Hoof Impressions In The Wrong Substrate

Designated trails in the affected areas are largely packed gravel or hardened dirt — surfaces that don’t hold impressions particularly well. The restoration zones adjacent to these trails are soft, vegetated, and very much do hold impressions. Witnesses and one informal field correspondent have documented cloven-hoof-adjacent depressions in at least three locations that sit fifteen to forty feet off any marked path. For reference, the deer in this region are well-documented. These are not deer impressions. Deer are not six feet tall at the shoulder.

Snapped Branches At An Uncomfortable Height

Multiple witnesses have noted lateral branch breaks on trees bordering the restoration corridors at a height that sits somewhere between ‘large deer’ and ‘extremely motivated person on stilts.’ The breaks are consistent across reports — clean, outward-facing, at approximately seven to eight feet. One witness, a trail runner who asked to be identified only as someone who has since changed her running route, described finding a sequence of breaks that followed a clear diagonal line through an area the park map insists is unpassable scrubland. It is, apparently, passable.

A Smell That Does Not Match The Ecosystem

I have heard ‘sulfur’ so many times in this reporting that I have it as a standing autocomplete option in my field notes. Five of the ten witnesses used the word unprompted. Two said ‘like a barnyard but wrong.’ One said ‘like a barnyard but worse, and the barnyard is angry.’ I’m not a scent analyst — I have a colour-coded notebook system and a cat, not a laboratory — but the convergence here is notable. The restoration zones in question border a creek. They should smell like a creek. They have not, recently, smelled like a creek.

Vegetation Disturbance Inconsistent With Known Wildlife

Park naturalists — not speaking on the record, which is becoming a theme — have noted unusual patterns of ground-level vegetation disturbance in two of the three restoration corridors witnesses identified. The disturbance is directional and wide. It moves in straight lines where the terrain would suggest curves. One naturalist I spoke to said, and I’m quoting directly from my field notebook here, ‘something with a big stride and no apparent interest in going around anything.’ She then looked at me for a long moment and changed the subject.

Your Dog Is Done With This Walk

Three witnesses were accompanied by dogs. All three dogs — a golden retriever, a cattle dog mix, and what was described to me as ‘a very confident beagle who is no longer confident’ — exhibited acute reluctance to continue into or near the sections of trail adjacent to the reported corridors. The beagle sat down. Just sat down. The owner, a retired schoolteacher who has hiked this trail system for eleven years, said she has never seen the dog refuse to move. She went back to her car. She did not feel bad about this. I would also not feel bad about this.

Eyeshine At A Non-Standard Elevation

Two witnesses reported reflective eyeshine in low-light conditions — one at dusk, one at early dawn — at a height that sits above the standard range for deer, coyote, or any other documented mammal in the area. Both witnesses used flashlights. Both witnesses described the eyeshine as amber to yellow. Both witnesses also described making the decision, quickly and without much deliberation, to reverse direction. I consider this a reasonable and well-calibrated response. Neither witness went back. I am noting this without judgment. I also would not go back.

The Trail Register Has A Gap

This one I found myself, on a follow-up visit, and it has been living in my head since. The physical trail register at the eastern trailhead — the old kind, a binder in a wooden box — has a three-week gap in entries that corresponds almost exactly to the period when witness reports clustered most heavily. No entries. Not low entries. Zero entries. The park volunteer who maintains the register told me foot traffic didn’t drop off that she could remember, and that she couldn’t explain it. I checked the dates against my research notes. They match. I have put a sticky tab on this page. It is a yellow tab. Yellow in my system means ‘do not lose this.’