A woman from northern Saskatchewan says she saw the legendary sasquatch, and it left behind evidence described by an expert as "the find of the century."
Shaylane Beatty thought she saw a bear by the side of the road on her drive to Prince Albert on Saturday. But as she drove closer, the animal was walking on two legs.
"I've heard the stories before and I didn't believe them. Then I saw the sasquatch," Beatty said.
Driving from Deschambault Lake to do some Christmas shopping on a bright afternoon, the 20-year-old noticed the creature walking along the forest's edge near Torch Lake. It stopped by the side of the road and turned to look at Beatty as she drove by.
About 21/2 metres tall and muscular, with long, floppy arms attached to broad shoulders and covered in dark brown hair, the creature isn't like anything Beatty's seen before, she said.
The shock of seeing such an enormous beast caused a momentary lapse in concentration. Her car swerved and nearly hit the ditch.
"My heart was beating real fast. I was getting dizzy and was short of breath. I kept repeating, 'I can't believe I'm seeing this.' So I pulled over and called my aunt," Beatty said.
Returning to the area the next day, Beatty and her two uncles found in deep snow hundreds of footprints measuring 50 centimetres in length, she said.
"My uncles were struggling to walk through the same snow the sasquatch just breezed through," Beatty said.
Even by jumping, the two men couldn't match the creature's stride, she added.
The tracks were followed until the evening, when darkness prevented further investigation.
"What Shaylane saw is definitely some sort of primate," said Tom Biscardi, who's been hunting sasquatches for 33 years and runs www.searchingforbigfoot.com, where photos of the footprints can be viewed.
The footprints are impressive evidence of the creature's northern wanderings, he added, calling them "the find of the century."
"This particular Bigfoot has found solace in that area. There's probably a cave somewhere that the creature sleeps in," Biscardi said.
Beatty's uncles sent Biscardi, who said he's encountered a sasquatch six times, a hair sample for analysis.
Jeff Meldrum, a professor of anatomy at Idaho State University and author of Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science, said three sasquatch sightings have been recorded in Saskatchewan.
"As long as there's forest cover and an area is sparsely populated, there is space to harbour any number of creatures," Meldrum said.
After viewing pictures taken by Beatty's uncles, Meldrum said the length of the footprints are in the range of others already found in North America, but the lack of detail leaves unanswered questions about their validity.
"Given the quality of the photographs, it's impossible to render any meaningful analysis," he said.
But the combination of a personal sighting and physical evidence is intriguing, and if samples of scat or urine are found along the trail of footprints, that would be compelling evidence, Meldrum said.