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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Jan 11, 2019 - 01:03pm PT
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MB, did you see the rare Buff-breasted Bedthrasher there?
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Jan 11, 2019 - 03:22pm PT
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Ionlyski--that's just a light colored black bear sow chasing
the black boar up a tree. . .
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ionlyski
Trad climber
Polebridge, Montana
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Jan 11, 2019 - 03:29pm PT
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SteveW,
Yeah, but I'm not positive. I just had (a family visit) a local wildlife biologist over and we watched it together again and he couldn't make a positive ID. Early in the video there is a frame or two that looks very much grizzly. And the size too!
I'll check it out again when I have time but perhaps you're right.
Arne
edit-Thinking that is a large sow black bear. Too bad the footage is so far away. Big bear though.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Jan 11, 2019 - 03:36pm PT
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By far the Forum's most captivating current thread to have a good sitdown/read.
"donini's shot hits nothing but net, the guanacos win!"
"But what a great team effort, too!"
I liked Larry Nelson's tale of saving Penelope the rabbit...cool.
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originalpmac
Mountain climber
Timbers of Fennario
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Jan 11, 2019 - 04:11pm PT
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Seeing a frog pasted on the wall about 700 feet up the Zodiac was memorable. Got me thinking if it was born up there or climbed up. Being woken up by a mountain lion creeping around the crash pad we were df keeping on just outside of Ouray was unforgettable. Wow, bottom of the food chain is adrenaline inducing.
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madbolter1
Big Wall climber
Denver, CO
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Jan 11, 2019 - 04:44pm PT
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MB, did you see the rare Buff-breasted Bedthrasher there?
Okay, I snorted coffee up my nose. Well played, sir.
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originalpmac
Mountain climber
Timbers of Fennario
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Jan 11, 2019 - 06:42pm PT
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My friend Chonk got this picture while kayaking on of the forks of the American. Golden eagle caught a fawn. Those birds are huge.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Jan 11, 2019 - 07:35pm PT
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Somewhere upthread I mentioned an encounter with Lester.
We actually met him more than once, with the first time being probably the most memorable -- in an "Oh F*#k! I'm gonna die!!!" way.
We'd heard that if one cut off the trail halfway up to Snow Creek Wall one could find an amazing collection of 1- and 2-pitch cracks on perfect granite. So, up we went...
And, yes, it looked like we'd scored. Lovely tier of cliffs, split with boatloads of cracks. But, as we got closer, we realized we weren't alone. Two young guys were racing down the trail toward us, at speed. Young, and scared witless. They told us of a huge goat that had charged them, and were clearly thankful to be getting away alive.
Hmmm... What to do?
Well, the goat wasn't charging down the trail after them with black lightning shooting from his hooves and horns, so we decided to at least wander up to the base of the cliffs and check things out. Maybe the demon goat would be long gone.
And so it appeared. The base of the crag was just like the base of any other alpine crag. No monsters in view. So we roped up, and Mari set off up the most appealing line.
And then, with her about 20 meters up, the monster appeared.
The biggest mountain goat I'd ever seen appeared over the high point of the trail and started down toward me. The mountain goat that had charged two big guys... So, of course, I did what any of you would have done. Started screaming at Mari to stuff in a couple of pieces and tie off, so that I could...
...could what? Try to outrun the devil's mountain goat in rough terrain?
But it was useless. Before Mari could get an anchor, the goat was on me...
And...
...he looked at me for a minute and then lay down at my feet, snoozing and chewing his cud.
Think about it. He was probably twice my size, had horns that could rip the entire side off your car with no effort at all, and had already aggressively chased off some other climbers. I was pretty much convinced I was going to die, and could only hope that Mari would be able to tie off to something in the crack and wouldn't starve to death while waiting until he went away.
But all he wanted to do was hang out with a friend and catch some rest.
I guess I caught his vibe, cuz I unfroze and told Mari I was back on belay. She finished the pitch with Lester snoozing at my feet, and then set up a rap to come back down. As she approached the ground, my new friend woke up and...
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 12, 2019 - 07:32am PT
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He should be known as Lester The Molester, don't ya think?
You have a calming effect on beasties if Tulum the iguana is any sort of an odd almost a yardstick.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Jan 12, 2019 - 07:47am PT
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Lester the Local. Nice rock, Ghost.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Jan 12, 2019 - 09:40am PT
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Being surrounded by 80,000 puffins buzzing like bees this summer was pretty cool.
Watching the White-tailed Eagles gobbling them wasn’t but it’s a oneness.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Jan 12, 2019 - 09:35pm PT
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You have a calming effect on beasties if Tulum the iguana is any sort of an odd almost a yardstick.
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Jan 12, 2019 - 10:11pm PT
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hey there say, ghost... wow, love that 'goat story' and its great photo...
say, will try to find a photo to add:
once, just strolling the backfield, bit of woods...
a friend and, we saw a baby fawn, right AT our feet, :O
and-- knew enough to 'soak the beauty' in by eyes and left...
will NEVER forget it... did not have a camera, in those days...
(michigan) ...
then-- a few years back, the neighgor had a 'partly' limping'
deer just 'show up in his backyard, a few houses next door here,
to 'sleep the night' and then, left later in the morning...
wow-- just seeing in the yard, trusting for a 'safe haven' was
very nice... we never knew where it went from there...
can be sad here-- many deer are 'stuck' in the city mesh of roads, :(
where there are many patches of woods, but, not enough for
their best interest...
these were very nice memories...
and, then-- the local on the way home night,
where three VERY LARGE deer and two babes, RAN in from of my
car, missing be by about 2? feet... as i was going about 18 miles per
hour...
they were spectacular and even more so-- as not being a 'hit' from the side...
they ran into the lawn of the apartments and later, by the time i came back
to REALLY enjoy them, the folks there said they have--
gone through the building and down into the bit of wilderness near the lake...
oh my....
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hamie
Social climber
Thekoots
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Jan 12, 2019 - 11:35pm PT
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krahmes
Social climber
Stumptown
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Jan 12, 2019 - 11:51pm PT
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In 2016 I was back in Indonesia working in southwest Sumatra. I had to go to this mostly unpleasant 6 am morning meeting. There was this 3 km stretch of road cut like an open wound through the hutan that we had to drive every morning. The forestry department would run thick manila ropes across the road so the gibbons could cross, but the locals would always steal the ropes and it never seemed like it was priority to anyone to keep them up. Quite often we would we hear gibbons usually coming to meeting, though sometimes in better light on the way back. I would hoot back to them and they would seemingly hoot back to me. I like to believe they recognized me after a time. If the hooting was close enough, I’d have the driver stop and I was always gob smacked when I saw one and of course sad: Sad that the road was there, that I was there, and that the world is done full up with people and as such a lot of beauty in this world is going to pass into oblivion in at least in the here and now. The Sony RXII camera I had never really performed that well in the rainforest and the gibbons were always furtive and, on the move, as soon as I was within a reasonable shooting distance. I only ever got one true shot of one; and it is a lousy picture. The gibbon is in the lower left middle moving in the tree.
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splitclimber
climber
Sonoma County
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Jan 15, 2019 - 05:25pm PT
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this little pygmy owl eating a chipmunk on the skintrack at Lassen NP last month.
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thebravecowboy
climber
The Good Places
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Jan 15, 2019 - 06:39pm PT
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Hey mike. you should splain a little more about that tandem trip: what kinda bikey setup? terminal points? best segments?
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Minerals
Social climber
The Deli
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Cool elk video, Mike!
The wild horses have been hanging around here again, on and off for the last few weeks. I counted over 30 of them at one time, maybe a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday afternoon I looked out the window to see several of them, about 100 feet from the house, doing what they do – eating. I kept an eye on them from time to time, and counted 13. Later on the sun came out, and melted the dusting of snow that fell earlier in the morning, so I figured I’d take a few photos through my office window. I continued to watch them on occasion throughout the rest of the afternoon, until it got dark. It’s funny how entertaining it can be to watch them, even though they don’t really do a lot.
The horses were in the backyard this morning, when I looked out the window, and when I counted them, I didn’t count to 13; I counted to 14. One of them was sitting in the grass, and looked smaller than the others. A little while later, with what looked like a bit of coaxing from a couple of the others, the little one finally stood up, and that’s when I could tell that it was much smaller than the rest of the horses, with disproportionately long legs. “Wow,” I thought. “They multiplied!” The foal was definitely not with this herd of 13 yesterday, I am sure. So it must have been born last night or early this morning.
During the day, it never strayed more than a few tens of feet from its mother, and spent most of the time at her side, occasionally feeding on her milk. I stepped out the back door a few times, to take more photos.
Late in the afternoon, the snow came back, and I could tell that it isn’t their favorite type of weather, as they tried to take cover amongst the juniper trees. I must say that I tend to agree with them. Being merely hours-old and spending the night in a snowstorm doesn’t seem like the easiest way to be brought into this world. But perhaps we humans are just soft, living in our warm and cozy houses, sheltered from the elements. Maybe the foal will do just fine. I hope so. It’s got a few really cold nights to get through this week, with lows in the teens or upper single-digits.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foal
Foals are born after a gestation period of approximately 11 months. Birth takes place quickly, consistent with the status of a horse as a prey animal, and more often at night than during the day.
Unlike most predators which are altricial (born helpless), horses are precocial, meaning they come into the world relatively mature and mobile. Healthy foals can typically keep up with the rest of the herd only a few hours after birth.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustang
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skywalker1
Trad climber
co
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An interesting thing I once saw was in Camp 4. We were sipping coffee in the morning and I watched a squirrel "listening" to the ground. Searching, searching and the damn thing dug up a mole and went over to a drainage pipe and ate it. We at the picnic table were dumbstruck. I thought they only ate nuts. Nope. At least not in Yosemite Valley.
S....
VVVV Absolutely.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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^^^^ You sure it was a squirrel?
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