Wildlife adventures while camping

[fin]

Not even out doors, but still a wild life 'adventure' as far as I'm concerned:

Years ago, my new bride & I visited my friends A-Frame cabin in Tioga County, PA. He had a queen sized bed in the loft. Hardly what I would call roughing it, although there was no running water or electricity. The nature of the A-Frame was that on either side of the bed, there wasn't much room. We stowed our gear, had a nice campfire and spent quality time as only newly weds can.

We climbed the ladder to the loft, and were getting ready to turn in for the night. Right before I was about to get in bed, my new wife let out a blood curdling scream while pointing at the bed! I jumped back from the bed, in fear of whatever horrible creature she had spotted.

Gruesome spider? Rat? Rattle snake? Whatever it was, I had blood dripping in my eyes. Not due to the vicious attack of my wife's nemesis, but because I had smacked my head on a roof beam after hearing her horrible scream.

The price was well worth it: who knows what unthinkable fate I would have been subject to if she hadn't warned me, and I had actually jumped into bed with the...cricket.

LOL - they payoff was worth it - way to tell a story. OOOHHH, SCARY CRICKET!!!

[riverkeeper]

First night in a hammock ... Approx Feb 04 in the Olympic Mtns 17 miles from the trailhead. Woke up in the pre-dawn haze with hard frost and 11 elk munching veg as close as 10 ft blowing frosty breath.

Other times blacktail deer with fawns approached to a few feet ... no close ups with bears while in a hammock.

Rangered in National Park backcountry for 3 yrs with a hammock. Some of the cabins host nightly and popular meetings of the Mousquateer Club .... not quite like scenes from 'Never Cry Wolf' but felt like it. Two nights in a row a Deermouse crawled down the cord to join me for the night. While Deermice are cute they are also a primary carrier for the deadly hantavirus. Slipped a CD on to each support line so it rested against the hammock body.

Been fortunate to work with Spotted Owl researchers. Called, Captured, measured etc and at night listened.

Owl Sounds:
http://www.owlpages.com/sounds/Strix-occidentalis-1.mp3

These are the only memorable Hammock critter related ... many others not hammock related.

[khanti]

Long time lurker, but I had to post something that just happened to me this past weekend. I was on a three-day trip on the Ice Age Trail with two ground-dweller friends. The first night we were camped next to Jerry Lake in the Jerry Lake Segment near Medford. It was a beautiful clear night so I had setup tarp-less to enjoy the night sky. About 5:30AM, though, I awoke to the distant sound of dogs barking. I figured at first that it was feeding time at a nearby farm or something. As the sounds started coming closer, though I remembered that the nearest private land was some ways away and the more I listened the more it sounded like a pack of hounds on the hunt. Closer and closer the barking came until I saw the brush shaking between me and the lake (a slight rise obscured seeing the critters directly). The first animal to go by was large and NOT barking, the next dozen or so were smaller and barking madly. All of this no more than 10 yards from where I was hanging, but just out of sight. It had to have been bear-dog training. Funny that the first time I 'see' a bear from my hammock it's being 'hounded' by a pack of hunting dogs as it runs right by our camp. My tenting friends, with fly installed, saw nothing, but heard the whole racket. Quite the alarm clock!

[slowhike]

WOW... now that would wake a person up! Something I would never forget!
Welcome aboard.

[Tobit]

Is it bear season in Wisconsin already? I know it doesn't start til Sept. 1 in Minnesnowta.

[khanti]

I'd wondered the same thing as bear season doesn't start for a while yet. I asked the guy working the bar/grill at the Mondeaux Flowage Lodge the next day about it and he said he'd heard people are out training their dogs. They'll chase down and tree the bears, but don't actually shoot them.

And yes, that was something I won't soon forget!

[rock_rat]

Long time lurker, but I had to post something that just happened to me this past weekend. I was on a three-day trip on the Ice Age Trail with two ground-dweller friends. The first night we were camped next to Jerry Lake in the Jerry Lake Segment near Medford. It was a beautiful clear night so I had setup tarp-less to enjoy the night sky. About 5:30AM, though, I awoke to the distant sound of dogs barking. I figured at first that it was feeding time at a nearby farm or something. As the sounds started coming closer, though I remembered that the nearest private land was some ways away and the more I listened the more it sounded like a pack of hounds on the hunt. Closer and closer the barking came until I saw the brush shaking between me and the lake (a slight rise obscured seeing the critters directly). The first animal to go by was large and NOT barking, the next dozen or so were smaller and barking madly. All of this no more than 10 yards from where I was hanging, but just out of sight. It had to have been bear-dog training. Funny that the first time I 'see' a bear from my hammock it's being 'hounded' by a pack of hunting dogs as it runs right by our camp. My tenting friends, with fly installed, saw nothing, but heard the whole racket. Quite the alarm clock!

A friend was just telling me a similar story. Him and two buddies where car camping in a large tent. Earlier that evening they had an encounter with a hunter who had lost one of his dogs and was out looking for it. Well sometime in the middle of the night my friend hears sniffing around the edge of the tent, he could just make out it was most likely a bear. The bear left and no one was harmed, however about an hour later he hears more noises and it's the lost dog trailing that bear. The dog gets up to the tent sniffing right beside one of his buddies and then lets out a howl only hound dogs can manage right in his ear. He said he's never seen someone come off a cot so fast in there life.

[DuctTape]

I was kayaking (and hammocking) up in the Adirondacks. I was sharing a site with a father/son combo. I awoke in the middle of the night (in the hammock) feeling something bumping against my shoulder and making weird snorting/sniffing sounds. I garbled out some expletives and fell back asleep. I had no memory of this the next AM until I was talking to my site mates who asked if I saw the bear come through during the nite. They watched him for a while, apparently he was content with inspecting everything including the big green taco which was me.

[khanti]

Ah, the things that go BUMP in the night!