Monday, August 20, 2007

Went on that Hike After All

Tim, Lynn, and I, went on a great hike up a good sized ridge and had a terrific time. The forest is so beautiful here and we saw some interesting things...such as bear scat, elk poop, what we think might be cougar fur, and several hawk feathers. I'm amazed by the number of game trails up in these hills. We followed them some but primarily tried to stay off of them as much as possible to keep our scent from permeating too much in order to keep the heards of elk from shying away. The ranch owners here want the elk to move in soon so they can offer good hunting for the hunters that come each season so that means we can't go hiking anymore while I'm here.

My sister had a very difficult time puffing up the steep slope, while I on the other hand had no trouble at all tackling it...which totally surprised me. I guess all my hill country hiking paid off, despite the fact that I haven't gone on a serious hike in some while. There are a few reasons for this that I won't go into now, but needless to say I'm passionate about the outdoors and miss it a great deal. It's going to be very hard to leave this place.

I hope the folks who can get high speed set up here, get it done before I leave so I can send all my pics from Lynn's computer to my computer at home and be able to post them soon. I have tons of cool pics!

4 comments:

Sean Wright said...

I am so gonna go and see Australia zoo and get a photo next to a Steve Irwin cutout.

Damn I'm jealous.

Good to hear you not bear food

Ginny said...

So after further investigation,the locals all think the bears are losing their fear of man around here because too often they are getting fed by idiots in the parks or are getting easy meals from people's garbabge cans. I'm told that the rangers don't want the public to know how many encounters and attacks are really occurring for fear of scaring off tourists. I wonder if that's true or not...

We talked to a man today who was attacked right outside of his house. He got away because his friend shot the bear with a rubber bullet which distracted it long enough so he could scramble away from it and get in the house. He said the rubber bullet made the bear even angrier. One would think it would scare the thing away.

I think next time I come here I will have a can of "Counter Attack" with me when I go hiking. It's what the park rangers all carry with them...it's supposed to be highly effective and the strongest of all the bear sprays. Hiking on my home turf seems like such a walk in the tame park now lol.

Sean Wright said...

Are you changing you name to Mountain Girl? ;)

Ginny said...

Are you changing you name to Mountain Girl? ;)

You think I should? Mountains used to terrify me believe it or not...I've come a long way baby!