I "moo" at horses...

I live near valley forge national park and run, bike, hike there pretty often. VFNP is infested with extremely tame deer. Hunting is forbidden and they know it. They basically stand in great big herds all over the place, including the paths. Just driving through you'll easily see 100 - 150. Occasionally they commit automotive suicide. I remember reading once about how the indians would kill deer by chasing them and giving them no time to rest. My wife and I tried this last fall. We just slowly jogged after a herd, which would run a distance away, then we run after them some more, etc etc. It's a great cross country jog and it keeps the deer on their toes. Never did catch one though. Occasionally I try to get their attention by jumping up and down and yelling 'HEY DEER!', but they barely notice.

Funny story: I guess two years ago we were backpacking up near penn state, and we woke up, started cooking breakfast when we hear a really loud clumsy hiker coming down trail toward us. We kind of forgot about it for a few minutes then we heard it again. I thought, wow this guy's really taking his time. Another minute and no sign of him. So I stand up and start looking around for him. There he is! It's a big burly guy in a brown jacket, all bent over, and he's out in the woods 50 yds from us coming this way. So I stand up real tall and wave, thinking what the hell is he doing? When, yeah, the bear jumps straight up into the air does a 180 and tears out of there. I think the bear might have been more surprised than I was, guess he thought the bacon was cooking itself.

When I run I like to wave at drivers like I know them. It's interesting how many wave back, trying to remember who I am...

When I used to train in Galena w/ a cousin of mine.... [now we're both old and injured recovering at the ages of 28], we picked up the habit of trying to speak their language. so if it was a turkey- we'd gobble, cow... a friendly moo, horses... we'd neigh.... the turkeys thought us the worst... they'd chase us off their turf [what wasn't their turf?]. it was a source of great entertainment.

wrybosome,

I'll bet that's neat to see all those deer and chase after them (be careful during the rut, though, you may find yourself being chased :-) ). Loved the bear story, especially that you thought it was a burly guy in a brown coat.

I have a similar bear story hiking here in AZ.. My wife and I went on our 1st overnight backpacking trip in AZ and spent the whole night in the middle of now where by the camp fire telling stories of ghosts, killer bears and the like.

Well, the next day we’re hiking along and up ahead in the trees I caught sight of something big and black. My mind instantly goes to visions of killer bears from last nights stories and the nerves set in.

No real way to change our course so we continued on, slowly, and nothing in sight but trees.
Then as I turn the bend in the trail and looked to my right fear leaped thru me and I almost peed my pants as I looked right into the eyes of one big black COW.
I think my wife did pee her pants, laughing so hard. Anyway my imagination got the best of me that day.

lol, I did the same thing with a porcupine once (noisy buggers), but it did eat the toes off my boots so that makes it worse than any bear I've run into.

My favorite bear story, and I wish this was me but it was a friend. Andy goes to Glacier NP for some backcountry hiking. He sets up his tent and goes to sleep second or third night but forgets he has a salami in his pack (fortunately left outside tent). So he wakes up hears snuffling noise outside, pokes his head out and voila, there's a grizzly sitting on its butt with his pack between its legs, arms wrapped around it and head stuck down inside like Poo with a honey jar. It's funnier if you make the mental picture.

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Not a lot of nature to commune with out my way. (sigh...) I'm always desperately grateful for a tree, or any sign of green!!

I suppose I could simulate the noises of my environment:

honk, honk, beep, f#@! you, honk, honk


:-)

City Girl,
Dana

Have been known to moo at anything with four legs or wings.

since i'm running in the city i have to communicate with homo-sepians ,much more difficult then horses.

could have been one of those vampire armadillos. Watch out, they have cooties.

Hey Kevin, was that armadillo in Rochester????!!!!! If so, does it tunnel through the snowbanks?


I always get a kick out of seeing turkey vultures at the side of the road when cycling. Boy, are they ugly!!! One time I was on a different road than usual and there was a farm with a herd of bison. I thought I had cycled to a different province (Manitoba)

Jen

Edited by keepitup 2004-03-10 10:30 PM

The armidillo was in Fort Stewart GA. I was the laughing stock of my unit.

Hehe...I went running outside on Tuesday to enjoy the nice weather we were having, and decided to run on a dirt path that runs along a golf course - not really all that rural. Anyhow, I was doing an out and back 3 mile run and just after my turnaround I came around a corner and there was a cow in the middle of the trail - scared the cr*p out of me. Anyhow, he was actually a little one, and really cute, so I just ran around him and hoped he wouldn't have a problem with me!!

I was running the same trail a couple years ago in the summer and as I ran along I saw the tails of three skunks sticking up out of the grass a few feet away - I've never run so fast in my life!! Problem was I was running out and back, so I had to sprint by them again on my way back. The whole run, I had visions of returning to my car smelling of skunk....

Then there was the time I was running on the trail around my neighborhood and looked down just in time to see that I had just placed my foot about 6 inches away from a huge coiled up rattlesnake.

Oh, and my last one - I run sometimes on a trail that goes in between a bunch of rocks and brush in the foothills here - one night at sunset I was running alone and heard a bunch of crashing in the bushes. Up on the hill in front of me a HUGE coyote came out of the bushes and jumped across the trail. Freaked me out - I thought it was a mountain lion or something.

Anyhow, the funny thing is, I think I have more wildlife stories related to running than I do about all the times I've been backpacking in the Rockies!!