Report 21165: Possible brief daylight sighting by a U.S. Forest Service botonist outside Phillips

Today, August 23, 2007, I was hiking off-trail in El Dorado County, California in the forest 60 feet north of the Bryan Meadow trail, when at about 10:30 a.m. I saw a tall dark figure peering around a large red fir stump. This was from perhaps 100 feet away, I quickly walked up to the stump, but there was no one there. It would have been possible to move uphill away from me using the large stump as cover, but only a very athletic person could have managed this in the time available. Moving then uphill and to the SE, I regained the Bryan Meadow trail and there noted a large footprint, which I photographed next to my two-way radio. It is about twice the length of my foot, (a size 12 boot size). I do not know the source of this print, but it was where the rapid retreat occurred. I had just parked at the Sierra Ski area (Short Stuff run), and begun walking up the forest north of the trail to Bryan Meadows. I was moving quietly and slowly, crossing from the north side of the stream to the south without being on any trail. Another biologist was still moving up the canyon on the north side of the stream, but was well ahead of my position. It could have been a human, but the person would have to have been wearing all uniformly dark clothing and had a dark complexion or been wearing dark paint. Head to knee, the figure was a uniformly dark hue and no other detail was discernable, except that the shoulders were slightly more narrow than the average person would be, and the height was at least 6'-3" to 6'-5". The figure was peering at me from the west end of the stump, leaning forward, so that all above the knee was visible. The figure was of a uniformly dark color, perhaps black.