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Best wildlife encounters?
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Feb 28, 2013 at 10:10 am #1959721
Not backpacking, but I took this video as the wife and I were up in a tree stand. Sorry for the messed up video at the end. Was more concerned with the bear on its hind legs about to climb the tree we're in.
Feb 28, 2013 at 8:09 pm #1959941Bears, eagles, fish, deer, skate, ground squirel . . .
Denali Nat Park 1989ish: My friend and I were on a day hike. We were well educated about best practices in the Park and around bears, but, being young men, when we saw fresh bear sign, we just walked on making lots of noise talking about whatever came to our mind. As we walked around a corner along the creek bed we were following, there in front of us was a sow grizzly and two spring cubs about 20 feet in front of us. Oh crap. The sow looked up from eating her berries, then put her head back down and kept eating. The two cubs looked up and started coming toward us and following us as we backed away . . . double crap, they were maybe 6 feet in front of us at the closest. Finally the cubs quit following us when we backed across the creek and left the area. Mom didn't seem the least bit concerned!
Denali Nat Park, the next summer: My soon-to-be-wife and I were hiking on a peak above the park hotel when an arctic ground squirrel came up to my wife and started licking her shin, and kept doing so for several minutes.
Kachimak Bay Alaska ~1988: Spent two days with Art Wolfe photographing an eagles nest with two fledgling eagles in it that was in the top of a tree about 30 feet out and below the top of the cliff where we sat in a hastily made blind.
Kachimak Bay, same summer: Went fishing at the head of an inlet where the red salmon were running and we were wading through equal parts fish and water, picking the fish up by their tails, smacking their heads on the rocks and putting them in five gallon buckets to take back to the smoker.
Olympic National Park ~1986: Walking near the top of a ridge several miles above sol duc hot springs we passed a doe nursing her fawn about 20 feet off the trail. As we walked by, she watched us, but didn't move. Wow!
Friday Harbor WA: While scuba diving of the dock at Friday Harbor Laboratory, as I descended to the point one of my fins touched the bottom, a big 3 or 4 foot across skate wiggled out from underneath me foot.
And, oh so many more stories . . .
Mar 1, 2013 at 12:33 pm #1960183I was fishing with my family in northern Maine a few years ago. We rounded the corner of the road only to see about four deer, two bucks and two does. As we began to round the corner, the two does, reared up and began fighting with the front legs.
We all hear about bucks fighting for their does, but I'd never heard, let alone, seen two does fighting. Espcially considering it looked just like a girl slap fight.
Mar 1, 2013 at 1:55 pm #1960203AnonymousInactiveI can't remember her name, but it was quite a night. ;0)
Mar 1, 2013 at 2:16 pm #1960208Tom, I was waiting since the first post for that one- I'm totally surprised it took 3 pages.
Mar 1, 2013 at 2:23 pm #1960209AnonymousInactive"Tom, I was waiting since the first post for that one- I'm totally surprised it took 3 pages."
It takes me a little longer to react as I age, Tad. I've got to admit, it was low hanging fruit. I'm surprised the Idester didn't beat me to the punch. ;0)
Mar 1, 2013 at 2:59 pm #1960224I've had 4 good ones.
The first being a bear waking me up smelling the back of my head (yes I yelled like a little girl).
I spent 2+ days at lake Sunrise at the camp before heading up to Whitney. While playing cards and eating some pistachios, I had a squirrel pulling back at my cards trying to get to the pistachios.
While coming down the switchbacks on Bubbs creek on the Rea Lakes Loop I came across a bear that was heading up. As there was nowhere for the bear to go but at least a mile back I didn't feel the need for chasing it down the hill. I just got out of the way and went on the other side of a bush. The bear must have been satisfied with my interpretation of getting out of the way. It walked by my so close i could have reached over and patted it on the head.
While on a 70 mile loop in the Sierras, a big 6 or so point deer ran right in front of me. I was using a 35 mm disposable camera and was down to my last picture. He stuck around and I tried to get a picture of him from bout 20' but he took off the last second.
I took a picture of the moon coming up over the ridge and thought that was that.
I was also sleeping at that location and starting setting up my tarp within a few minutes.
Low and behold, i look up and the deer is 6 feet away from me. Not only that, he stuck around for the next 15 minutes until I went a started a small fire. The whole time he was within 4-10 feet away from me.
I was so nervous about the huge rack on him. All he had to do was take one step and lower his horns and I was dead. I had an ice ax in my hand the whole time ready for the fight to the death.
The next day I noticed poo everywhere around and realized, he and the fawn I saw that morning slept just a few yards from where I had set up.Mar 1, 2013 at 4:51 pm #1960264And then there was the one that I did not see.
I was in the lead and Lazarus was following a short distance behind. We were nothbound and nearing Iron Mountain Shelter on the AT when I apparently frightened an unnoticed cub bear up a tree. As the cub was descending the tree Lazarus happened along and saw the cub making a bee line for a less crowded area. ;-)
Party On,
Newton
Mar 5, 2013 at 8:35 am #1961690This little guy approached four of our group, including a dog, went around us off the trail, then crossed the trail behind us as we stood motionless.
Mar 19, 2013 at 7:31 pm #1967651I went to Yellowstone in June this year. I had several cool sightings while backpacking…..
I had went to a ranger talk at Canyon campground the first night I was in the park. The talk was on animals of Yellowston…I was thrilled! Other than the megafauna they talked about some of the smaller ones. Notably, they mentioned that for a long time hardly had saw foxes in the park thanks to the coyotes. Since the reintroduction of the wolves, coyote pop. had decreased and they were starting to see some foxes. However, the ranger said that it was highly unusual to see them.
The next day, while hiking, I looked over and there was a beautiful fox sitting about 20 feet away. Needless to say, I was excited. I got some wonderful pictures of it. On that same walk, I came across a rocky section and noticed a pika. They are notoriously very hard to photograph. I usually only have seen them for brief seconds before they scurry away. This one stopped and looked at me for 30 seconds….I got a great pic.
The next day was another long hike on a not often used trail. I came across 2 pronghorns. They stared at me and tensed up..but didn't run away. I then came across 2 different black bears…one on each side of the small mountain I was circling. That was a little tense—- had my spray at the ready— but very cool.
When I was in Costa Rica on a long hike, I did get to see a variety of wild birds and several monkeys…which were quite cool…..but the most unusual was a sloth. Just hanging out in the tree. It was the only time I can ever remember seeing one period…certainly not ever in the wild and I can't remember ever seeing one at a zoo.
Mar 20, 2013 at 2:56 pm #1967932I moved to Georgia from Ohio and was invited to canoe in the Okefenokee Swamp. I had my 7 yr old with me and my buddy had his 9 yr old with him. Long story short, the boys counted 72 gators crossing our path over the course of the day, all of them small but thrilling for his land-locked Midwestern. That was before digital cameras or I would post some pics…
Mar 20, 2013 at 3:59 pm #1967941I have gotten a few wildlife encounters over the years.
Thousand Island Lake
Darwin Lakes
Mt. Diablo
Mt. Diablo
Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Mt. DiabloMar 20, 2013 at 7:13 pm #1968010NM
Mar 21, 2013 at 8:42 pm #1968421Hard to say best….I saw a mountain lion in the San Mateo wilderness, that was pretty awesome just because they are so rare to see, but it was brief. Next was a long encounter in SEKI with a momma bear and two cubs. I was nervous because of the cubs, but they at least pretended not to notice me, and mom didn't seemed concerned. They were cute and full of antics. Another couple memorable ones was a deer in yosemite that wanted to beat me up, and a fox that hung out in our campsite in Anza Borrego. Bald eagles are pretty memorable also because they are just so damn big! Wales too.
Mar 22, 2013 at 12:08 pm #1968588… becuase i guess it wasn't technically whay you'd call backpacking (although I did have on a backpack, and there was nothing lightweight about it; but this is definitely my all-time #1 wildlife encounter… so far!
Mar 22, 2013 at 1:59 pm #1968631That was wonderful and thank you for posting it. I know they're docile creatures, did you get the feeling it knew you were trying to help? They're such beautiful animals. Well done, Rick! You really made my day with that one.
Mar 22, 2013 at 2:23 pm #1968638King Snake in Kings Canyon National Park.
A wild backpacker (Kyle) and a bear in their natural habitats. Kings Canyon.
Rattlesnake, also in Kings Canyon.
Mar 23, 2013 at 3:18 pm #1968859Thanks for the kind words! That was on Chrisatms Day, 2000, when I lived on Utila Island, Honduras, at a dive resort where we were partners with the Shard Research Institute. Most of the time I was just trying to keep up with him, but there was a point after I gave up on trying to pull the net free and started cutting, that it became very passive and turned for the surface. So I hate to anthropomorphize, but yes.
Mar 24, 2013 at 7:12 pm #1969211While backpacking the Three Sisters Wilderness in early 80's I was awoken during the night by screams of which I can only imagine to have been sasquatch.
Mar 24, 2013 at 8:28 pm #1969233It counts as far as I'm concerned! Thanks for posting Rick, and good on ya!
Mar 24, 2013 at 10:21 pm #1969250Living in Australia, Huntsman spiders (which are bigger than US huntsman) would invade my house (which was something of a shack with lots of holes in it)whenever the weather changed. I eventually learned to live with them, as trying to kill them was far creepier. They move too fast and sort of 'stand up' on their back legs when threatened. Decimated my kitchen trying to kill one that was a foot wide.
Apr 15, 2013 at 4:42 pm #1976976I went out for a quick overnight last night (GoT would have to wait until today) and was lounging under my tarp after dinner around dusk. I rolled over and was quite surprised to find a large cat sniffing at my head. How i didn't hear it approach is beyond me. It didn't seem too strange at first, because I was in a small canyon preserve surrounded by houses, but then I realized that this cat was as large as a labrador, and had spots and a short stubby tail.
Despite my mildly profane exclamation, the bobcat continued sniffing at me and explored the rest of my site. I hadn't been expecting anything exciting so the camera had stayed at home, and by the time I got my fancy flip-phone out to take a picture he had sauntered off a bit, but continued to hang around for the next 10 minutes. My best cat-coaxing would not bring him back to me, and I suspect he was offended that I even tried. Even though I am not a cat person, I spent the rest of the night wishing he would come back and snuggle at my feet.
Apr 15, 2013 at 6:40 pm #1977015A friend and I were out hiking Peekaboo canyon having a good time taking pics and really just enjoying the perfect weather. We went back and forth on how laid back it was and we put it on cruise control. About half-way through, the canyon walls close in. Suddenly, it got a little more real for my buddy as he is claustrophobic. He began to get uneasy to which I laughed and sprayed the usual banter that happens amongst best friends. During my laughing I stopped paying attention to the canyon floor and where I was stepping. I realized this and looked down to find a nice grey snake one foot away and exactly where I was going to place my next step!
I nearly peed myself as I am deathly afraid of snakes. I jumped back so fast I fell on the floor (the floor constricts to about six inches in that section), jumped up and stemmed the canyon walls up about ten feet! My buddy comes around and is like what are you doing? He laughed so hard once he figured out it was a snake (and not a big one at that). We both stemmed up the canyon walls and over the snake not knowing if it was venomous or not. Either way I wasn't going down for awhile lol.
here's apic of my buddy using his telescope in the canyon:
Apr 15, 2013 at 9:42 pm #1977129I was camping in the Grand Canyon, on the ground in the open. I had my jacket on (since this is BPL, after all, I will tell you it was a Golite Coal, LOL) and I had one arm outside of my bag. So I started out of a dead sleep about 2 am by a giant clawed thing that just suddenly went THUNK! down on that arm, and was holding onto it. I had time to move my other had up (only half awake, but convinced I had just become part of a monster movie) and actually felt one very strong, boney leg before it flew off. It tore two set of rips, one for each foot, in my coat. from the multiple holes in may jacket the length was about 7 inches apart between the legs and the front and back toes wrapped most of the way around my arm. I guess I was lucky, as I figured out later. It never drew blood, and seemed to have realized almost immediately that the arm outside of the bag was not what it thought/hoped it was, and took off. Anyway, I got a very good perspective on what it might be like to be prey that night. A ranger I talked to later said she thought it might have been a juvenile that was not too wise in the ways of the world yet. Anyway, I sewed up the rips with bright orange thread (I still have the jacket) and got a good story out of it. I like to think the Owl had its own stories to tell as well.
Its not in any way special except for situation, but I saw a coyote backpacking in a remote part of Henry Coe SP (big wilderness-y park in the bay area). The funny part, which is pretty rare, is that I saw him FIRST. He was obviously looking for rodents on the side of the trail, but was just trotting along merrily looking off to the side. I stood still and watched him approach for a while, not a care in the world, looking off distractedly. When he was about 20 feet away from me and heading straight toward me he suddenly looked up and did this huge double take. He didn't even run right away, he just did one of those kind of cartoon skids and got what can only be described as an embarrassed look on his face. He froze for a second with this expression, then did an abrupt 90 turn and flew at light speed off the trail into the forest and disappeared.
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