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Is this the track of Spring Heeled Jack? A photograph of one of the tracks I found in the Cazenovia Park’s golf course. Photograph by the Author.
I
was taking a walk with my Wife, two weeks ago, when I found the tracks of
cryptid! This two-toed monstrosity was
walking from east to west and leaving its two-toed tracks stamped across the
Cazenovia Park’s golf course. Did I find
the tracks of Spring Heeled Jack, “The Terror of London”, from long ago in 1886,
here in Western New York? Could he still
be alive and on this side of the Atlantic?
Or is there something else at work here?
 |
“Ad for a Spring Heeled Jack penny dreadful - January 8th, 1886”, from Wikimedia, HERE.
Maybe
there is a simple and natural explanation, that doesn’t involve the
supernatural or a cryptid? Is it
possible that it is as simple as the effects of sun, the wind and warm weather
on those tracks made in the snow?
Yes,
in fact tracks made in snow change their shape due to melting, sublimation, and
the settling of the snowpack? So, just
how do these natural processes effect the shape and size of the tracks that we
find in the snow?
Melting
is caused by both warm temperatures and strong sunlight. Obviously, warm temperatures cause snow to
melt, however even when the temperature is below freezing, if the Sun is out
and shining brightly, snow can melt.
Melting
snow can change the shape of tracks and cause them to become distorted. Distortion due to melting is often
directional, with the greatest distortion occurring on the side of the track
opposite the Sun; this is usually on the northeast side of the track.
Sublimation
is another word for evaporation. Sublimation
occurs most often in conditions of low relative humidity and dry winds. Sublimation is also more common at higher
altitudes, where the air pressure is less, than at lower altitudes. Strong sunlight is also necessary for
sublimation. The amount of snow lost to sublimation
can be striking, particularly when a chinook wind, a warm dry wind, blows down
from the mountains. Sublimated or
evaporated snow looks different from melted snow, it appears as small crystals,
while melted snow has crystals that appear to be melted and then refrozen.
With
sublimation, unlike with melting, the edges of the tracks will remain crisp,
well rounded and will appear dry, even as they widen and lengthen. Changes in the shape of the tracks occurs
mostly on the downwind edges of the tracks, with the change in shape
proportional to the wind speed. Unlike with
melting from the Sun, sublimation can enlarge the entire track without any
directional distortion, this can cause toe imprints to join and eventually
merge with heel pads. And interestingly,
wind-blown snow accumulating on the lee side, or upwind side, of the track
combined with sublimation of the downwind side of the track can cause the track
to creep downwind.
Settling
of snow, due to gravity, can also affect the shape of tracks made in the snow,
causing them to shrink. You can tell if
the snow has settled by looking at nearby tree trunks, since the snow sticks to
the trunk it will form an inverted cone around the trunk as it settles.
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| Snow around a tree trunk and the inverted cone that is formed around the trunk as the snow settles, photographs by the Author. |
If
tracks become distorted, either from melting, sublimation, or settling, they
lose detail, and the print size can change and that can make it difficult to
determine the stride (distance between the steps) and the straddle (width between the prints) of the animal that left the tracks.
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Photograph of one of the tracks found in Cazenovia Park’s golf course. For scale, the Author’ knife, shown in the picture, is 5 inches (13 cm) long. Photograph by the Author.
My
photograph of the Cazenovia Park Cryptid track isn’t the first time a melt-enlarged
or sublimated track in the snow has made people cry “cryptid”! The famous photograph taken in 1951 by Eric
Shipton, on the Menlung glacier of Mount Everest, had everyone yelling “yeti”!
 |
“Photograph of an alleged yeti footprint found by Michael Ward. Photograph was taken at Menlung glacier on the Everest expedition by Eric Shipton in 1951”, from Wikimedia, HERE.
Few
today believe that the Shipton photograph shows a yeti track, most believe that
it is the sublimated or melt-enlarged footprint of either a man or a bear. In fact, as early as 1956, Rev. Swami Pranavanada noted in the Indian
Geographical Journal, July to September 1955, that the tracks were likely
to be the melt-enlarged tracks of a bear.
Some of Rev. Swami Pranavanada thoughts were included in the article, “Abominable Snowman”, published in Science,
on June 8, 1956, on page 1024, and this article discussed elongation and other
changes to tracks caused by sublimation and melting and the author’s belief
that the Shipton track was not made by a yeti.
 |
From “Abominable Snowman”, Science, June 8, 1956, page 1024, by William L. Straus Jr.
Hmmm...so
maybe I didn’t find the tracks of Spring Heeled Jack after all? And so, if this track isn’t the track of
Spring Heeled Jack then how was it created?
After
considering the tracks and the different changes that the weather, the wind,
and the Sun could have made on the tracks, I believe that I know what had happened. First, I think that a person walked across
the Cazenovia Park’s golf course heading west and then sometime later a deer
followed in their tracks heading in the same direction. After the tracks were laid down, the weather
and the Sun went to work, enlarging the deer tracks until they merged with the
boot prints, making it look like a two-toed devil had stomped across the golf
course!
For
more on snow tracking read “Tracks and Tracking in the Winter ©”, HERE
and “Who Came To Visit Me Last Night…©”, HERE.
Don’t forget to come back next week and read “Turkey or Goose Tracks? ©”, where we will talk snow tracking and
tracking in general.
I
hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me
on YouTube at Bandanaman Productions for other related videos, HERE. Don’t forget to follow me on both The
Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE,
and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube. If you have questions, as always, feel free
to leave a comment on either site. I
announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at
bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.
That
is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!
Sources
Straus Jr., William L.; “Abominable Snowman”, Science, June
8, 1956, Vol. 123, Issue 3206, p. 1024, https://science.sciencemag.org/content/123/3206/1024, accessed March 11, 2021
Wikimedia, “Ad for a Spring Heeled Jack penny
dreadful - January 8th, 1886”, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jack4.jpg,
accessed February 28, 2021
Wikimedia, “Photograph
of an alleged yeti footprint found by Michael Ward, Photograph was taken at
Menlung glacier on the Everest expedition by Eric Shipton in 1951”, from The
World's Most Mysterious Footprints, Popular Science, December, 1952, by
Gardner Soule, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eric_Shipton_yeti_footprint.png, accessed March 11, 2021
Zielinski, William J.;
Kucera, Thomas E., technical editors; American marten, fisher, lynx, and
wolverine: survey methods for their detection, Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-157.,
[Albany, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest
Research Station; 1995], page 96, https://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/documents/psw_gtr157/,
accessed March 7, 2021
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