Hey All
Animal stories seem to be the rage on other forums. I thought maybe some animal stories might be sort of up=lifting.

So anyway lets keep em as short as possible and stick to one story at a time so they're readable.

I was 14 or 15 and ast. senior patrol leader of our scout troop that was camped at a lake in Wisconsin. There were several square miles of "wilderness" surrounding the camp. I was alone and hiking into a strong wind when I came out of the woods and entered a huge clearing with a low rock wall about 100 yards away. I hadn't hiked far through tall grass when I see a cow moose less than 20 feet from me looking into the wind. I hit the dirt and my instincts and my tracking & stalking skills took over and next thing I'm crawling through the grass like a cat toward this moose. Suddenly it turned towards me and I froze and it stared at me with these huge ears pointing around its head like radar antennas, but it couldn't smell me or hear me so it looked away and I moved in closer.

Now sometimes you must wonder what goes through the head of a young fearless immortal as they approach one of the most dangerous animals in north America. I decided to raise up slowly and swiftly and to jump on her back and wrap my arms around her neck and lay low on her back as she ran. Anyway I ran and jumped and threw my leg up over her back and threw my arms forward around her neck as she turned her head and saw a creature pretending to be a mountain lion jumping onto her back.

She reacted so fast that I didn't touch her and as soon as I hit the ground (because there was no moose under me anymore), I looked up and the moose was clearing the rock wall. I'm sure I would have hit that rock wall going 45 MPH, maybe faster. An animals true maximum speed depends on its motivation.
Jim
YOUR TURN

Some thirty years ago I did a solo 50 or so mile trek on the Western Uplands trail in Algonquin Park. I think a six or seven day trek as I remember. This trail is through a mixed hardwood forest, along lakes and through lush forest valleys and open marsh areas.

A twenty something tenderfoot who knew the wilderness. I had been a Scout don't you know. I can't remember all my gear or meals. I do remember the nylon World Famous pack that was completely full. Thinking back on it know that pack must have weighed 50 - 60 or more pounds. I used a tarp from one of those original orange backpacking tents. I was tough enough to sleep under a tarp without a tent. A newly purchased pair of steel toed construction boots and a hatchet (which I still use), were all part of the outfitting.

So one day with head down and making miles along a trail that circled this lake, I happened to look up. Coming towards me on the trail was a black bear. The biggest black bear in the entire world. I froze for a second. I had a choice. Down the embankment 20 feet to the lake. Up the hill into the forest. Make a mad dash into the forest and outrun this beast. Dive into the lake and out swim this man eater. I had been on the swim team in highschool, so the choice was obvious. As I clamoured down to the lake, stripping the pack from my shoulders as I went, I was getting ready to dive and swim for my life. Looking back up the hill, the bear was still approaching. A slow walk with head down, surely getting ready to charge. One last glance up at the bear, which at this point had stopped at the exact spot where I left the trail. He hesitated and without even a look in my direction this bear turned and ran up the hill and into the bush at a pace that made me realize I was right not to try and out run this bear. I could hear branches breaking for some time as this bear was clearly making time and distance from me.

I told my friend and mentor, Sam, about this encounter. I told him of my lucky survival from this 600 lb bear. Typical of this wise and true outdoorsman, he said he would like to have seen a bear of such size. Apparently he had never seen or shot a black bear larger than about 150 lb.

To say I learned alot on that trip and since, would be an understatement.

I was 16 and hiking in Philmont with my scout troop. We rounded and bend and saw a brown bear (black bear that was brown) and her two cubs. They looked at us, and then the cubs ran toward us. Most of us almost had to change our pants after that. Then the mom called them, and they all scampered off into the trees.

Welp, this wasn't too long ago(2007), and I was in the Army still. We were doing land navigation through the horrible thick muskag around Fairbanks, Alaska. The kind where you can sometimes fall up to your ankle in water or your shoulders in water. Anyway, there were three of us in the group, I was supposed to be supervising the other two, one with the map the other with the compass.

Well, we were probably 3/4 of a mile and almost 30 minutes into this little training episode and we couldn't see too far ahead of us since the trees and plants were fairly thick. There hadn't been much talking in the past 5 minutes, so as we popped into a clearing soaked with water, we found ourselves only about 30 yards away from a cow moose and her calf. Both parties were surprised needless to say and we froze, she looked up.

Probably 10 seconds passed before she squared up on us, calf not too far behind her flank, lowered her head a little and charged. What followed was a scene out of an old black and white silent comedy with people running in every other direction, a moose and her kid chasing at least somebody. Lucky for us we split in 3 directions and were able to pull some turns through the brush that lost her. Of course, she came after me since all I did was turn and run in the opposite direction.

She probably only chased me 20 yards before I lost her, though I waited probably 5 minutes to move from the group of pine saplings I was in and call out for the others, who had apparently done the same not too far away. Call it dumb, but we went back into the clearing to see if the moose were still hanging around but they apparently had taken the opportunity to high tail it out of there.

PS- This was only the first time I got chased.

A year after my bride and I married we found ourselves in MD not too far from all my Scouting escapades nearly two decades prior. To my delight she was more than willing to help me start backpacking again. With a new Samoyed who turned out to be a natural backpacker we got out nearly every month for the next two years or so. But My Lady was always 'hincky' about bears. I don't know why. There were only blacks in the MD/VA/WV region we were active in and, in the 80s, their numbers were low. We never saw one...we never saw signs. But she was always concerned at best. Then we moved to Alaska.

We turned the trip to Alaska into a vacation. The plan was to drive the Alaskan highway alternating nights between camping and motels. We bought groceries for our first night out at a roadside campground in BC. There was lots of talk in the store about grizzly activity, particularly at the campsites. Her old hincky feeling popped right back to the surface. Still , we had a great dinner and hit the tent early. At dusk I heard lots or grunts and snorts. It wasn't from My Lady and it wasn't from the dog who now was sitting upright in the tent very still, very alert and with very big eyes. The noise continued. The dog remained frozen. My Lady said, "Is that a bear?" After all the years of false alarms in the East, I said, "That's a bear!" She didn't respond and that impressed me. "A brave little girl", I thought. The visitor eventually went away and we had a good sleep. I was impressed...after years of being hincky, My Lady handled things very well.

Years later I told this same story. My Lady said, "What? When? Where did we have a bear in camp?" She hadn't been brave at all. She was half asleep and doesn't remember anything about our first bear in camp.

But I think the dog remembered...

FB

We took our then-5-year-old daughter on her second backpacking trip, this time to the Mt Rogers national recreation area in Virginia. Those of you who hike out West are used to seeing semi-wild horses and cattle, but it's unusual in the East.

So anyway we're camping in our big 4-person Eureka dome tent -- all 13 pounds of it -- along the ridgeline of Pine Mountain, on the edge of a nice meadow off the trail. We wake up and it's pouring down rain. The we hear the bear -- sounds like a REALLY BIG bear -- snuffling around the outside of our tent, crunching away on, er, um, grass.

Okay, so bears don't eat grass. So I open the door of the tent to see the biggest cow I have ever seen staring back at me. She starts to push her way inside the tent, I guess to get out of the rain (that is now pouring into the tent through the open door.) I am pushing back as hard as I can. In the meadow there are a dozen more cows, all looking over at the great struggle to see who will win. I manage to push the cow's head aside and my lovely wife zips the door closed. Crisis averted. Cow goes back to eating grass in the rain.

That was also the trip where we learned to buy real rain gear, even for growing kids. But that's another story.

Talking of cows and rain...

Camping at a festival in Ireland, in a big field with many other tents, and as many cows. Non stop raining, several inches of water in the hollows parts of the meadow, and several inches of, hem, a mixture of cowpats and mud .

By luck and careful planning, our tent was on a small "bump".

Cows were roaming freely and curiously around, and every time one unzipped a tent, a warm, snotty and invasive muzzle faced you. Or the other extremity of the animal, for the very unfortunates...

We lucky humans had music and various drinks for comfort...

While on a military field exercise in Alaska, my brother was very irritated to be awakened by his snoring tent-mate. When he realized his tent mate wasn't snoring, he stuck his head out the tent to find they were surrounded by a herd of bison...

FB

While kicking back and enjoying a moonless night sky at Enchanted Rock S.P., we kept hearing very feint grunting noises, about 10 feet away. A flashlight revealed a gang of raccoons happily munching on a large feast of trailmix....especially the M&M's. They had somehow, very silently, chewed the bottom out of my buddy's food bag which was hanging from a tree branch. They dumped his supply on the ground like a pinata. These were very skilled 'stealth-coons'.

Okay...

When I was about 23 years old I sold most my belongings and bought a "Surfer Van" with a bed, sink, and icebox, and headed out from Los Angeles on a road trip planned to last as long as my money held out.

My first stop was Lake Tahoe. It was too crowded there so I decided to head to Yellowstone. I drove into the park at night and read the rules posted near the entrance, which said "Camping in designated areas only". I headed into the park and within a mile or two I found a dirt road that headed into the forest. I drove it for another mile or two and parked to camp for the night.

I woke up at the very break of dawn with an urgent need to relieve myself so I stepped outside the side door, took a few steps and started the process.

It was barely light out, and there was a thick fog hanging low in the forest and wafting though the trees and undergrowth. After about 10-20 seconds I heard a loud "Whoosh" and two big billows of steam blew by me, one on each side.

I was barely awake and completely confused as what could cause such a thing as I turned and watch the steam pass and move behind me. Then another "Whoosh" and more billows of steam. I quickly thought, "Maybe I'm near a small geyser".

All this time I'm still relieving myself. After a couple more whooshes I decide to try and see where they're originating from so I look for the source of the steam. That's when I realized I was peeing on the feet of the largest Bull Moose in the world.

It took less that a split second for my razor sharp mind to conclude that moose are a lot bigger than I'd imagined and this really big moose wasn't very happy about me peeing on him after he stomped his front hoof into the ground and, dragging it backwards, dug a deep trench with it, then shook his enormous rack back and forth, and loudly snorted in a most aggressive manner.

I admit right here and now that it never occurred to me to try and jump on this moose's back. Instead, I decided to step backwards and reenter the van and shut the door, all very quietly.

Of course, I now realize that this moose was stunned by my brazen, and never before seen by any moose anywhere, act of human stupidity, and this is why I can tell this story to this day.

Bill

Bill
"That's when I realized I was peeing on the feet of the largest Bull Moose in the world."
_________________________________________________________
Oh geez - I laughed so hard I cried. For ten minutes...


Um yeh Bill, that was kinda stupid...

However, on a more manu to manu level, it was perfect. This HUGE beast comes over to check out this strange new van in his yard when the inhabitant silently steps out and pees on his leg. Then steps back into the van and goes to sleep.

The moose must have been WAY intimidated. I sure no other human has ever just walked up him and peed on him before. I think you both scared him and AND marked his leg as yours!!!
Jim

Yeah, that's a great story. It would have been great the other way around, too.

The best I can do is that I mooned a deer once. I had picked out a nice log, dropped trou, and started answering nature's other call when I heard a noise behind me. I turned around to see a deer that had innocently walked into the scene, only to be immediately and thoroughly mooned.

Bill's the Man.

The first and only time I have seen a moose was when backpacking with my son (4 yr old then, same trip as my avatar). We camped next to a spring, and the bull moose wanted some water. He walked slowly, and came about 100 ft to our camp at one time. I tried taking pictures, but it was dusk and none of them came out. That was all that happened, but it was pretty cool to see the moose.

A housecat once followed a group of us on a short hike when I was a kid. It wasn't a challenging hike - 1,800' elevation gain, about 2/3 of it along a water pipeline laid on something like a trail. The cat started following us on its own at the bottom, and about halfway up we coaxed it along with food & water. At the top he tried to pounce on a grouse with a line of chicks in tow, but it forgot to keep its great big orange tail still during the windup and completely missed the pounce when the grouses (grice?) moved away.

The little guy got more and more reluctant to follow us on the way down. First it stopped moving for food & water, forcing us to carry it once in a while. Then it wouldn't let us even do that, and with an apparently content "meow" he stood his ground and watched us hike the last quarter mile out. I have no idea if he made it home. Maybe he *was* home.

My neatest animal encounter was with a bobcat. Not dangerous but certainly interesting to me. I was hiking here in MI and decided to stop for the night. I sat down against a tree to relax for a few minutes before setting up my tent and starting supper. About 50 ft away was a small rise and suddenly a bobcat came up over the rise and was as surprised to see me as I was to see him and came to a stop and just looked at me. We just stared at each other for about 5 minutes. Finally I figured that this standoff could go on for a long time so I said "Hi there" but he still just sat there. Finally after several more minutes he finally turned around and ran back the way he had come. It was neat because even though there are quite a few bobcats in MI they are very seldom seen.

My favorite is the waking up around 1 am by a rustling outside my tent in the Beartooths around 11000feet...bracing, bear spray in hand I opened the tarp tent and was confronted by the eyes of a mountain goat staring me in the face about 6 inches away....I said hello, it left...bad breath I guess....

luckily it was only that....

Another scoutmaster and I were taking a group of about 12 Scouts on a practice backpack hike (and, for those including me who have had the dubious pleasure of setting up camp in the backcountry only to have 12 Scouts pull in, we were camping in the public campground at the trailhead.)

We came to a trail intersection, so (for practice) sent a Scout down each path, with instructions to go a couple of hundred yards and look for blazes or other things (like whether the trail went up or down, or crossed a creek) that would help them orient themselves on the map.

Joey had hiked a fair amount, but had never been on a trail alone. He set off gamely down his assigned path, rounding a corner and vanishing from our sight (and us from his.) A couple of minutes went by, then Joey came flying back down the trail (as fast as a 12 year old Scout could wearing the monster packs kids packed in the 80's), yelling "BEAR!! BEAR!! There's a huge bear down that way!"

Back then, there were no bears within 150 miles of Ohio, and the other leader and I knew it. We started asking him what it looked like ("BIG!" was about as specific as it got.) Finally, one of us asked: "Did it look like it just robbed a bank?"

Joey looked funny at us for about 30 seconds, then the lightbulb came on. "Oh, okay, I guess it could have been a raccoon."

At the next hike, the Senior Patrol Leader formally presented him with a white Lone Ranger mask, which he had to wear for the first half mile or so. He might have even gotten the nickname "Ricky" for that one.

Not quite backpacking, but last weekend my husband and I went on a short bike-packing trip along the Mississippi River north of Alton, Illinois. We were keeping an eye out for birds and turtles in the river as we rode. At one point we saw a couple of lumps bobbing up and down, so we stopped and saw they were the heads of two deer that were swimming across the river. I would guess the Mississippi is at least a half-mile wide at that point. I've seen deer in all kinds of places, but that was a first for me.

A few years ago on the AT near the Smoky Mountain National Park we were just about to stop for the evening so we put our packs off and down and sat down to rest for a minute before pitching the tent and making dinner. We trek with our Rottweiler most of the time and we had him with us this time too. As we were sitting there every thing was really quite because we were being very very still and just resting for a minute. We heard something rustling in the bushes a short distance away from us and we got up to see what was going on in the bushes and thickets that we were hearing this rustling from. Soon we found out what was making the rustling noise. It was two (2) Mountain lions, bobcats or some sort of cat wrestling with each other. They finally made enough noise to get the attention of our Rottweiler and he also got up to see what was going on. When the to cats saw J.D. (the Rottweiler's name), they stopped wrestling and started paying a lot of attention to the dog. Finally he walked over to see the cats a little closer I guess and he really got their attention then. They both stood straight up, stared at the dog for a couple of minutes and as soon as the dog started moving toward them they turned and hi-tailed it out of there. That's the last we ever saw of them, how ever it was the closest that we had ever been to a wild cat like that that wasn't in a zoo or something. They weren't more that 30 feet away from us before they realized that we were there...sabre11004...

P.S. The Rott that we have weighs in at around 200 lbs. and wear a 34" collar...That's probably why he got those two cats attention. He was bigger than they were...

Several years ago my wife and I ran across a very friendly elk cow. This cow had visited us at night while we were sleeping and then followed us quite a ways the next day. The reason this story is worthy of this thread has to do with what we learned later that day. This elk was "chewing her cud" but it wasn't cud that she was chewing - it was athletic socks. She would spit one up until it was hanging by its toe and then slurp it back down and chew it. She did this repeatedly. I thought she shouldn't be doing this so when I had an opportunity I startled her into dropping the sock which I then discarded. She then immediately spit another one up and began chewing on that one.

I have heard that animals like the salt on our clothes and maybe this is proof of this?

OK, first of all, hats off to the guy who 'unleashed' on that moose's hooves! I think i might have just passed out once I realized what I was doing!

So My worst/weirdest animal story was a few years ago:

My girlfriend was heading up into Maine for a few days of R+R, and I saw an opportunity to FINALLY get to the top of a certain mountain that had been eluding me for a few years. It was all very last minute and (as usual) I was going to go it solo. I had some good maps, a basic plan, and my usual assortment of gear, but in truth I was just sort of 'forcing it'...I felt I NEEDED to get out and was going to do anything I could to take this weekend trek.

After driving up there (6 hours) I wanted to get straight out onto the trail, so I had my GF drop me off immediately, this was about an hour after sunset, and I planned put put a few miles behind me that night, and then find a quick camp spot.

Turns out (and I knew this but didn't think it would be a problem) it's that magical time of the year when the Moose are running around half-crazed with horniness, and as I'm making my way down the logging road that led to the trail, I startled three females and two BIG bulls...after the second bull I said to myself, 'ok, it's only a matter of time till one of these guys takes a run at me, so maybe it's better that I just camp now.' Now the woods in Maine can be very dense and difficult to move through, especially at night, but I was able to find a convenient track into the trees, and finding nothing better, set my hammock across the relative clear area defined by this small trail.

Those of you who live in moose country may be aware of the fact that in dense woods, the widest animal trails are probably made by moose traveling their favorite paths to food or water sources. This did not figure in my mid at the time, so I had my dinner and turned in for a good night's rest.

Several hours later, I am awakened by what felt like someone pushing on or nudging the outside of my hammock, and I opened my eyes to total darkness, waiting for them to adjust....when they did, I realized that I was looking straight into the snout of a bull moose, who was apparently very curious about this new feature on his favorite trail. He had his head and rack under my rainfly, and was peering through the bug netting trying to figure out what I was. This put his face about 6 inches from mine.

Being unprepared for this kind of familiarity with a moose who I had not yet been introduced to, my mouth (all on it's own) released a noise that until then I was sure only young girls could make.

This noise did not sit well with my new friend, who suddenly realized that I was a human (albeit a very high-pitched one!) and decided to extricate himself from my company. This brought his antlers into contact with the tie-out lines for my rainfly, which he did not like, so he took a sort of side-step forward to avoid said lines.

Unfortunately, this action brought him into contact with my other, more important tie-out line: the one that was holding me to the tree on my foot-end. This made him even less happy that he was before, so he pulled his head back sharply and took another side-step at the same moment. Just for a second, my tie out line was caught in his antler as he did this. Now those ropes are strong, but I am here to tell you that a confused, horny moose is stronger.

My hammock lines didn't even have a chance, and I took a brief and painful trip around the moose, stopping against something very hard, balled into one end of my hammock like a bar of soap in the end of a sock.

The moose seemed even less amused by all of this than I was, and he quickly ran off, leaving me to untangle myself and my hammock.

I actually got it tied back up for the rest of the night, but I honestly didn't sleep any more...

Since then I am always careful to search the ground very thoroughly for prints before I set up, just to be sure I'm not in a 'high-traffic' zone....

I was fourteen and went on a trip with a neighbor to Western PA. One night we were out spotting deer. His dad and a friend were driving and four of us were in the camper bed in the back of the truck. They decided to go to the local dump to see if we could spot some black bears. Well after arriving and seeing quite a few bears dining on some delectable trash, we saw a huge black bear coming our way down the road. As we peered throught the open tailgate we watched as the hulk of the approaching beast got larger and larger. We started getting very squemish and very bothered that we had no where to go and no protection. The guys in the cab had no idea what was taking place. They had the light and where doing there own thing. Finally the bemoth reached the bed and gave a playful bark as it was a huge Great-Dane that just wanted some petting. As we let out a collective sigh, we happily obliged this big beast and thanked our lucky stars.

A few years after we were married, my wife (a city girl) and I took a trip to Glacier Natl Pk, and hiked up to one of the glaciers. Hiking back down we encountered a group of big horn sheep. My wife was terrified of the big animals, and crawled up to sit on top of a boulder, while I circled around to take pictures of the sheep. One of the sheep had an itchy back, walked over to the boulder and started rubbing his side against the boulder - except it wasn't the boulder, it was my wife's leg!

Several years later, now in Oregon, we were hiking and decided to take a break to "recycle" our morning tea. I stepped over to the end of a downed log, and let fly; my crotch was just above the top of the log. Instantly, a weasel popped up at the other end of the log, and came racing down its length, obviously intent on my whizzer! Just as I was about to jump away from him, he stopped, looked up and saw the rest of me, and darted off the log in panic.

I started to call my wife, when I heard some sudden thrashing from her direction - turns out she had her own wildlife encounter! She had just found the perfect spot, dropped her pants and started to squat, when the 'ground' she was squatting over turned into a deer who jumped up and ran off, offended at being selected as a urinal!

Then there was the mating bobcats.....