Daylight sighting by hikers in the Loveland Pass area (Cont. Div.) witnessed in Clear Creek County, Colorado

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A friend and I and my dog were hiking in the Loveland Pass of Colorado. We parked on highway 6 where it crosses the continental Divide and hiked south along the divide for about five miles. We meandered down into one of the valleys carved into the divide on the eastern side. We were looking for pioneer artifacts from the many who passed through this area on the trek to California. We had descended below the tree line where the valley peteres out into a boggy meadow. This meadow runs down to a stream to the immediate east. The stream is large at this point and I think this is the same stream that can be seen from Interstate 70 at the Eisenhower tunnel several miles north at the Loveland ski resort. Dense brush and tree cover run along the opposite bank. We began to hear what we thought were noises from a large animal across the stream. We tried approaching the source of the noise, but as we moved closer the sound moved away downstream along the opposite bank. I started catching glim...