SummitPost.org

<i>I was licked in the face by a brown bear youngster </i>

A friend had that happen in the back country in SeKi. He thinks that the bear smelled the toothpaste and came in for a taste.

It was not while hiking but I've seen a beautiful squirrel while in a street near Monte de El Pardo, Madrid. I was mountain biking and returned home

Saw a turkey vulture on the neighbors roof the other day

August of '80 I saw a small pack of wolves near Lewis Lake below <A HREF="http://www.summitpost.org/show/mountain_link.pl/mountain_id/909">Black Peak</A>. Three years earlier saw a 3 legged Brown/Grizzly bear (in the middle of the trail, thirty feet away), across the valley, while heading up to Cutthroat Pass.

Got my head sniffed by a Grizzly (while I was sleeping, no bivy bag) at Manning Park in B.C.

July 5th (last year) saw lots of Goats and their kids in the Ingalls Lake basin.

When my family and I took a short break below the last rise to the top of Tiffany Mtn we watched a full-grown Cougar tracking us up Freezeout Ridge (until it found us watching it).

I saw a lizard doing push-ups on a rock while cycling yesterday (I was cycling, not the lizard).
So who else has seen a squirrel? I tried to run over one an hour ago. HAHA Diego! Must have been an insanely gorgeous rodent!

LOL Deb... You've reminded me that I saw a beautiful <a href=//www.herp.it/indexjs.htm?SpeciesPages/LacerVirid.htm>Green Lizard</a> <i>(Lacerta Viridis)</i> in Plataforma de Gredos (Avila) two weekends ago.

Derek, what did you do when you noticed that a Grizzly was sniffing your head?

Wich wild animals have you seen while hiking?
Man.

Pine Marten--very cool.

Now that you mention it. I did see a wolf in the Canadian rockies.

I saw a Pine Marten on Algonquin Peak in the Adirondacks.

Hi Diego!

I was zipped up in a NF Blue Kazoo bag (small and close fitting) with only my head exposed. I was instantly awake yet aware enough to keep my eyes closed and hold my breath. The bruin ambled over to another couple, we were together spending the night at a trailhead waiting to hike in to Cathedral Peak (across the border in WA). When I dared to look over at the bear he was sniffing my buddy's wife's posterior (she was sound asleep) my buddy however was not and he had the most bug-eyed look on his face! The bear then went over to the cars stood up and put it's paws on the car and tried to jam it's claws in between the window and door (shaking the car) and tried to open it up; our food was inside. After it tired of this it ambled off. I didn't sleep much after that but it was almost dawn anyways.

On the approach to Blanca, we were only about a quarter of a mile from our vehicle one early morning when my headlamp reflected two sets of eyes...one set looked to be about 3' off the ground the other about 6". A long low growl came from the glowing eyes, we quickly retreated to our vehicle and decided we would attempt to drive past the eyes (terrible 4 wheel drive road) and if we were unable we would wait until daylight. We were able to drive by the glowing eyes and found a family camped along the road that had two dogs with them. The next afternoon after summiting we encountered the family and the huge dog bounded toward us... the owner called out "Bear, get back here" and I thought that is exactly what I thought earlier this morning...certainly got my heart racing.

I was licked in the face by a bear while snoozing under the stars in the San Gabriels. When I realized it was not my dog, I jumped up and ran one way - the bear ran the other. After about 10 yards we both turned and looked back at each other and the bear trotted off into the brush.