BIGFOOT TRACKS IN VERMONT ?

In January of 1979, I was skiing in a National Guard Biathalon competition at Camp Ethan Allen outside Burlington, Vermont. The Biathalon consists of cross-country skiing around long wilderness trails and circling back to a central firing range. You then ski up to your assigned firing lane, assume the designated firing position and attempt to shoot clay disk targets mounted on a target board with a .22-caliber rifle.
We competed for several days over courses of varying distances, usually 5 or 10 kilometers each course. One day, during the first loop of a 10K race, I was skiing alone over a section of trail way, way out in the boondocks... probably a good mile and a half away from the camp. I was skiing in the pre-cut trail tracks that were put in just that morning in the fresh, newly-fallen eight inches of snow. There was nothing for miles but deep snow, endless pine forest, and this ski trail about nine feet wide cut through the trees.
Suddenly, I stopped skiing.
There directly in front of me was a HUGE footprint that totally demolished the ski-tracks that I was skiing in! The footprint was at least eighteen inches long and definitely shaped like a foot! I looked closely at it and confirmed that it was not a snowshoe or snow boot (bunny boot) imprint.
I looked to my left and saw another footprint in the snow about four feet from the one in my tracks and it was headed into the thick pine forest at the edge of the ski trail. Looking to the right, I saw a footprint again about four feet away where something had come out of the bordering pine forest and crossed my path. I looked ahead of me, behind me, and to both sides again. Seeing and hearing nothing, I hightailed it out of there!
I don't know what or who made those tracks... but in my opinion, it was too secluded, too cold, too restricted, and too unexpected for them to be human made.
I honestly believe that the location, size and stride length of these footprints in the deep Vermont woods that morning could only have been freshly made BIGFOOT footprints.
A few other skiiers saw them too, but didn't know how, why, or by what they were made there either! That's as close as I care to come to a possible Bigfoot!