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| Hiking | 9.00 Miles |
2,650 AEG |
| | Hiking | 9.00 Miles | | | |
| 2,650 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Well... had some chores this morning so the hike did not get started until midday. Late starts tend to diminish animal encounters. Early starts nearly guarantee elk, deer and assorted other encounters; they love roaming just after dawn.
Yet... dropping down a little used, very steep and eroded trail I noted a shadow of a form slipping through the underbrush some 50 yards down trail... approaching the area I paused, and after a minute I began to whistle and chitter in a manner that I hoped would inspire a curious response. Sure enough, a couple of minutes into my callings I head popped out from around a tree... then the animal moved over into an opening in the clearing about 25 yards away... where he'd have a clear view of me. I continued the entertaining whistling to see if I could entice him to come closer, but he seemed content to simply stare back at me. I switched over to a benign conversation for another five minutes or so, then running out of stuff to say, bid the mountain lion adieu and continued my hike on down drainage. It was interesting that he responded so predictably to the whistling. I would assume they fear few animals in the wild, and exercise a reasonable curiosity, whether for entertainment or just checking out potential dinners. Sense I was willing to simply exchange face to face, I moved myself out of the realm of dinner. It was a nice encounter.
...about a half mile on down the trail I heard some assorted frantic scramblings in the shrubs ahead, then noted what I initially took to be a porcupine scampering up a very tall fir tree. Then, to accompany the scratching there were gruff growls and snorts... moving closer I realized there were two little bodies making for heights, but they were very small bear cubs! The mother, satisfied that she'd gotten her cubs high enough out of harms way (me?) slid back down the tree and dove down into the gully and climbed out the opposite bank, stopping and turning to watch what I had in mind. I attempted to reassure her that all was fine, but her looks were pure anxiety... so, after snapping a few fast photos I moved on down the trail. Hopefully, she reclaimed the cubs. I'll hike back in tomorrow to make sure they are not still stranded three stories up.
I had high hopes for turkey, elk, deer, porcupine and whatever after those first two encounters, but alas... that was the entertainment for the day. Wish I'd snapped pics of the mountain lion but they tend to do really well when holding eye to eye contact, but most often when I look away for even a brief period they tend to move off and away; not sure what that is about. |
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| Ageless Mind... Timeless Body... No Way! Use It and Lose It. Just the way it is... |
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Route Editor
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