Okay, I'm bit. This post got the best of me because there is nothing I love more than to be the first truck up the mountain just prior to sun up and reading these posts has my blood up. You?ve got my memory banks running so I'll give this a go, for what it's worth.
For an old boy living in Utah jumping a wolverine out on the tundra north of Great Slave Lake, NWT was a real heart stopper for me.
Spooking a whitetail doe, running with a bunch of muley does clear down in Annabella, Utah was another stunner I wasn?t expecting. (Sorry boys, it was 8 or 10 years ago so I can't show her to you but there were four of us that saw the old white tail a waving.) She was right next to the bridge that crosses the river next to the DWR property less than a mile north from Annabella.
Watching a huge black wasp drag a tarantula up the back of my sleeping buddy in an ground blind, archery hunting elk in New Mexico was pretty dang-gone cool too. At least I thought so, Kimball didn't see the humor in it a?tall.
Crawling into a lek of sage grouse doing their thing out on Parker Mountain is a thrill, I do it every spring, at least once. I can usually get it done and still get back to church on time.
The following weren't unusual animals but more common animals I've encountered doing what they do. The unusual part was that I got to see them.
Nearly 20 years back while slipping up a rocky trail on the Long Ridges above Glenwood a red tail come down and snatched a cotton tail off the trail right out in from of me. Even after all these years I can still see that rabbit a kicking an squirming and that old hawk trying to stay air born with lunch.
While dropping a fly above a beaver dam on Seven Mile Creek a beaver floated to the surface not two inches from the end of my boot. Naturally, I instinctively bent over to lift it out of the water by the tail. Big, big mistake, enough said. I've always said, I'm not the sharpest knife in the kitchen.
Watching a golden eagle make numerous attempts at driving a yearling buck over a cliff out on White Pine west of Aurora was something I heard others say they'd seen but I never expected it to play out for me.
I came around a turn in the road on Mormon Peak west of Koosharem Reservoir one evening and nearly got run over by a spotted fawn, right on its tail was a bobcat and bringing the rear was a big old coyote. They were all in a terrible hurry. The sage brush was too tall or I'd be able to tell you how that one culminated.
One of the funniest moments I've encountered was hunting spike elk on Boobe Hole Mountain back when we had a few older bucks around. I never could creep though the quakes without busting branches, kicking rocks and just generally scaring the hail out of any thing with in 400 yards, and that's up wind. I mean I just can't be quiet, do you know what I mean? Anyway, I get this familiar pressure and decided it would probably be in my best interest to stop for a few minutes and let the otherwise peaceful forest relax after hearing the crashing and banging I'd been making as I worked my way down the ridge. I stop and take care of the water pressure problem I was having and just stood there enjoying the tranquility and majesty of the mountain. After about ten minutes I decided I'd see if I could get on down the ridge without sounding like a Boeing 747. I took one step and not fifteen feet in front me a big muley buck breaks cover and I mean he was gather?en them up and a putt?en down. You know, those thirty feet lunges those big boys do when they get their adrenalin up. We?re in an aspen grove with five inch quakes growing about 10 feet apart. After about three big bounds this old boy (I would guess he was somewhere between 24 and 28 inches wide.) decides he better have a look back to see what I'm doing. As he turns his head to look over his shoulder at me (remember, he's got her up to speed now) his right antler hooks a quaky. Well????.right quick, he's facing the other direction with all four feet above his head. Of course, I'm feeling water pressure again cause he scared the lights out of me when he busted cover but I felt much better when the old rascal comes to a sudden and irreverent stop. I mean it was Mock 4 and then nothing???.just, stop! So much for tranquility and majesty. Between him trying to get on his way again and my trying to gather my composure, well needless to say???not elk that day. I've often wondered how he got away without breaking his neck. The last I saw of him, he was staggering and stumbling his way down the mountain, busting branches and snapping twigs. I felt a lot better knowing I wasn?t the only clatter as- on the mountain.
One more and I better hang it up for today. Besides my writing is getting a little pasty, even for me.
My sons and I are driving a section of highway between Sage and Kemmer, Wyoming in late November. We like to take that drive Thanksgiving morning when everyone else is watching football games on the tube and our sweethearts are frying brown sugared sweet potatoes for the big feast later in the day. A few bucks rut along the highway there and it's a quick and easy way to burn a few hours before over-indulging. On this trip, it's just starting to flurry a little snow and the deer aren't feeling romantic. Dad (that's me) is getting bored and whining about, ?no deer? again. Somewhere along the north side of the road there's a short section of gray dirt cliffs that face the highway. There are a half dozen little ridges that come out, away from the main cliff face. The best way I can describe these ridges is to say they are like the little ridges that run out of the cliff faces at Bryce Canyon, the ones like little towers and knobs on the top. They are kind of like a small pinnacles rising 3 or 4 feet above the narrow ridge leading out to them. But for the ridge coming out they would be 30 feet off the ground. The only way out to the top of that little pinnacle is down the narrow ridge and then, nothing but air for 340 degrees.
Anyway, here we come down the highway and one of the boys catches a flash on the top of the cliff, through the falling snow. I lock up the truck when he asks me to pull over, RIGHT NOW! Coming across the top of the cliff are three bobcats in full tilt. Right on their hinnies, coming from three different directions, are five (if I recall correctly) coyotes. Before we can blink twice those bobcats each take a different ridge and park their butts on top of the pinnacle. The top of the pinnacles look to be about 2 feet square, not much bigger than the cat. No sooner than those cats get spun around, facing the ridge, the dogs hit the cliff and start out on the ridge toward the cats. All of a sudden all the dogs come to a screeching halt. The cats just set down, facing the coyotes. We watch for a few minutes and marvel at the wonder of the moment. Those cats knew exactly what they were doing. My guess is they'd been there and done that. Those dogs had played this game before as well. They would not go out to the end of that ridge nor get any closer than 4 or 5 feet from the cats. Only one coyote at a time could get out to the end of the ridge and it was 30 feet down in every direct accept for the little top where the cat was setting. The cats knew the dogs wouldn't come out and the dogs knew the cats wouldn't move. This all took place in about 30 seconds. Soon enough the coyotes noticed us. (Maybe they heard the clatters as the boys were thumping around trying to find a rifle.) At any rate, after about 60 seconds the coyotes pulled back and high tailed it over the cliff. We watched the bobcats for a few minutes, they were perfectly content to set and watch us as long as we stayed. They knew no was going to mess with them on that perch.
Somewhere in my pile of video I think I still have the last half of that moment in time recorded. Poor quality, as I recall.
Be that has it may, I would wet my britches, no doubt, if I could see a jaguar in the wild. I've seen a ton of North American wildlife but a jaguar, man! I can't image anything what would top that.
You know that grasshopper was pretty dang cool too. Thanks a bunch for sharing that boss.
Reading his thread has been a hoot. Looking forward to hearing from some others.
DC