Report 8234: Couple see large prints near Orick

During the last week of June, my girlfriend and I decided to take the dogs on a long walk. We were driving up the coast planning on a beach walk when I decided to go to a area on redwood creek where my friend had heard some unusual and scary whistles and screams. He is a very experienced hunter and outdoorsman with a degree in wildlife biology and he had never heard anything like it. Anyway, we were walking up the north bank, where the trails are, when I decided to cross to the south bank to check out some sandbars. I loaded up my girlfriend on my back and waded across. We then continued upstream a shortways when we came across three distinct footprints. They were approximately 14 1/2 inches long. I measured them with a stick that I saved. I compared them with my own barefoot track for depth and they were nearly twice as deep. I weigh about 280 lbs. I was surprised that they weren't wider, they were almost narrow for their length. I at first thought they were human because of this.  The best print had 5 very distinct toes and was flat, no arch at all, with toes straighter across than a normal human. It appeared that it had just leisurely walked into the creek. I scoured up and down for an exit point but the terrain wasn't suitable for tracks other than the odd sand bar. The strides were about 4 feet. It had come across a packed gravel bar leaving a few faint impressions. Nothing else observed.