Joined
·
1,020 Posts
I thought it would be cool to hear about some close encounters you've had with other critters while out goatpacking.
I've had many but one of my favorites involved a black bear. I had hiked several miles into a roadless area on an old grown over trail and stopped by a small spring to take a break and eat my lunch. There were massive old growth cedar trees in there with hardly any ground cover underneath making it look like a manicured park. While I lounged against one of the trees watching the water and eating my lunch, the goats wandered off behind me looking for some lunch of their own. All at once it occurred to me that I wasn't hearing any munching going on and leaned around the tree to my left looking for them. They were all standing still as statues and staring off to my right. So I leaned around the right side of the tree and there stood a 200lb black bear on the old trail only 10 yards away. It was also standing completely still watching the goats. He was so focused on them that he didn't see me move so I sat there for a few seconds watching. I remember thinking "hey this is cool, wonder what he'll do? Chase them or just wander off". Then I realized "hey dummy, they have all your gear on and if they get chased off you'll be searching through the brush for the rest of the day looking for gear and goats". So I stood up, which drew the bears attention to me. His eyes went wide open and he hauled out of there 90mph. That scared the goats and they came running toward me at the same speed. I ducked back behind the tree just as they came skidding to a stop all around me. After a few minutes they were back to munching like nothing had ever happened. What started as an ordinary hike turned into a great memory I'll cherish forever.
I've had many but one of my favorites involved a black bear. I had hiked several miles into a roadless area on an old grown over trail and stopped by a small spring to take a break and eat my lunch. There were massive old growth cedar trees in there with hardly any ground cover underneath making it look like a manicured park. While I lounged against one of the trees watching the water and eating my lunch, the goats wandered off behind me looking for some lunch of their own. All at once it occurred to me that I wasn't hearing any munching going on and leaned around the tree to my left looking for them. They were all standing still as statues and staring off to my right. So I leaned around the right side of the tree and there stood a 200lb black bear on the old trail only 10 yards away. It was also standing completely still watching the goats. He was so focused on them that he didn't see me move so I sat there for a few seconds watching. I remember thinking "hey this is cool, wonder what he'll do? Chase them or just wander off". Then I realized "hey dummy, they have all your gear on and if they get chased off you'll be searching through the brush for the rest of the day looking for gear and goats". So I stood up, which drew the bears attention to me. His eyes went wide open and he hauled out of there 90mph. That scared the goats and they came running toward me at the same speed. I ducked back behind the tree just as they came skidding to a stop all around me. After a few minutes they were back to munching like nothing had ever happened. What started as an ordinary hike turned into a great memory I'll cherish forever.