Previously, Caribou Joe learns how horse-legging is done in a bush operation at Tete Jaune Cache, and as he moves further up the hillside, discovers big footprints in the snow.
In 1955 there was a Sasquatch sighting at Tte Jaune Cache. The circumstances of that event were written down by Mr. William Roe, of Edmonton, Alberta in a sworn affidavit witnessed at the office of William Clark, a Commissioner of Oaths in and for the province of Alberta. Mr. Roe's account appears in the book, On the Track of the Sasquatch by John Green. The 1913 Sasquatch encounter, in the same region, has gone unrecorded until now:
"Eighteen inches long!" thought Joe to himself, as he re-examined the huge footprints in the snow. "Could this be Bigfoot? Impossible! " Joe slowly shook his head.
As a young boy Joe and his father had visited a local Indian settlement, near Spuzzum, in southwestern British Columbia. They had listened to the Elders of the Chehalis Band, on several occasions, as they retold the legends of The Bigfoot. Joe remembered how the old people had spoken. "Over the mountains," they would say, "Near the Great Lake (Harrison Lake) where the boiling water flows from the earth, lives the Mountain Beast!" These creatures, also know as Sasquatch, were reported to be eight or nine feet tall, covered with long hair or fur, dark brown in colour with huge feet. Joe's understanding had always been that Sasquatch were giant humans, living in hidden mountain villages and capable of conversing in Indian languages.
As Joe knelt in the snow next to the giant track, he felt a sudden chill. Could there be Sasquatch here at Tte Jaune Cache? Should he run down the skid trail and report his discovery? Should he follow the tracks and see where they go? Yes, that was it! He would see for himself... "Wait a minute," he thought, "I'll need my Winchester for this tracking Job!"
Joe started out on his frantic run down the hill where the men in Bjorn Anderson's logging crew were working. As he was leaping over stumps and windfalls, certain questions danced inside his head. How many shells were left in his pack box? Was his Winchester already loaded? How fresh were the huge footprints in the snow? How much of a head start did the Sasquatch have? Should he tell his companions, the Wall brothers, of his discovery? Should he tell anyone? Would they believe him?
Joe decided that perhaps he should keep his findings to himself until he located the beast. The other men working on the hill were too busy to notice Joe as he flew down the main skid trail. At the landing he met John Wall.
"Say, Joe, what's the big rush? You look like ya seen a ghost!"
In the next episode, Mum's the word, Joe visits the trapper's cabin on the hill, above Tte Jaune Cache, to get help from his friend Ben Sanders.
