Report 25764: Hunter recalls finding fresh tracks in snow outside of Glide

Back  in  the  70's my  wife  ,friend  and  i  hunted  the  black  powder  season  up  Rock  Creek  east  of  Glide,  Oregon.  I  don't  remember  the  year,  but  we  hunted  Blacktail  Deer  every  year  for  over  20  years  in  this  same  area. We  were  north  of  the  County  Shop  a  few   miles,  and  camped  in  a  large  gravel  pit  on  the  left. A  road  takes  off  directly  east  of  camp  crossing  Rock  Creek  and  goes  east  and  connects  with  the  next  road  towards  Steamboat  Creek.(Ames  Creek  Rd.) We  took  off  one  morning  at day-break (about  7am  in  November)  and  deceided  to  park  and  check  out  an  area  we  had  saw  game  in  before.  As  we  walked  up  a  steep  cat  road  in  about  three  inches  of  new  snow,(it  was  snowing  pretty  good) my  wife  noted  some  sm.  tracks  and  asked  what  they  were. They  looked  like  coyote  or  dog. Then  we  saw  some  larger  tracks  that  looked  like  bobcat  tracks. A  little  farther along  my  wife  said,"some  one  is  up  here  walking  bare  foot." We  followed  the  track  and  it  was  smoking fresh,  the  water was  just  starting  to  form  in  the  tracks.  We  came  up  on  and  area  that  this  thing  had  layed  in  the  middle  of  the  road  and  had  left  the  snow  all  dirty. I  commented  that  it  sure  was  dirty.  Apparently  we  kicked  it  out  ahead  of  us ,as  the  tracks  went  straight  down  the  hill  and  crossed  the  rd.  we  had  came  in  on.  I  told  the  wife  it  was  bear  tracks so  as  not  to  scare  her.(we  had  3  shots  between  all  of  us) The  track  smashed  down  the snow  and  made  ice  as  it  walked.  The  tracks  were about  14  or  15  inches  and  4  inches  wide  at  heel. If  it  was  a  bear  ,he  had  to  have  stepped  ontop  of  its  ft. paw  marks, because  all  that  we  saw  were  the  hind  feet  marks  in  the  snow.  I  didn't  see  any  clawmarks  and  the  track  looked  kind  of  human. It  was  snowing  quite  heavy  and visability  was  only  a  few  yards.