintenance man had been through there earlier this morning because the tire marks of his service vehicle were clearly visible on the service road and water was seeping into the tire tracks.

I decided to see if I could find anymore tracks so I started walking down the road in the direction of the footprint.  I did notice that the footprint I found was right next to a eldeberry(sp?) bush. I could not find any more.  I walked as far as I could go back into the trees and turned around and walked the access road back out down to the lake and still nothing.  I did notice in one area where a large area of grass had been flattened and there was a small pile of sticks laying there.  It looked totally out of the ordinary because it was in the middle of the flood zone and the trees only border it.  The sticks were placed there intentionally.
 

 I have been to this particular area many times over the past two years and I have always thought it would be a great place for a bigfoot to live.  There is an ample food supply consisting of eldeberries (sp?), blackberries, raspberries, small game and an entire freshwater lake.  Not to mention that the lake and property surrounding it is all part of a 13,000 acre protected game reserve.

Behind the benches and between the parking lot mentioned above is an area where many trees have been broken off at about a 6-10 foot level above the ground.  Some of these trees are at least 2 feet across.  The trees look out of place because they are in a random pattern.  From withing the broken trees you would have an ample view of the entire parking lot area.  There are also branches which look like they have been placed laying against the trees, the thicker part of the branch is standing on the ground with the thinnest part up against the tree, and some were even bent down to the ground still attached to the tree itself with other branches placed over their base as if to hold them in that position.

Shortly after arriving and sitting down, prior to noticing the footprint I thought I heard what sounded like wood striking wood followed by a short deep thud and what sounded like a "huff" sound of air being expelled off in a short distance down by the lake.
 
 

Description of Creature: n/a
 

Activities of Witness:  Sitting on a bench, smoking a cigarette and watching the birds prior to going to my morning class at college.
 
 

Other Notes:    Someone reported a sighting of a large creature up by the road in Mecca Township this past February on another website.  Mecca is located at the upper (North) end of the lake and is approximately 2 miles away from where I saw the footprint this morning.

When I was in my early teens, I had a really good friend that lived in Mecca Township whose parents owned 20 or so acres which backed onto the lake in a place called Pike Bay.  My friend and I would play in the woods along the lake and everytime we went in there it did not feel right.  There would be no forest/animal sounds which I found especially odd being right on the lake.  The hair would stand up on the back of our necks and we constantly had the feeling of being watched.  When our hair would stand up on our necks we knew it was time to get out of there.  We even joked about there being a bigfoot in there.  My friends father even admitted that when he was in the woods back by the lake that things did not feel right.  He is an avid outdoorsman having grown up in rural West Virginia.  He said he even heard what sounded like deep growling in there from time to time.  Needless to say, my friend and I never slept outside when I would stay over.
 
 

Other Other Notes:  I myself reported to the G.C.B.R.O. hearing what sounded like primate calls this past February down by the river surrounding my home which is about 5 miles or so from XXXXXX Lake.