Man finds tracks while hunting, two years later finds tracks again while investigating friends encounter witnessed in Siskiyou County, California

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The first thing is quite simple. A friend and I were hunting bear with hounds in the grouse cr. Area. The dogs would go crazy so we let them loose thinking they had a bear scent. We let them go 3 times and they would go out a few hundred yards and immediately return. I didn't say anything to my friend and have not but just a half mile or so from where the dogs signalled I found the front half of what appeared to be a large bare foot print in a soft bank.5 toes digging in and a inch or so of pad...it was about 7 inches wide and guaranteed not to be a bear. The second in Feb started as a phone call from another fellow hunter at 6 am..he was scared and called me because I was the only believer he knew. It was 3 am the temp was around 3 deg. This was near the pilgrim cr. Snowmobile park near McCloud CA. He had called the day before and told me about tracks up a bank he spotted from his log truck that day he deemed to be from a huge bear and decided to check them out the next day. As he rounded the corner to this spot at 3am the next morning he noticed new tracks. He got out his truck and put a headlamp on..after safety checking his truck he climbed the bank to follow the tracks. After aprox 25 yds he saw it. It stepped out from behind a tree no more than 20 feet away. My friend said it was black n grey and blended in with the white for trees it stood next to.he didn't get a facial description other than yellow eyes and said he got the immediate feeling it was pissed and would hurt him...so he ran and left..around noon that day I went to the sight thinking he was seeing things..he was not! I followed both sets of tracks as far as I dared ..all I had was a cell phone and small pistol. The tracks were aprox 15 in long and 6+ in wide. They were in for needle litter and duft. But we're clear down to toes and heals and sunk down more than 3 inches ave. I weigh 300 lbs with size 12 boots and barely left tracks. I found the tree it hid behind and where my friend stood.it was clear he told the truth. I took many pics and shared them from my phone before it got destroyed. I could not retrieve them.but there may still be some pics out there..