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Creature you'd most like to avoid on a trail

Creature you'd most like to avoid on a trail

  • Bear

    Votes: 50 44.2%
  • Moose

    Votes: 37 32.7%
  • Mountain Lion (Cougar), Bobcat

    Votes: 66 58.4%
  • Rattle Snake

    Votes: 31 27.4%
  • Farm Animal

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Skunk

    Votes: 19 16.8%
  • Wolf

    Votes: 11 9.7%
  • Coyote

    Votes: 9 8.0%
  • Bugs (mosquitos, ticks, and other tiny nuisance)

    Votes: 20 17.7%
  • Other

    Votes: 15 13.3%

  • Total voters
    113

Jerez

Skiing the powder
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SkiTalk Supporter
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Nov 25, 2015
Posts
2,993
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New Mexico
Our neighborhood visitor. He/she is totally unimpressed by us humans. No amount of yelling gets any response.
20190911_191242.jpg
 

TexasStout

Epic Pass + Loveland 4-pack for 2021-2022
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Joined
Nov 24, 2015
Posts
698
Location
Texas and Colorado
I have encountered a bear in camp and a moose on a trail but I get the most nervous when running by the neighbors house where 2 pit bull/bulldog like creatures bear their teeth and challenge the invisible fence. There is no hint of making friends in their growl tone. Next door is a german shepard that per its owner, even with teeth showing and growling like a bear - "just wants to play." He is not fenced and my everyday suggestion is "Why don't YOU play with him then". I'm running and am not in the mood for his type of play. On one occasion, another neighbor came to my rescue with a baseball bat. In that case the german shepard decided not to play.
I think I would carry pepper spray when i jogged, if i were you.
 

SSSdave

life is short precious ...don't waste it
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Joined
Sep 12, 2017
Posts
2,516
Location
Silicon Valley
On backpacking web boards, comments would be different as most of we hiking and backpacking enthusiasts more often encounter at least some of these creatures. Mountain lions scare me the most though over several decades in the Sierra Nevada, I've had just one close encounter so did not select that in the pole as is too rare. A decade plus ago, another view camera person and I were day hiking up McGee Creek. I saw something like a cat maybe 100 feet ahead slip down into the small creek ravine that was dense with cottonwood trees. We walked up to that point to take a look and when we moved to look down in the ravine, 2 lions were behind a sagebrush bush maybe 10 feet from us. The 2 startled lions instantly sprang down into the cottonwood jungle with enormous bounds. Made the news in Bishop.

If I hiked in grizzly country would have chosen bear. I've encountered many black bears and some can indeed be very scary at night especially in remote locations where they rarely come across humans thus behave more naturally. A bear huffing and snorting about at night can sound as close to that of an ideal "monster" as any kids imagination might conjure up. A big young male black bear can be a far different beast than the scaredy bears one finds around mountain towns or popular backcountry trails and destinations. To them you are just an odd hairless, soft skinned monkey with tiny teeth and no claws.

The sound of a rattlesnake rattling will make me jump away like a jack-in-the-box on steroids, however in the Sierra Nevada they tend to be below usual 6k snow lines at lower elevations summer hikers don't frequent. In the spring I hike such lower elevations and don't let an occasional snake bother me. My wearing heavy duty hiking boots and usual Levi 505 jeans will prevent a snake's bite from reaching flesh.

What I did check was bugs. I do a lot of hiking fully clothed head to toe versus the standard cotton t-shirt and shorts hiker uniform and use 100% DEET when necessary. Mosquitoes, black flies, ticks are a serious outdoor enemy. Big black wood ants crawling on me is trivial. What I hate touching me are spiders and will go berserk if I walk into one of those garden spider webs across a trail haha.
 
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Sibhusky

Whitefish, MT
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Joined
Oct 26, 2016
Posts
4,804
Location
Whitefish, MT
And we've got a two-fer down in SW Montana: https://flatheadbeacon.com/2019/09/17/3-hunters-injured-2-montana-grizzly-attacks/

"Three hunters were injured in two separate grizzly bear attacks in the same area of southwestern Montana less than 12 hours apart, wildlife officials said.

Investigators were trying Tuesday to determine if the same bear was involved in the surprise encounters in the Gravelly Mountains, an area frequented by grizzlies about 70 miles (113 kilometers) southwest of Bozeman, said Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesman Morgan Jacobsen."

=====
I also came across this account of a guy trying to use his spray, bobbled the safetry removal, then trying to use his gun. Good thing he had a buddy. https://www.abcfoxmontana.com/all_a...cle_362391ee-d358-11e9-923f-4b169849142c.html
Same attack, but a ton of irritating ads on the page, you might want to skip this one. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...ntana-tom-sommer-gravelly-range-a7932291.html
 
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Sibhusky

Whitefish, MT
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Joined
Oct 26, 2016
Posts
4,804
Location
Whitefish, MT

Wasatchman

over the hill
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Joined
Nov 9, 2017
Posts
2,324
Location
Wasatch and NZ
Holy shit! @djetok How many shots did that take?

How did you hunt those. Pig dogs, observation from up on a hill, roaming around in a Jeep?
 
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VickieH

Contrarian
Skier
Joined
Nov 13, 2015
Posts
1,928
Location
Denver area
Sounds as if Gravelly Mountain has a seriously agitated bear. But it's hard to imagine a single bear going on such a rampage.
 

djetok

Low Lander
Skier
Joined
Oct 1, 2017
Posts
526
Location
Edmond, OK
Holy shit! @djetok How many shots did that take?

How did you hunt those. Pig dogs, observation from up on a hill, roaming around in a Jeep?
They are all over the deer feeders on a hunting lease that is about 2000 acres . Yes we post up on a hill. We use nightscopes and tax stamped supressors. How many shots? A lot , there were 5 clear hits. We have side by sides, to move around and haul out the meat. The meat is then donated, so nothing goes to waste. Feral hogs are such a evasive species down here. You don't have to look far to find them.
You would not believe the amount of them at the feeders. We all stay in a group, you don't want to be by yourself with these monsters running around. The vast majority of them are about 100-250 lbs. They multiply so quick, there is basically no regulation on how many or when you can take them.
 
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Wasatchman

over the hill
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Joined
Nov 9, 2017
Posts
2,324
Location
Wasatch and NZ
They are all over the deer feeders on a hunting lease that is about 2000 acres . Yes we post up on a hill. We use nightscopes and tax stamped supressors. How many shots? A lot , there were 5 clear hits. We have side by sides, to move around and haul out the meat. The meat is then donated, so nothing goes to waste. Feral hogs are such a evasive species down here. You don't have to look far to find them.
You would not believe the amount of them at the feeders. We all stay in a group, you don't want to be by yourself with these monsters running around. The vast majority of them are about 100-250 lbs. They multiply so quick, there is basically no regulation on how many or when you can take them.
Nice work. In New Zealand we have a problem with them so unfortunately I know all too well the devastation they can cause and how fast they breed. Captain Cook brought them from Europe on ships figuring it would be a good idea to bring over as a food source so we have a problem with feral pigs. They call them Captain Cookers and they are more pure of a breed than what they now have over from England at this point since they were so isolated here.

No natural predators here and as you say they multiply quickly. Pig dogs are used on our property to hunt them and encourage them to go elsewhere. It's a regular battle though. We don't have those monsters but as you know even 100-200 lbs is a handful. I'm too scared to do it, but plenty of hunters will go after them in tight vegetation.

I won't eat the meat. Pigs will eat literally anything including dead possums, rats, etc. So the thought of eating the meat makes my stomach curdle though plenty people here enjoy the taste.
 
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djetok

Low Lander
Skier
Joined
Oct 1, 2017
Posts
526
Location
Edmond, OK
Nice work. In New Zealand we have a problem with them so unfortunately I know all too well the devastation they can cause and how fast they breed. Captain Cook brought them from Europe on ships figuring it would be a good idea to bring over as a food source so we have a problem with feral pigs. They call them Captain Cookers and they are more pure of a breed than what they now have over from England at this point since they were so isolated here.

No natural predators here and as you say they multiply quickly. Pig dogs are used on our property to hunt them and encourage them to go elsewhere. It's a regular battle though. We don't have those monsters but as you know even 100-200 lbs is a handful. I'm too scared to do it, but plenty of hunters will go after them in tight vegetation.

I won't eat the meat. Pigs will eat literally anything including dead possums, rats, etc. So the thought of eating the meat makes my stomach curdle though plenty people here enjoy the taste.
IMG_0614.png
 

James

Out There
Instructor
Joined
Dec 2, 2015
Posts
24,449
Y'all know about the goats on some of the Galapagos Islands? They were brought by whalers, pirates, and fishermen. One of the Islands has a several mile wide ancient lava flow area that separates it. The goats for a long time wouldn't cross it. Then they figured it out. Spread everywhere. Started destroying the turtle habitat and eating everything.
It's been a long process of goat reduction. Project Isabela. We're talking like 250,000 goats over a few Islands. Feral pigs and donkeys were removed or killed too.
 

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