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Animal Encounters?


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Had my first animal encounter on a cache hunt today. The cache was hidden on a trail just past a park nearby me and I took my four year old son with me for the hunt. Made the mistake of thinking I could beat the sun and failed miserably. It got dark before we got to the cache and ended up not finding it.

On the way back on the trail a large (possibly full grown) buck lept out in front of us and stopped, glaring at my son and I. I took my sons hand and pulled him behind me, at which point he started freaking out and asked me to pick him up. The buck still hadn't moved so I told my son to stand still and just look at how pretty he was.

The buck seem satisfied (and flattered) because he raised his head up and then slowly trotted off the trail like he owned the place, and quite right he was!

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We ran into this gal on our way up Mt. Washburn in Yellowstone. Needless to say, we gave her plenty of room.

 

 

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Man that is one of those things that gives me the willies. I've run into some weird critters in the woods but (knock on wood) not one of them. If I ever go off pavement in Bear country I plan on carrying the biggest can of bear spray they have, my lucky bear bell and a slow hiking partner.

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I wasn't caching but was camping and Monument Lake in New Mexico. The first night my brother and I went out just day hiking and my brother freaked because a squirrel ran up his back and jumped off his head to get to a tree. That night we were with some other campers around a camp fire. All of a sudden every body took off and I ask "Where are you going". About that time I see a skunk out the corner of my eye. So I followed quickly. Well I figured that would be it for the close encounters of the critter kind. dadgum if that night we didn't hear loud noise outside the tent. Someone I poked their head out the tent and they said in a panicked voice, "There is a bear playing with the trash can at the next camp site". We drove if off or annoyed it one banging a pot or something and flashlights. The next day we looked at the trash can and it was a 55 gallon can with a concrete base and the bear had picked that can up.

So now we all have got some cool critter tails and figure we are done.

 

NO SUCH LUCK. Two days later we awakened to a dozen Bison around our tent and there were Mommas and Calves. I really thought we were done. That was one of those moments when you do the "God if you will just get me out of the". We were so dadgum quiet and I thought they would never leave. I had pictures of the bison but they were lost in a move.

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During the summer a few friends and I were backpacking up to Lake Ingalls in Central Washington State. We approached a ridge and planned to stop to find a geocache hidden there, but before we could perform the search a whole herd of mountain goats trotted over to check us out. There was a sign at the trail head that warned of aggressive goats and I'll admit, I was a bit nervous when they approached us. Fortunately, they were more curious than agressive. There were some times when they got a bit too close for comfort, but at least I was able to take some pretty good shots. They followed us around the whole two days we were up there. Needless to say, we never found the cache and I logged a DNF--a very memorable one at that. :)

 

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Today while out caching with my girlfriend, we were about 4km into our hike along an abandoned rail bed when the sun started to set really quickly. Soon we were encompassed by darkness and started hearing coyotes nearby. Then, we saw a pack of three of them pass by us about 100m up the road. So because we decided they were headed further along the rail bed, we started off down the service road we can come up to. That added a few kilometres to the hike and by the time we got back to the car, we were incredibly tired, but quite satisfied!

 

Wouldn't have been out there if it weren't for geocaching!

 

Love this hobby!

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Oh what the heck, I'll throw in a story.

 

I was scrambling up a small mountain, placed a cache on the steep slabby part, and kept on going with the intent of placing another on the summit. On the steep stuff I hadn't bothered with the usual noise-making to deter bears; they're not usually into rock climbing after all.

 

Then the terrain levelled out a little, and I walked into some trees. Guess what's the first thing I see? A black bear at close range. ohmy.gif I politely asked it to leave the area, and it did.

 

So now I'm standing there, wondering whether to continue to the summit, and for sure to avoid the direction I just saw the bear heading. As I'm fiddling with my GPS and studying the options on the map, I hear a little noise above my head. I look up. There's a bear cub in the tree I'm standing right underneath!

 

Right then - down the mountain it is!

 

(It's not that well known, but black bears are wimps when it comes to protecting their cubs, not at all like grizzlies. Never get near a grizzly cub.)

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We lived in Oklahoma for a couple years, just down the road from the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. I literally had a home where the buffalo roam. Some days you came closer to greeting them than others; thankfully none ever did anything more aggressive than give me the stinkeye.

 

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I've seen a whole menagerie of wildlife while caching - deer, coyotes, rattlesnakes, vultures, turkeys, skunks, jack rabbits, cottontail bunnies, quail, hawks, eagles, and many more. The only time I was attacked I was running, not geocaching, but it was on a trail where I have gone caching many times. It was a bobcat, aka a wildcat, and it was on the Wildcat Loop trail, appropriately. It wasn't big enough to do me any serious harm, but it sure startled me. I was running downhill rather fast (I was a lot younger) and expected it to run off as I got close. Instead, it leapt at me, claws extended. I happened to be in the perfect stride so that I could just extend my foot right at its face and made solid contact right between the eyes, sending it flying. It never even scratched me. It threw me off my pace and I staggered to keep my footing afterward, and came to a stop bent over. When I looked back it was still there and looked like it wanted to take another run at me. I looked for a rock or stick, but didn't see anything except the loose dirt and pebbles on the trail, so I scooped up a handful of that and threw it at the cat, causing it to run off. It certainly got my heart rate up.

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I have encountered the usual kind of animals while caching: Rattlesnakes, Eagles, Mountain Lions, Bobcats, Bears, Dogs, Herons, Bison, Tule Elk, Moose, Coyotes, The most annoying was the time that I left my bike to walk off trail to a cache, and cow scientists decided to check it out, urinating on my seat. Either that, or the time that a wild turkey flew right at me while I was doing some caching on my bike, causing me to take a tumble that left me with a number of abrasions on my face. As soon as I fell, the turkey declared victory and turned around.

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On Valentine's Day I received notifications of two new caches at beaches about 30Km from home. These beaches are locally famous for the mobs of kangaroos which frequent the area. So, I set off to grab FTF.

 

At the first beach there were several kangaroos just lying around in the sun doing nothing much and not bothering me at all.

 

At the second beach there is a path leading to the cache. Here was a large Male kangaroo surrounded by his harem and several joeys. I didn't want to interrupt any Valentine's Day plans he might have had and took a wide detour around the mob. Grabbed the cache and took a wide detour round him on the way back. Sitting up he was up to my shoulder. Standing? I didn't want to find out.

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https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC44R93_trigonometry-triumph-hag-9

 

Found it Found it 07/06/2014

 

I really enjoyed this puzzle. It gave me a chance to review my math and boggle Grandpa Incredible's brain too. I had to re-read the very entertaining story many times to get the diagram right. With a bit of fiddling, but I soon had the coordinates. I was in the area for a puzzle round-up and this one was on my list. I thought for sure I was going to have a heart attack on the way to GZ. Lots of huffing and puffing and stopping to 'admire the view' and lots of sweat dripping down my face. That was quite the workout. On my way up, I remembered something that Arnold Schwarzenneger had said about how when it hurts, that's when you're improving. So I pushed myself a bit and soon was thankfully at GZ. I had a little giggle when I got there, as there was evidence that someone had met an untimely death. I snapped some photos of the skeleton and proceeded to look for the cache.

 

The native blackberry vines are really starting to take over and I got tangled in them as I searched. Fortunately the pants I was wearing already had a rip in them from another caching misadventure. I found the cache pretty quick, noted how infrequently it is found and replaced. This is one for sure that will never get muggled.

 

I then noticed that there was another puzzle cache nearby so I sat down on the ground and tried to figure it out. I don't know anything about poker so it was not easy. After Googling a bit, I gave up and started down the trail. This is when things got interesting. About 1/2-way down, I heard a loud crashing in the bushes to my left. I stopped to see what it was, expecting to see a deer pop out. I watched and soon saw a pair of ears. They were not pointy deer ears. They were ROUND ears. Pointy ears GOOD. Round ears BAD. Round ears REALLY REALLY bad!

 

The head belonging to the ears made a horrible noise and I thought for sure I was a goner. I looked around me for things to defend myself. Naturally, all my emergency supplies were 180 meters downhill in the cachemobile. Fortunately there were lots of rocks on the trail so I piled them up and looked for some pokey sticks, all the while keeping an eye on the bushes. At first I thought it was a cougar, as the head was quite small, but judging by its behavior and the sound it made, I came to the conclusion that it had to be a small black bear.

 

Now I know all about black bears and have encountered a number of them while hiking as a child. I KNOW that they are generally scared of humans and do not want to get involved with us, however I had it in my mind that maybe, just MAYBE this was the ONE black bear that wanted to EAT people or at least just maim them. I worked my way slowly back up the hill, making little piles of rocks and clutching my pokey sticks. I could hear whatever it was crashing around in the bushes. It seemed to be taking a path parallel to me which kind of freaked me out. I had heard some hikers on the trail earlier while finding the cache so I headed up to the viewpoint in the hopes of running into them. I called home to give my daughter my coordinates and explain the situation. I didn't feel an adrenalin surge, but it must have been there, because although I had previously found the terrain challenging, my performance was suddenly enhanced and I was able to make it uphill with the ease of an olympic athlete. I hung out at the viewpoint for a good 45 minutes hoping that would give the bear time to move on. I kept a watch downhill, with plans to climb the fence and over the barbed wire if necessary. Ouch!

 

Finally I came to the conclusion that it was not coming after me so I slowly and quietly inched my way downhill. I had considered taking an alternative and longer route back, however not knowing which way the bear had gone, I decided to just go back the way I came. I KNOW you are supposed to make noise when around bears, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I tried to be as quiet as possible, the whole time listening carefully for noises which might give me an idea as to the bear's location. I was just about at the place I'd encountered the bear when my phone rang loudly, giving away my location. My daughter was calling to see if I was still alive. I told her I was OK and would call her back in 10 minutes.

 

The rest of the journey down was uneventful, albeit slippery and I was REALLY glad to see the cache mobile.

 

Note to self...bear spray is not very helpful unless you actually bring it with you.

 

Thanks for the puzzle and the, shall we say, stimulating adventure?!?

Edited by The_Incredibles_
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Went on a lengthy walk trying to finally attempt to finish a 4.5 multi and work my knee in a bit.

Balanced on a big, leaning/fallen tree to look for a container, and outta the rhodo jumps a hefty black bear.

- Scared him as well as me. :D

Slipped while lowering myself by a sapling ( it didn't want to bend as far as I needed) and I hit the ground. Hard.

Down and injured, guess the bear decided I wasn't so scary after all, and moseyed on.

- I swear I could hear him laughing...

Now I gotta explain to the doc how I managed to crack two ribs while still going to pt for a knee.

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The bear encounter was on the way to Maple Leaf in the Rocky Mountain Foothills - #55.

The developing story on the cache page makes me smile.

 

Especially the favorite point. cool.gif

 

Hang in there Bud!

The bear attack victim had found 4 of the caches in the series that day, before the attack, and had been caching that series for a week prior. Goes to show that you never know when you'll stumble upon wildlife. The CO has since disabled half of the series.

Edited by noncentric
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We ran into this gal on our way up Mt. Washburn in Yellowstone. Needless to say, we gave her plenty of room.

 

 

e43c6452-e6b3-43bd-a491-5c5e1d638de7.jpg

Man that is one of those things that gives me the willies. I've run into some weird critters in the woods but (knock on wood) not one of them. If I ever go off pavement in Bear country I plan on carrying the biggest can of bear spray they have, my lucky bear bell and a slow hiking partner.

 

Reminds me of a joke ....

 

How can you tell if it's bear scat on the trail?

 

It has bells in it and smells like pepper spray!

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On 12/13/2011 at 1:25 PM, Team Empty Planet said:

On our way to one cache we ran into a dog from a nearby house that wanted to play frisbee. Other than that we've run into a few skunks without incident.

Ran into a skunk on my very first cache a couple of weeks ago.  Just as I was about to enter the brush, I caught some movement in my peripheral--looked just in time to see that flash of black & white about the size of a football disappear into the undergrowth.  Proceeded with caution--lucked out and didn't see him/her again.  I was actually glad I didn't bring Ol' Furface along on this one...  :rolleyes:

Expecting/hoping to see many many more critters (not necessarily stinkers) in adventures to come... B)

Edited by RufusClupea
afterthought
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