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#78437 - 08/20/07 08:58 PM Seeing something else.
kevonionia Offline
member

Registered: 04/17/06
Posts: 1322
Loc: Dallas, TX
Wanted to share a few pix of a recent obsession of mine while hiking. And as a disclaimer, I want to attest to the fact I’ve not been sampling wild mushrooms picked off-trail.

As a preface, I remember growing up in Texas and in the summer seeing all kinds of animal shapes in the clouds overhead (as did many other kids.) I even naively thought about taking photos and publishing a book about them. Never did.

This new, but related obsession started a few years ago. I usually make these sightings near the end of a long day of hiking, when I start to see shapes in the plants and trees on the forest trails. And with a digital camera, I’ve found I’ve now got enough gigabytes to waste a few frames to record some of them.

This first one was spotted back in ’04 when we did the Berg Lake hike up at Mt. Robson (north of Banff). We’d taken some novices backpacking and were on a long 12-mile hike from the lake back to the car when I spotted what looked like a bear made of moss and a rock. Gary, the one with the bear spray, agreed to pose next to the "creature" (and actually said he took a lichen to it):



In ’06, I found this weathered-wood lizard transformed from an old snag on the Wonderland Trail around Rainier:



And we just got back from the Little Beaver/Big Beaver loop at North Cascades NP where I spotted two more of these fantasy mammals. The first is not a silverback, but a greenback gorilla sprawled over a rock near the end of Day 1:



The second, from Day 2, is something of a hybrid: a unicorn crossed with a Clydesdale with a front hoof up like a Lipizzaner stallion. Someone else might see something else (like a dog -- a horned rottweiler trying to "shake hands"):



Anyone else have this weird obsession? Is it attributable to the endorphins produced from a long day of backpacking? Should I seek help? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />
_________________________
- kevon

(avatar: raptor, Lake Dillon)


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#78438 - 08/21/07 11:56 AM Re: Seeing something else. [Re: kevonionia]
midnightsun03 Offline
member

Registered: 08/06/03
Posts: 2936
Loc: Alaska
On your last photo I'm seeing a puffin.

These are really awsome... keep it up! No therapy needed... unless you're looking for a "prescription" to keep on hiking...

MNS
_________________________
YMMV. Viewer discretion is advised.

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#78439 - 08/22/07 06:38 AM Re: Seeing something else. [Re: midnightsun03]
Ender Offline
member

Registered: 01/17/02
Posts: 779
Loc: ME
I don't see the first one at all, the second I do sorta see the lizard, the third looks like a giant cat draped over the rock to me, and the fourth really looks like a dog.

These are fun! Keep it up <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

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#78440 - 08/22/07 03:59 PM Re: Seeing something else. [Re: kevonionia]
dkramalc Offline
member

Registered: 09/19/03
Posts: 1070
Loc: California
I've had a similar experience..but slightly different. I was dayhiking by myself at Pt. Reyes one foggy day and thought I saw a guy up ahead with both arms raised in the air. Odd, I thought. I got a little closer and thought "no, you ninny, it's a dead tree with a couple of branches sticking up". Wrong again - it was a big old tule elk with a huge rack of antlers, the frontrunner in a group of about 20 who slowly passed by me in the mist. It was a truly ethereal experience.
_________________________
dk

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#78441 - 05/09/08 11:05 AM Re: Seeing something else. [Re: Ender]
kevonionia Offline
member

Registered: 04/17/06
Posts: 1322
Loc: Dallas, TX
Saw a few things on the trail that were something else on a trip hiking in Northern California last week (5/08):

A dancing court jester taken on the Woodward Trail in Point Reyes NS:



An angry, bloody alien near the Point Reyes lighthouse:



Rabbit, from behind, Vista Trail, Sugarloaf Ridge SP, Sonoma, CA:

_________________________
- kevon

(avatar: raptor, Lake Dillon)


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#78442 - 05/09/08 11:21 AM Re: Seeing something else. [Re: kevonionia]
Wolfeye Offline
member

Registered: 01/11/07
Posts: 413
Loc: Seattle, WA
This picture is of a mountain range near Metlakatla, AK. The picture's a little small, but can you guess which president it is?

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#78443 - 05/09/08 11:30 AM Re: Seeing something else. [Re: Wolfeye]
kevonionia Offline
member

Registered: 04/17/06
Posts: 1322
Loc: Dallas, TX
I'd say George Washington. I didn't know he smoked. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
_________________________
- kevon

(avatar: raptor, Lake Dillon)


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#78444 - 05/09/08 11:45 AM Re: Seeing something else. [Re: kevonionia]
totempole99 Offline
member

Registered: 09/12/04
Posts: 127
Loc: Memphis, TN
The second picture - An abominable snowman

The third picture- A howling wolf

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#78445 - 05/09/08 11:49 AM Re: Seeing something else. [Re: totempole99]
kevonionia Offline
member

Registered: 04/17/06
Posts: 1322
Loc: Dallas, TX
Okay, but a bloody abomiable snowman. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />
_________________________
- kevon

(avatar: raptor, Lake Dillon)


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#78446 - 05/10/08 04:25 AM Re: Seeing something else. [Re: kevonionia]
urbansix Offline
member

Registered: 09/27/06
Posts: 52
Loc: Atlanta, GA
We used to play a game like this when I was a kid hiking in Switzerland. There, you are not so much in true wilderness, rather more like countryside - farms and villages. We would spot "creatures" in the formations of trees in the fields or across the valley. I remember one of the best ones was a giant lizard with his tail nestled up against a church.

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#78447 - 05/10/08 11:49 AM Re: Seeing something else. [Re: urbansix]
chaz Offline
member

Registered: 10/22/07
Posts: 1149
Loc: Tennessee
The minds eye. Trippy

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#78448 - 05/10/08 01:53 PM Re: Seeing something else. [Re: kevonionia]
hackleback Offline
newbie

Registered: 04/10/08
Posts: 3
Loc: MO
"An angry, bloody alien near the Point Reyes lighthouse: "

If you can't see this one, I would wonder if you have been hitting the mushrooms.

Take some kids hiking and point out stuff like this- most will think that it is way-cool.

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#78449 - 05/11/08 02:29 AM Re: Seeing something else. [Re: kevonionia]
lv2fsh Offline
member

Registered: 04/27/08
Posts: 111
Loc: socal


The bug


The family

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#78450 - 05/11/08 02:39 PM Re: Seeing something else. [Re: lv2fsh]
chaz Offline
member

Registered: 10/22/07
Posts: 1149
Loc: Tennessee
To me the bug looks like a bull dog with its toung sticking out.
_________________________
Enjoy your next trip...

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#78451 - 05/12/08 08:50 AM Re: Seeing something else. [Re: Wolfeye]
patterns Offline
newbie

Registered: 05/07/08
Posts: 2
clinton... you can tell in the picture he didn't inhale <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

toooo easy

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#78452 - 05/28/08 06:02 PM Re: Seeing something else. [Re: kevonionia]
hootyhoo Offline
member

Registered: 12/14/06
Posts: 686
Loc: Cyberspace
I saw this one --
It had one indention that made an eye and of course the mouth was there, but previous traveler made the other eye and the brows. It got a chuckle out of me.



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#78453 - 06/22/08 09:08 AM Re: Seeing something else. [Re: kevonionia]
12Step Offline
member

Registered: 03/04/08
Posts: 89
Loc: Southwest Ohio



I have no idea what this animal would be, but it still looks wild.



Tom
_________________________
"Let's not miss the beauty of the forest by the ugliness of some of its trees." Bill W.

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#78454 - 06/23/08 12:46 PM Re: Seeing something else. [Re: 12Step]
rootball Offline
member

Registered: 06/16/08
Posts: 112
12step - it looks like the thing from Alien.

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#78455 - 06/24/08 07:20 PM Re: Seeing something else. [Re: 12Step]
Tango61 Offline
member

Registered: 12/27/05
Posts: 931
Loc: East Texas Piney Woods

It looks like one of the creatures from the movie "Hades"boy.

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#78456 - 06/25/08 04:06 AM Re: Seeing something else. [Re: rootball]
12Step Offline
member

Registered: 03/04/08
Posts: 89
Loc: Southwest Ohio
For a couple years I was curious to what was on this palm tree and I finally given the answer. The growth on that tree is called a Strangling Fig.


http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ploct99.htm


That "creature" on that palm tree will more than likely kill that tree.


Tom
_________________________
"Let's not miss the beauty of the forest by the ugliness of some of its trees." Bill W.

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#78457 - 07/28/08 06:46 PM Re: Seeing something else. [Re: kevonionia]
kevonionia Offline
member

Registered: 04/17/06
Posts: 1322
Loc: Dallas, TX
A few pix of creatures from the Colorado River Trail up to Little Yellowstone Canyon in RMNP last month.


Horned snake.


Sad turtle(head).


Scotty dog goblin in sheet. (okay, that's stretchin' it.)


Natural "wood" wheelbarrow. (I thought it was a wheelbarrow off the trail, but it was just three strategically placed snag limbs holding in a load of avalanche debris.)
_________________________
- kevon

(avatar: raptor, Lake Dillon)


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#78458 - 07/29/08 12:50 PM Re: Seeing something else. [Re: kevonionia]
midnightsun03 Offline
member

Registered: 08/06/03
Posts: 2936
Loc: Alaska
LOL... I totally see the Scotty Dog goblin! Didn't see the snake, the others are pretty cool (I like the "wheelbarrow").

MNS
_________________________
YMMV. Viewer discretion is advised.

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#78459 - 08/16/08 05:51 PM Re: Seeing something else. [Re: kevonionia]
MountainMinstrel Offline
member

Registered: 12/27/06
Posts: 107
Ok, I guess this thread was on my mind on my Yosemite trip from White Wolf to Pate Valley, Glen Aulin, Ten Lakes Basin, and back to White Wolf.

First was the bulldog

Then a whale.


Next a footprint in rocks. I moved the little toe about an inch, but otherwise this is not set up.


And a Lobster


ken
_________________________
Just an old newbe

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#78460 - 08/17/08 07:07 AM Re: Seeing something else. [Re: MountainMinstrel]
kevonionia Offline
member

Registered: 04/17/06
Posts: 1322
Loc: Dallas, TX
ken:

Great pix. There's got to be a Sasquatch connection with that footprint, though. Looks like there's a bunch of us that are having Sasquatch visiting our campsite with what Jimshaw calls "Bigfoot's Best," <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> or its the endorphines.<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
_________________________
- kevon

(avatar: raptor, Lake Dillon)


Top
#78461 - 08/18/08 03:55 PM Re: Seeing something else. [Re: kevonionia]
MountainMinstrel Offline
member

Registered: 12/27/06
Posts: 107
It could just be the "medicine" <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
_________________________
Just an old newbe

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