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Wolves man, wolves. For the first time about a week ago....touchy subject around here (Idaho/Wyoming) but no doubt about it, there is something about seeing one that sets off ones thrill center.

Lookin for more but they are elusive and rare.....

Big lost. I know that great thrill of the wolves in idaho, I have seen a few out in the soldier mountains this winter,
theres something kind of spookey and fantastic about the entire encounter

Ran into wolves last summer. It definitely turned the thrill switch to a level I didn't know I had. They seemed very unhappy at my presence and that really unnerved me. I later found out that I may have been near their den. There are now many wolves out there. Far more than being reported. Heck they are all through the foothills behind my house - a fairly populated area. Guy lost 3 hunting dogs last week. Last fall same guy lost 3 others. Actually many, many dogs have been taken in this area in the past 2 or 3 years.

CW - that could have been me, I have been known to lick naked women who lay in their tents with the doors open...got to go wash my bear costume for this summer. I prefer them without the noxema though - but can't be picky in the backwoods ---

And the mouth wash - or at least some cheap chewing gum...Noxema tastes like caca...small price to pay. Who wants to borrow the bear suit???

My closest encounter was almost hitting a grizzly bear cub on my mountain bike! I was working as a backcountry ranger at Bowron Lake Provincial Park, North-Central BC, and for a few weeks I rode my bike from the town of Wells (where I lived) to the park headquarters - about an hour's ride each way. It was an early morning in June and I was about 3 km. from the park office. I hadn't seen a single vehicle or animal since leaving the township, which was still asleep in a cool mist 30km. behind me. Suddenly, and without warning, I heard a thrashing sound in the bush to the right of me that completely startled me. Expecting a moose, I braked carefully - aware of the loose gravel beneath my tires. Instead of the moose I had expected, a soaking wet grizzly darted out of the bush - moving incredibly fast - and disappeared into the dwarf willow on the other side of the road. My heart skipped a beat and it took a few seconds to fully understand what I had seen. Grizzly. Baby. Momma? I think I completed those last 3 km. to the office in about 30 seconds! Needless to say I was scared shitless on the ride home later in the evening.

While camping solo in the Sangre de Cristos last summer, I saw what I'm pretty sure was a mountain lion. I was getting ready to cook some dinner after a late night hike when I looked up to see two large yellow eyes reflected in my headlamp. They were not far off the ground and circling my camp. I know that cougars almost never attack humans, and that I had no reason to be freaked out,.. BUT I was alone and nearly shat myself. I decided not to cook any food that night...

Close call albertawind. Reminds me of a time I was hiking in Joseph Grant Regional Park outside of San Jose. My brother in law and I were on a hillside looking down into a swale when along comes a mountain biker. We could also see and hear a rather large wild pig crashing through the brush. It looked like they were on a collision course. The pig burst out of the foliage and made a sharp left narrowly missing the bike by going behind it. When the biker got to us we commented on the close call with the pig and with a quizzical look he responded, "What pig?"

Wasn't there another cougar attack in Alberta just this spring?

Yikes. Good thing I didn't get eaten-although now I tend to think I was privileged to see him, rather than threatened.

On saturday I saw a beautiful <a href=//www.roedeer.com/Photos%20of%20European%20Roe%20Deer.htm><b><i>European roe deer</i></b></a> while ascending Cabeza de Hierro Mayor by Loma del Empalotado, Madrid. He appeared in front of me at a distance of 10 m, so he ran away and rushed in the pinewood. I still hadn't taken my camera out of the backpack so I couldn't take a photo of him

just bears, big horn sheep, marmots, and chipmunks for me.

Just coming out home everyday I can see many Yetis in a big city as Madrid

I unwittingly helped a squirrel commit suicide on Saturday. While driving through Fort Hunter-Liggett on my way to Junipero Serra Peak, I saw ahead of me a squirrel sitting still in the middle of my lane and looking sad and forlorn while all of the others were jumping and running out of the way. I lined my car up, plenty of clearance, so he would pass underneath safely. He still did not move as I got closer and quickly was out of my vision when he headed for the wheels and THUMP!! Suicide by driver.

wingding - LUCKY. Bighorn Sheep are on wish list. Maybe I am too loud.

P.S. I almost steped on a rattlesnake comming off of the Falls Road at the base of Baldy last week.

My favorite spots have been bears, marmots (I never tire of observing those things), pikas, mountain goats, & deer. In the early nineties I guess it was, my dad & I turned the corner in the trail where we were backpacking in Rocky Mtn Ntl Park. Crossing the trail was a full-sized male moose. I couldn't believe the size of that thing!! Don't reckon I'll ever forget that encounter.

socalmtnr- if you make it to Colorado, just drive up I-70 from Denver. Way easier to spot bighorn sheep (there are pullouts for viewing areas!) in the Rockies than in the Sierra.