I've seen the cast before, but am going back to the location and having a closer look at it. What details should I be looking for in the cast? It has evidence of a mid-tarsal ridge and dermal ridges running lengthwise.

So someone has a footprint cast that shows some evidence of a mid-tarsal break and dermals? I would have no idea how to tell you how to authenticate it, but my advice is that the cast should be sent to Dr. Jeff Meldrum for analysis (by either the owner or by you). If that isn't possible, take as many photographs as possible of it - front, back, profiles, close ups of any and all features using an artificial light (like a flash light) held at an angle so details can be seen.

I am very sure there are people here that can help more...so folks chime in!

Look for small hairs that might be embedded in the cast

Thanks. A friend of mine cut a new road through very steep and rugged terrain on his ranch and discovered a track way the next morning. I'll be back on the ranch in a couple of weeks.

I would put up a few camera traps in that area where the track was found!

Oh and get a lot of good measurements of the cast...and always have a ruler in all the pictures so scale can be judged.

Good luck!

(psst...where is the ranch??)

You can try the Bigfoot books of Grover Krantz and Jeff Meldrum for possible pointers (the latter may be in your local bookstore if you want a preview), as well as any scientific papers published by them. My advice would be to assess the print, at that point if you don't find anything obviously wrong you could contact Meldrum (or whatever expert you choose) and see if they are interested in further study. Perhaps someone can suggest a board member as an alternative to Meldrum?

I searched the forum this afternoon for "footprint" and here are the pertinent results. You could try a similar search for "track" and see what else you can find.

http://www.bigfootforums.com/index.php?showtopic=22739

http://www.bigfootforums.com/index.php?showtopic=9583

http://www.bigfootforums.com/index.php?showtopic=10540

http://www.bigfootforums.com/index.php?showtopic=11713

http://www.bigfootforums.com/index.php?showtopic=7959

http://www.bigfootforums.com/index.php?showtopic=7465

http://www.bigfootforums.com/index.php?showtopic=362

http://www.bigfootforums.com/index.php?showtopic=6084

http://www.bigfootforums.com/index.php?showtopic=5520

http://www.bigfootforums.com/index.php?showtopic=4832

http://www.bigfootforums.com/index.php?showtopic=6142

http://www.bigfootforums.com/index.php?showtopic=5933

Best to have photos of the track before casting, focusing on details like dermals, if not make an impression next to where the track was found with something that doesn't leave dermals and do a test cast of that impression.

http://orgoneresearch.com/dermalridges.htm

wolftrax has other articles of interest to track analysis, such as 'Bigfoot's "Mid-Tarsal Break"':

http://orgoneresearch.com/favorite.htm

Thanks but I didn't write those articles, they were written by Matt Crowley, but they are very interesting, just giving credit where credit is due.