Forum Index > Trail Talk > YOUR BEST ANIMAL ENCOUNTERS...hey I spelt that!!!
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forest gnome
Forest nut...



Joined: 24 Apr 2003
Posts: 3518 | TRs | Pics
Location: north cascades!!
forest gnome
Forest nut...
PostFri Jun 02, 2017 4:55 pm 
ok so I will add most of mine later when i have some battery life... feel free to include scuba diving as well as other sports...

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Steve
Phlogiston Purveyor



Joined: 29 Jan 2002
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Location: Bothell
Steve
Phlogiston Purveyor
PostFri Jun 02, 2017 6:50 pm 
Hiking with the family on the north side of the Olympics in July. Might have been the Grand Valley hike. There were four of us so I took my bivy sack. Turned in somewhere after 8PM. I had the netting over my face with my hand on my forehead to keep the netting off me. As I'm drifting off something bites my hand. Apparently one of the deer that had been going through camps to see if there was anything to eat thought I looked like a burrito. I yelled and the deer jumped back, somewhat astonished at a talking burrito. Also somewhat interesting when I was on the Bowron circuit and a black bear sow wanted to come into camp after dinner time. Also got run off the shore of a lake when a cow moose and calf started coming our way rather quickly.

Despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt.
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Ski
><((((°>



Joined: 28 May 2005
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Location: tacoma
Ski
><((((°>
PostFri Jun 02, 2017 8:07 pm 
The gigantic turtle that swam right up into my face to get a good look at me snorkeling off Oahu. We were maybe 6 or 8 inches eyeball-to-eyeball. Quite an experience. Lot of encounters with elk up on the Queets. Probably the spookiest one was walking into Andrews Field just after dark and walking right into the middle of a herd that had bedded down for the night in the fog-filled field. Didn't realize they were there until a few of them started moving and snorting. Walked right up on a cow elk coming around a curve in the trail - she was on the blind side of a big spruce - came up on her maybe 3 or 4 feet away - never knew they could bolt down a hillside that fast. And then of course there's the fish story.... but it's difficult for people to believe that fish can communicate with humans, so we'll leave it at that.

"I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each."

Downhill
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MyFootHurts
Huge Member



Joined: 22 Nov 2011
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Location: Kekistan
MyFootHurts
Huge Member
PostFri Jun 02, 2017 9:21 pm 
Not including off-leash dogs, I was camping at Heart Lake in ONP doing the High Divide Loop and I was awoken by clattering sounds. I opened my eyes to see I was surrounded by goats. About 5 of them and just a few feet away. That was before goats starting killing people so I wasn't too concerned. Here's another: I was walking along that Teiton River Trail near the junction of highways 410 and 12 when I came across a feral llama. Must have escaped a ranch or something. Filthy mangy thing. It wouldn't leave the trail so I shooed it off by throwing sticks toward it.

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williswall
poser



Joined: 30 Sep 2007
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Location: Redmond
williswall
poser
PostFri Jun 02, 2017 10:09 pm 
Emperor penguin in Antarctica

I desire medium danger williswall.com
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zephyr
aka friendly hiker



Joined: 21 Jun 2009
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Location: West Seattle
zephyr
aka friendly hiker
PostFri Jun 02, 2017 10:40 pm 
williswall wrote:
Emperor penguin in Antarctica
And Adelie penguins too--in the thousands at Palmer Land on the Peninsula. Being spooked by the ferocity of the Leopard Seals and the close encounters as Orcas came up onto the ice to watch us. paranoid.gif ~z

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cdestroyer
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Joined: 14 Sep 2015
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Location: montana
cdestroyer
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PostSat Jun 03, 2017 6:29 am 
hiked into and were fishing lakes on mt. powell montana when we came upon cow moose and her calf. they just wandered right by without a thought.

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Backpacker Joe
Blind Hiker



Joined: 16 Dec 2001
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Location: Cle Elum
Backpacker Joe
Blind Hiker
PostSat Jun 03, 2017 8:05 am 
I was once camped at Upper Falls lake and during the night I was charged (in my tent) by a mother black bear. She had a cub with her. She parked the cub about 25' away while she went up the hill and rooted into an old stump. Well, the cub came over to check me out, and she screamed down the hill and skidded up to me (I was looking thru the mosquito netting) and roared at me. Then she did it all over again. This happened eight times throughout the night. It was a pretty terrifying experience. hockeygrin.gif

"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide." — Abraham Lincoln

Gil
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Schroder
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PostSat Jun 03, 2017 8:22 am 
3 most memorable: I was alone above Shannon Creek on Shuksan and sat down against a stump. I bent back and looked up into the face of a cougar that was perched on the top of the stump staring at me. I was snowshoeing out of Williamson Creek and around Spada Lake heading for my car at Olney Pass with a cougar following in my steps about 100 ft behind me for 3 miles. I was on a fishing boat in Ugashik, Alaska, in 1970 when a huge Right whale and her calf came next to our boat and followed alongside for several miles.

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grannyhiker
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Location: Gateway to the Columbia Gorge
grannyhiker
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PostSat Jun 03, 2017 8:28 am 
Quite a few, but one I remember vividly was when I was napping in the tent, while camped just outside one of the wilderness corners of Rocky Mountain National Park. Something hard and sharp struck my head! I jumped up with a yell, and a rather puzzled doe jumped back equally quickly. She was curious about the tent and evidently started pawing at it! At the same location, we spotted several times a mother porcupine followed by a baby porcupine, mom in miniature. While I was getting my accounting degree, car-pooling from Moses Lake to Ellensburg in the spring of 1979, I was industriously studing for an exam in the back seat when the driver almost stood the car on its nose. I retrieved my papers and looked up to see mommy skunk, followed by 6 little ones, confidently marching across the road! Cutest sight I've ever seen! She knew we would stop!

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view.--E.Abbey
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olderthanIusedtobe
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Location: Shoreline
olderthanIusedtobe
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PostSat Jun 03, 2017 11:06 am 
I often get a thrill out of just about any wildlife encounter, regardless of the size or frequency/infrequency of sightings. But a few come to mind that stand out. Chilling at camp in Wolf Creek Meadows the evening before climbing North Gardner a couple years ago, I was sitting reading a book right by the fire ring. I didn't use it all, some charred bits of wood were in the pit. A scrawny little doe walked right up, probably was about 2 feet away from me, and she started EATING some of the charred wood. I could hear it crunching in her mouth. No idea what that was about. She knew I was there, I was moving my head and arms a bit. Last year in the middle of the Seven Lakes Basin/High Divide loop I glanced ahead of me and saw a large black bear probably 15-20 ahead of me, smack in the middle of the trail. It took a few steps forward, then bailed off the trail downhill 30-40 feet. Then resumed slowly meandering along and browsing as it went. Years ago on Sahale Arm and I had a marmot walk right up to me and take a test bite on the toe of my boot while I was still wearing it! A couple years ago was up at Paradise in the spring. Driving back down a mile or two from the visitor center I saw a fox laying down on the snow just off the side of the road. I stopped to take a gander. Took me several moments to notice there was a kit nestled into her side nursing. Never got a good look at baby, but momma and I locked eyes for a few seconds. I know anthropomorphising animals is a losing proposition, but it sure looked like maternal pride to me!

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Schroder
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PostSat Jun 03, 2017 12:09 pm 
I was just reminded by Facebook of one I had 4 years ago today
I just remembered one from a few years ago up in Summerland. I was photographing a marmot with her baby and a marten jumped up and grabbed the baby and ran with it. Every marmot in the talus field chased and cornered the marten until he dropped it. Another marmot incident was on Glacier Peak where one wouldn't leave us alone. He kept grabbing and running away with a friends shirt, trying to drag it down his hole 2 or 3 times. The last time he got it, he peed all over it.

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olderthanIusedtobe
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olderthanIusedtobe
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PostSat Jun 03, 2017 12:20 pm 
Marmots can be bastards, huh. I would think a full grown one could beat the crap out of a marten, some of them must be 30-40 lbs. I forgot about the marmot I watched eating pebbles on the summit of Trapper Peak, high point of the Bitterroots in Montana. I just peed. Marmot pops into view. Instead of just licking the rocks to get the precious salt the stupid varmint actually swallowed them.

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olderthanIusedtobe
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PostSat Jun 03, 2017 12:28 pm 
Remembered a few more. Saw a half dozen or so juvenile martens playing chase or tag or something in a tree. Saw a weasel (long tailed? not quite sure) bounding thru a rock field just before Wirtz Basin/Headlee Pass and the ensuing multiple alarm cries from the pika inhabitants of the rock pile. Did battle with a pair of porcupines in the middle of the night while I was car bivying at a trailhead in Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park. Despite the chicken wire fences surrounding all of the cars at the TH, they got under a car next to mine. I got a stick and poked and prodded and convinced them to leave eventually. They weren't excited about the prospect. Took their sweet time. I think I might've tossed a few rocks in their direction too. Saw a gray jay do a Tarzan swing from a limb it was holding with it's peak. That was the darnedest thing. Easily could've flown from one branch to the other but it chose a different method of movement.

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Joey
verrry senior member



Joined: 05 Jun 2005
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Joey
verrry senior member
PostSat Jun 03, 2017 12:32 pm 
Small boat cruise in SE Alaska. The boat was underway and we had just sat down for dinner but staff had not yet served the meal. The captain announced that we had happened upon whales that were bubble feeding. National Geographic video - in case you do not habla "bubble feeding".
This was not just a one-and-done. There were two groups of whales and they just kept repeating the process. The boat stopped and we just hung out and watched. One of these events was just a stone’s toss from the boat.

Now I Fly
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