Who is watching you eat

[jcb]

You ever wonder if anyone or anything is watching you eat?

Don't know if links work on this site, but here is the url.

http://www.backpacker.com/cgi-bin/fo...9;t=9991148558

[One Half]

holy crap!

[Buffalo Skipper]

That is just unsettling.

And not a small one either.

[4Bears]

WOW a neat picture!! Last year on a hike up to Laurel Falls in GSMNP with our youth group, several of the youth went down stream about a 100 yards to sit on a rock and eat lunch. When they finished and as they were walking away and looked back there was a bear already on the rock sniffing for crumbs. It had to have been in the bushes watching them as well.

[Skidsteer]

That's awesome.

[Fiddleback]

An hour or two into the Rattlesnake Wilderness, my buddy and I broke for a snack. We'd been there twenty minutes or so when some riders came by, "You watchin' the bear?", they asked.

"Huh?...What?...Where?", we stuttered out.

That one...over there about fifty feet."

"Huh...Oh yeah...We all are just taking a lunch break...," with just a bit of sheepishness.

After years of backpacking in the MD/VA/WV area I moved to Alaska and became more concerned/aware of 'things' in the woods. That's when I came to understand that you may not see the wildlife but they most certainly see you. Hundreds of miles traveled, hundreds of animals passed by unseen...

FB

[Montana Mac]

Riding into to Slough Creek in YNP one day and encounter a hiker on the way out. He stopped and I asked him if he was aware of the griz about 100' behind him just off the trail. He had no idea that bear was there.

[Buffalo Skipper]

If you missed it, here is the original pic, and a second one where I adjusted the brightness levels:

[Roots]

If you missed it, here is the original pic, and a second one where I adjusted the brightness levels:

that is crazy!

[Kerosene]

I was hiking SOBO up to Pond Flatts, just outside Hampton, TN, early in the morning morning in late October 2008. I heard something just behind me and turned around to see a very large bear just standing there watching me walk by. You wonder how often you pass by something that large and don't realize it's there.

[jcb]

He admitted it was a photoshop job. Good one though.

[Deadeye]

If you want to experiment, just have a seat a few feet off the trail. Folks will walk by without noticing you at all. I once sat less than 10' off to the side of a busy trail junction, had dozens pass by, and one even stopped to take a leak not 6' away. Fortunately (on many levels) he was facing 3:00 away from me!

[mweinstone]

like ive posted afore,...bigfoots been watching me hike since i was a kid. they trust me enough to study me maby but they follow me and i feel it. in my imagination they play a game of stay away where they watch from the edge of my perseption ocasionaly popping into the feild of my perception but never long enough to scare me reather only a test to see just how scared i am of them .

[TallShark]

He admitted it was a photoshop job. Good one though.

Did he really?

[Spogatz]

that is most likely photoshop. The flash should have lit the bears eyes up like 2 candles.

[tuswm]

I know when i was living out in YNP I got lazy one night and left the bear can about ten feet from my tent. When I woke up it was gone. Took a while to find it but when I did there was marks all over it. Marks that I could not duplicate with knife or even crampons. Those things are silent.

[Dogwood]

I have noticed several types of animals watching me eat. No joke. Fox, bear, several types of birds, owls(one a beautiful cream colored heart shaped face barn owl right over my head in a tree on Eagle Creek in the Smokies, a Great Horned Owl also on the AT on some bald), coyotes(Grand Canyon), a wolf, skunks, marmots, a copperhead(slitherd across the top of my hiking shoes on the AT in PA, started to slither up my leg, looked up at me eating GORP, call me naive or stupid but never felt fear and never sought to hurt the snake, it may have sensed all that!, maybe it realized my leg was not the place where it was going, eventually slithered into a rocky hole near a fire ring), squirrels, many mice, lizards(caught a fly once and threw it to a lizard, he ate it, hung around expecting more!), moose(had one moose with her calf on Isle Royale NP, walk up to me at dusk while I was eating dinner while she and her calf were also eating vegetation, maybe she thought I was a kindred soul because I was also eating vegetarian that night, I sat motionless, she came over to me and sniffed my hair, ate some more(not my hair!) and eventually casually walked off with her calf), a herd(kids and a very muscular dominant long bearded male included) of white shaggy Mountain Goats at Jones pass on the CDT in Colorado, got within 10 ft, that was close enough for them and me!), wild boars(they can move faster than I thought), fish(yeah fish!), waterfowl, beaver, muscrat, a sea otter at Olympic NP, and probably a whole lot more I'm forgetting or didn't notice.


Had a beautiful fox also on Isle Royale NP, walk threw my camp while I was eating salmon like I wasn't there not more than 10 ft from me. I said where are you going. He stopped, walked non chalantly back to where I was, sat down 10 ft from me like a lab, and we proceeded to eat together, no shart! After he was done he looked up gratefully at me, staring into my eyes, licked his whiskers and lips, and walked off. just before he walked out of sight he turned back and looked at me. I swear he said 'thanks, I needed that, I was hungry!"

[hunter121]

That is just unsettling.

[TallShark]

I have noticed several types of animals watching me eat. No joke. Fox, bear, several types of birds, owls(one a beautiful cream colored heart shaped face barn owl right over my head in a tree on Eagle Creek in the Smokies, a Great Horned Owl also on the AT on some bald), coyotes(Grand Canyon), a wolf, skunks, marmots, a copperhead(slitherd across the top of my hiking shoes on the AT in PA, started to slither up my leg, looked up at me eating GORP, call me naive or stupid but never felt fear and never sought to hurt the snake, it may have sensed all that!, maybe it realized my leg was not the place where it was going, eventually slithered into a rocky hole near a fire ring), squirrels, many mice, lizards(caught a fly once and threw it to a lizard, he ate it, hung around expecting more!), moose(had one moose with her calf on Isle Royale NP, walk up to me at dusk while I was eating dinner while she and her calf were also eating vegetation, maybe she thought I was a kindred soul because I was also eating vegetarian that night, I sat motionless, she came over to me and sniffed my hair, ate some more(not my hair!) and eventually casually walked off with her calf), a herd(kids and a very muscular dominant long bearded male included) of white shaggy Mountain Goats at Jones pass on the CDT in Colorado, got within 10 ft, that was close enough for them and me!), wild boars(they can move faster than I thought), fish(yeah fish!), waterfowl, beaver, muscrat, a sea otter at Olympic NP, and probably a whole lot more I'm forgetting or didn't notice.


Had a beautiful fox also on Isle Royale NP, walk threw my camp while I was eating salmon like I wasn't there not more than 10 ft from me. I said where are you going. He stopped, walked non chalantly back to where I was, sat down 10 ft from me like a lab, and we proceeded to eat together, no shart! After he was done he looked up gratefully at me, staring into my eyes, licked his whiskers and lips, and walked off. just before he walked out of sight he turned back and looked at me. I swear he said 'thanks, I needed that, I was hungry!"

I hope i get all of those awesome encounters. What a neat experience the fox and the barn owl must have been.