Report 56332: Snowshoers find possible tracks in the Antoine Peak Conservation Area

Sunday January 8th, 2017. My husband and I were snowshoeing out from my parents property towards Antoine Peak conservation area around 12:30 pm. We had gone for about 45 minutes away from the house, seeing lots of wildlife along the trails including deer, rabbit and moose. There were lots of tracks along the way as well. We came upon a trail where all of a sudden the deer trails we had been following, swerved off the main trail and up the hillside. Up ahead was a single set of tracks that appeared to be a bi-pedal animal of some kind and there the smell was something awful. We weren't sure what to make of the tracks at first so we just continued along the trail. I immediately noticed how far apart the tracks were and became very aware of what we COULD have been looking at. I had my husband try to  match his stride to those of the tracks, and he came up  VERY short. We didn't  come prepared with tape measures or anything like that, but my Husband is 5'9" and he could only get to about half of the stride length.  We  continued to follow the trail of tracks for several hundred feet and they suddenly turned and,  what looked like, jumped off the side of the hill towards a clearing where there is a pond in the summer months. At the time there was about a foot of snow on the ground and the following day, another 6+ inches fell. We are not sure what created these tracks, but I am unaware of anything with such characteristics in this area.