What's your most memorable backcountry wildlife experience ?

[sweeper]

Hmmm which ones. the Timber Rattler in Pennsylvania top of the ridge right in the middle of the trail a step away before I figured what the hell that buzzing could be. I was hallucinating roots as snakes for a week.
A young moose with just one horn left after a rough night , never forget those red eyes as I lay on the ground after tripping on a tree root....Chairback Ridge
or maybe that early morning assent up to little Bigelow when as I rounded the corner and 6 feet away a sow Black bear with her cub ,which just bailed in one bound down the ridge slope leaving me with a pretty annoyed moma, needless to say I just squealed like a girl with mt arms raised, trekking poles in hand, she just somersaulted and in two jumps covered about 30 feet. I had to sit down after that for a spell.
all the best
sweeper 72-73 nobo

[q-tip]

Going over the Inderharra Pass- 13,500' in Himactal Pradesh-Northern India. Mind Blowing.......

[Drybones]

This is my favorite so far!

Me too, got a laugh from the Marmot experience, mighty big squirrel. If I hadn't had someone with me that knew what they were I probably would have thought it to be a chipmonk that migrated up from area 51.

[johnnybgood]

Two different Events



2) Two years ago cruising downhill on the lakeshore trail in GSMNP I almost stepped on a big timber rattlesnake. I jumped back and screamed like a little girl.

Rasty screaming like a little girl....priceless !

Hmmm which ones. the Timber Rattler in Pennsylvania top of the ridge right in the middle of the trail a step away before I figured what the hell that buzzing could be. I was hallucinating roots as snakes for a week.

I know that feeling all too well.

Great stories . Keep ' em coming .

[turtle fast]

Was chased by a skunk in the Shenandoahas that was walking on the trail in a rainstorm down pour....I just wanted to get to the shelter a mile or so away and eat and try to get anything near dry from being soaked all day. The thing did not seem rabid, but it did its best to not let us pass on the trail....one of our hiking friends Long man walking, was a Brit and was wondering why I was running away from the cat...I was yelling it was NO CAT and had to later explain what a skunk was.
Had ran into what I thought was a sick potentially rabid raccoon on the trail that was acting funny sitting right on the trail unaware of anything that was going on around it...gave it a wide berth and notified the next person we saw and then reported it in the next shelter log as well as letting the next hostel know.Eating raspberries on a long row on the trail and rounded a corner to find a huge black bear eating on the other end and we just looked at each other before it bolted off.

[Rasty]

Rasty screaming like a little girl....priceless !


I know that feeling all too well.

Great stories . Keep ' em coming .

I'm manly enough to scream like a little girl!

[johnnybgood]

Was chased by a skunk in the Shenandoahas that was walking on the trail in a rainstorm down pour....I just wanted to get to the shelter a mile or so away and eat and try to get anything near dry from being soaked all day. The thing did not seem rabid, but it did its best to not let us pass on the trail....one of our hiking friends Long man walking, was a Brit and was wondering why I was running away from the cat...I was yelling it was NO CAT and had to later explain what a skunk was.
.

Reminds me of the skunk that got into my Cheetos bag at Loft Mtn. Campground . It was dark, me in a beach chair, the bag of Cheetos on the ground next to my chair, I reached down to grab the bag only to get a handful of skunk.

I never jumped up out of beach chair so fast.

Pepe got the last laugh though. He ate my Cheetos and then thoughly sprayed my campsite.
Spent the night sleeping in my truck.

[Sevsa]

Two encounters with animals in the wild stand out for me. The first was in Big Bend NP where I saw three mountain lions together about 100 feet in front of me and although they were all very large I decided it must have been a female with two full grown off-spring. They all took off with the female looking behind to make sure I wasn't following, which of course I had no intention of doing.
The other was at Darwin Falls in Death Valley NP. As I was hiking near the falls a bright blue racer snake went flying across the trail right in front of us pursuing a meal and was so intent in its mission it didn't even notice us. It caught it shortly afterwards near the trail so that we could watch it for about 30 seconds wrapping its body around the mouse and then positioning it to be eaten. At this point it noticed us and took off into the undergrowth with its meal.

[Colter]

The caribou swam right past me it was so frantic to escape the wolves. It was so close I could hear the footsteps of the running animals.

[Another Kevin]

I think the most memorable encounter happened when I was sleeping. A porcupine came under my rainfly and stole the skivvies that were hanging in the vestibule. Never saw the little mustard but he left a quill behind. Fortunately I didn't get stuck.

(Edited to add: This didn't happen on the A-T. Is that ok?)

[Drybones]

I think the most memorable encounter happened when I was sleeping. A porcupine came under my rainfly and stole the skivvies that were hanging in the vestibule. Never saw the little mustard but he left a quill behind. Fortunately I didn't get stuck.

(Edited to add: This didn't happen on the A-T. Is that ok?)

I've had only one close encounter with a porkie, son and I were turkey hunting, I called a turkey within 10 yards, only my son had a gun and he let the turkey walk off into the woods, saw a turkey fly off but still heard leaves rustling, huge porcupine came to about 5 yards and started feeding on acorns under the leaves,my son and I, in full camo, walked closer (within 3') while it had it's head under the leaves and stood there watching, when the wind changed directions he started clicking his teeth together very fast and bristed up then waddled off...beautiful little guy...worth more to us than the turkey.

[Dharma Dog]

Winning a "stare down" contest with a group of coyotes.
Walking to the edge of Lake Martin and stepping on a group of 8-10 juvenile alligators. This is not uncommon down here in south Louisiana and they were only around 2 feet long and harmless but one nipped me on the ankle and now I have a nice little scar and a great bar story to tell all the Yankees from north of Arkansas.

in the bar those 2 foot long gators grow to 8 feet, of course.

[Chaco Taco]

This was pretty cool at 14,400+
IMG_0083.jpg

[Teacher & Snacktime]

Snacktime and I have had a few pleasant encounters with wildlife on the trail, and other than insects flying around our heads, no unpleasant ones. The first was an astounding number of Midland Painted Turtles in the waters of the C&O Canal section of the trail in MD right out of Harpers Ferry. On that same hike we also saw an enormous black snake winding through the structure of the Ed Garvey Shelter, and a pair of goats about a mile north of the shelter. ,
On our hike in CT, on a warm wet day north of Schaghticoke Mt., the trail was liberally salted with Red Spotted Newts and toads.....hundreds and hundreds.

[Marta]

My first night in the backcountry in Glacier NP in 2008 I was having a weird dream involving chewing and teeth. Woke up to see a snowshoe hare gnawing on the handle of my hiking pole a couple inches from my face.

Fast forward to yesterday, Logan Pass, Hidden Lake Trail.

image.jpg

Actually, I think my favorite encounter was when I was walking across the long log bridge at the outlet to Poia Lake. I was about halfway across, with Skittles and Recess on the bridge behind me, when a big-horned ram and three ewes appeared from around the corner of the trail at the far end of the bridge. I stopped. They stopped. Then the ram glared at me, walked up the steps, and onto the bridge. He fixed me with a stare and started walking deliberately towards me, head lowered. I started backing up. He backed us all the way across the bridge, down the steps, and to one side so he could go on his way. The ewes jumped in the water and swam across the river rather than cross the bridge.

[wythekari]

Was sleeping in the open at Big Meadows one spring with my pack next to my head; food was stowed but I had a pouch of Red Man chewing tobacco in an outside pack pocket. Awoke to a scratching on my pack and I peeked out of my bag to find a skunk pawing at the pack about a foot from my face. In one motion I ducked back into the bag and rolled away from pack and skunk, then I lay still for a few minutes, when I looked out the skunk was gone and my pack was OK. He never did spray so I must not have disturbed him.

[Another Kevin]

I've had only one close encounter with a porkie, son and I were turkey hunting, I called a turkey within 10 yards, only my son had a gun and he let the turkey walk off into the woods, saw a turkey fly off but still heard leaves rustling, huge porcupine came to about 5 yards and started feeding on acorns under the leaves,my son and I, in full camo, walked closer (within 3') while it had it's head under the leaves and stood there watching, when the wind changed directions he started clicking his teeth together very fast and bristed up then waddled off...beautiful little guy...worth more to us than the turkey.

I see them often. This guy was just parked in the middle of a trail. He knew that nonody bothers a porcupine.

Porcupine by ke9tv, on Flickr

[chief]

I think I've told this story before, but since you guys have related a few skunk encounters, I'll tell it again...
So, in 2000 after hiking through a nasty thunderstorm in the SNP I came to Gravel Springs Hut just before dark. Since I was soaked to the bone, it was still raining hard and figuring I'd have the shelter to myself, I decided to stay the night. Another hiker stopped by for a bit(I think Rachele was her name), but she decided to move on. I went to sleep pretty early and about midnight I was awakened by a rustling noise on the other side of the shelter. I knew I'd never get back to sleep if I didn't find out what was causing the noise so I flipped on my headlight. There, not 8 feet from me was a skunk that seemed to be building a nest. She looked at me, but didn't seem particularly interested, continued her work. I actually talked to her for a minute or so. I didn't feel threatened at all, maybe too tired and decided to try to get back to sleep. By now you're probably wondering how I know it was a she. Stay tuned, it will become apparent. I did get back to sleep and awakened again about 4 AM, this time I didn't hear any noise. I thought maybe the skunk had gone away, but to be sure I flipped on my light again. She was still there, except this time there were 2 or 3 tiny, hairless creatures snuggled up to her. It took me a minute or 2 to realize they were her newborn babies. I gave her congrats for her nights work and assured her I would not be a problem to her or her chillen. I finally shut off my light and feeling that everything was right in my world, I quickly went back to sleep. Eventually daylight came and when I awoke again, mamma and family were gone. All that was left was their makeshift nest. For some reason, hiking that day was very easy and I felt on top of the world. I told some hikers later on that day and they felt I should change my hiker name to "Skunk Daddy". Happily it didn't stick.

[Mountain Mike]

While hiking the PCT in OR bad weather hit. The woman I was hiking with asked what I wanted to do. I looked at my food bag & said I think I can lay up a day because I didn't want to miss the views. See agreed. Next day woke up to same pea soup fog. We had to move on as our food bags were getting low. We set up camp after a long fast day of hiking in the rain close enough wher we could pass stuff between our tents. We looked into our depleted food bags to combine what we had left before the 15 miles to our next resupply. Dehydrated green beans, mashed taters & TVP was dinner. We saved the pudding and a Snickers bar each for breakfast. When I woke, Michele heard me unzip my tent. She asked how it looked. The first words out of my mouth were OMG! Right in my face was MT Jefferson with the sun glissening off it's glaciers! Mt Jefferson.jpgMt Jefferson (2).jpg

[Traffic Jam]

I was backpacking and reached around to scratch my behind and a bee flew into my pants and stung me.

My family was backpacking in Colorado and woke up one morning to find a a shepherd and his flock of sheep in our little valley. Very cool!

Another time, we were camping in New Mexico and a herd of horses came through our camp in the middle of the night and knocked several tents down.