Sasquatch.., naw just B Jack slackin through the woods.
Sasquatch.., naw just B Jack slackin through the woods.
I was walking on the AT in VT about four years ago. There was about 6 inches of snow on the ground. I noticed something coming towards me pretty fast from my left side....a snowshoe hare. It ran by me, about 5 feet in front of me.
I was thinking; Wow, I can't believe he would run right in front of me like that....and then I saw why. A fisher was after him.
That fisher ran right in front of me too. I don't think either one of them ever saw me.
I doubt that hare lived much longer that day.
Okay...one more.....I got to watch some baby pine martens playing on the edge of a pond in Maine in '06.
How about another.....I watched a bear this year scratching his back against a tree in VA. He was standing on his hind feet with his back against the tree and moving his whole body back and forth.
Stumpknocker
Appalachian Trail is 35.9% complete.
That's it? Just bears, deer and fishers? Just kidding.
4:00 a.m. Three Forks, April of 2003: a stomping boar. Thought it was a deer and I was in his path, opened the front of my bivy and there he was.
He stomped so hard it shook the ground and woke me up. Then it snorted a little. It was mental fight to the finish, but he ran around. Two to 5 minutes seemed like an hour when you think you're going to be breakfast. I was literally stuck in my bivy and just peeked out. His head was about 4' from my face.
Couldn't get a pic - 4:00 a.m., no light except my headlamp. I just stayed up after that experience. Here's what I looked like at daybreak - a ghost needing coffee ha ha
A Snowy Owl perched on the summit post of a 3700' ME Mtn.
A cow Moose with two calves
And on the smaller end of bird species, the Golden Crowned Kinglet in two different locations and the Boreal Chickadee in two different locations.
WALK ON
I started a pre dawn hike in mid November from Tray Mountain. It was a cold, still, frosty morning. As the sun came up, I was coming around an Eastern slope and the sun lit up the side of that hill with intense gold colors. A Great Horned Owl swooped down and landed on a stump about 20 yards ahead of me with his back turned from me. I stopped dead still and watched as he (she?) turned it's head all the way around and stared me down. That was one of the greatest memories I have!
Moses
Not really "wildlife", but I was hammocking in the pasture by the abandoned brick house between Buzzard Rock and Lost Mountain Shelter and I woke up in the middle of about 6 curious cows. They were sniffing and licking and crapping. I guess they were trying to figure out what the heck that thing hanging between two trees in the middle of their pasture was.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Three notable encounters over my years of section hiking the AT:
- South of the South River Picnic Grounds in SNP (9/22/88): We had tented off the Trail, hanging our food high about 50 yards down the trail as we knew there were bears in the area. Late at night I woke up and heard something, but I couldn't tell what it might be until I heard a heavy rock flip over and knew it had to be a bear. I laid there for an hour (probably more like 10 minutes) thinking the worse, before I finally woke up my brother and told him what I had heard. He just said, "Oh," rolled over and went back to sleep. Eventually I couldn't take it any longer and got out of the tent with my trusty jackknife, fork and a penlight. The bear looked at me from 25 yards away while the knife and fork went, "tink, tink, tink". Fortunately, s/he got bored and turned away into the woods.
- North of Bryant Ridge Shelter in VA (10/21/03): Met a 6-point buck in a mountain laurel thicket with only 15 yards separating us. We both just stood there and looked each other up and down, but after about 20 seconds he took off as I slowly reached for my camera. Pretty big deer.
- Three miles north of Harpers Ferry (10/19/01): Came around a bend and over a small hummock on a lovely cool Fall day when I saw an animal about 40 yards ahead of me. For some reason, I automatically clapped my hands to get its attention, which caused it to quickly glance at me before it loped off the Trail and into the sparse woods. It only took me a second to realize, by its coloring, shape and the way it moved, that this wasn't a dog, deer, or anything else you'd expect to see. It was fawn-colored, a little lighter at the belly, with a surprisingly long tail and moved with a feline grace. A little small for what I imagine a mountain lion to be, but that's what I continue to believe. I kept an eye over my shoulder for the next few miles!
GA←↕→ME: 1973 to 2014
I have three.
First was on my very first backpacking trip. In the Smokies. Mother bear and two cubs across a stream from us. Cubs were playing, Mom was turning over logs hunting food. Since the stream was between us, neither felt threatened and just watched each other for about 10 minutes. They finally just ambled on up the side of the ridge.
Second was in SNP at Rock Spring Shelter. I spent the night alone. When I woke up, about 14 deer were feeding all around the shelter. I got out my camera and started taking photos. One somewhat bold doe got curious and kept advancing on me until she was right across the fire pit from me, attempting to sniff my camera. I had to back away in order to focus. Later on that morning, I noticed a young buck and doe bedded down only a couple dozen yards from the shelter. They allowed me to get within a few feet of them taking photos before they started to get nervous. I let them be before they got up and bolted.
The third was a Bull Moose in rut on Isle Royale that approached my partner and I. We shimmied up a leaning tree, leaving our packs at the base. The moose sniffed our packs, sniffed the air, circled the tree for almost 45 minutes snorting and pawing. He apparently could smell us but couldn't figure out where we were. He eventually sauntered off snorting and pawing the ground.
Plenty of other encounters, too. One of the reasons I prefer hiking alone or in very small, quiet groups.
Ok, let me add one more to my list.
Boundary Waters, near the Canadian border, May 2003. Was on a Volunteer Vacation, clearing brush on the KEK. There was a lunar eclipse at about 10 pm and we all stayed up to watch. We were camped on one of the islands, and the moon rose directly across a section of lake from our site. As we sat there watching the eclipse, a symphony of loons started. Probably about 6 or 8 different groups, coming from different directions and different lakes in the area, all with a great variety of calls. Simply amazing. Even the local KEK trail volunteer who spent many of night in the Boundary Waters had never heard anything like it. We attributed it to the eclipse. Will never forget that night.
My wildlife encounters on the AT include bears and rattlesnakes, but for irony, this takes the cake so far. I was hiking the AT in CT on a hot summer day and came to the view of the racetrack at Lime Rock. I was thankful for the peace and quiet but found the scene somewhat surreal: just the thought of screeching tires and screaming engines in that tranquil setting made me want to get away. Just then a hummingbird appeared a couple of feet from my face, its little "motor" purring harmoniously. Of course I didn't get a photo, but I will remember it a long, long time.
i've only ran into the usual....bears, grouse, snakes, etc. but two of my buddies ran into an emu on the trail. they thought it was another hiker at first until they got up close to it. i think that happened in new york somewhere.
My first shelter stay of my first hike. Along the trail to the privy, a big doe was standing only about 15 feet off the trail eating grass and keeping a close eye on us. There were about five of us at one point all standing there, talking, and taking pictures, and the doe wasn't phased by us at all. Way cool!!!
VF and I saw a fisher carrying her kitten in her mouth through some pines by a lake in Maine.
I got a good laugh out of a toad, when it was pretty brisk, trying to jump out of the way. Went about a mm forward, and tipped over on it's back. All in slow motion. Had to be there.
I don't think I will ever tire of watching water drain out of a moose's jowls.
There we were in the Shenandoahas in a heavy downpour with having done a long day longing for the dry shelter surely a mile or two ahead. Here Little Bear, Long Man Walking, and I were slogging thru wet to the core and came upon a black cat on the trail rummaging around. I get closer and this cat has a white stripe! Long Man Walking who is English had never seen a skunk, so here this skunk who is aware of our presence just continues to stay on the trail and I told him of their noxious spray. So here in the downpour, here we wait ...being denied a dry shelter and hot food. Finally it moved off trail and I started to leed us by when the skunk decides to CHASE me!!! The others ran back down the trail while this skunk chases me...them laughing in the downpour. Finally it left, and me happy I didn't get sprayed. It was surreal and now that I look at it was probably my most memorable animal encounter.
I have 2...
Once in NJ, in the DWG, I was hiking in the early morning on the Mt Tammany Trail. I came over a rise in the trail and I saw a porkie. Not wanting to disturb him, I watched him for a few seconds and then took a break. When I got going again, he was coming AT me on the trail. I held back. He turned around the other way. I gave him a few seconds, then continued to walk. The porkie would not leave the trail, he just kept looking back at me with I swear an expression of "What are following me for?" on his face. Eventually he left on a deer path.
The second is when I lived in Anchorage, AK for a brief period. I didn't have a car, and in the winter I took the bus to work. I usually came home at 9 pm, and I cut through a path from the bus stop to my apartment building. Of course, it was pitch black outside. I mindlessly walked on the path I'd walked on everynight, and I came within inches of stepping on a moose. He was lying in the snow. I could barely make out his dark figure lying there, and I don't know what made me look down, but another step and I would have stepped on him. He didn't even move or make a sound. I backtracked and took a different way home. The next morning, back to the bustop, I saw the huge imprint of him in the snow. Crazy.
This past Monday Romie and I were during our usual hike north on the Gathland section of the AT and this is what we saw,
http://www.pbase.com/muskrat/image/30234883
There were about half dozen or so, sauntering across the trail about 100yds up from us. Romie got real excited and lunged, good thing he's always leashed. Told him "ours is already at home in the freezer, buddy".
Got such a kick outta that sighting, though! At first it scared me because they looked like huge vultures, I didn't know what they were till I came home and googled pics. I have seen plenty of the usual squirrels, turtles, deer and dogs, but that made my day.
Happy T-Day all.
think I'll go for a walk outside now...