i've been busy. but i've meant to write this story for a while. last week when i was in the woods i saw the coolest thing i've ever seen in the backcountry and maybe the coolest thing i've seen -- ever!
i was on an early morning hike to the top of this mountain. the first part of the hike i could tell was about three or four miles of a fairly even, though uphill, approach to the mountain part. it was shaded by many varietals of nice evergreens that i did not know what their latin or american or aboretal names were. douglas firs? pine bark fingerlings? beetle upchuck prostitutes? i never know these things. i never have. although one of the things that i did resolve was to become a better naturalist.
that is all beside the point.
so i was walking on this approach with just me and my camelback containing my sketchbook, a pen, an apple and some water. it was completely peaceful as i was nearing the end of the timbered approach. it was late enough that the birds were not as active as they had been nearer the beginning of the hike. it was still early enough that the bugs were not out in the few meadows that i had passed through. all in all quiet and beautiful.
i was walking along and heard a CRACK up ahead. i was a bit startled at first, but then i realized that the brook that i was walking beside contained a waterfall just ahead of me. i heard the distinct waterfall noise after the crack. i discounted the crack as the waterfall carrying a stick down it and breaking it. i've seen it happen; water is an amazingly powerful substance (the floods in the NE prove that, inter alia!).
i took about three more steps before i heard another, louder CRACK. i looked up. this confirmed that it must be an animal moving around. this did not really bother me. already on the trip i had seen elk, deer, foxes, bears and other, smaller rodents and marmots. i saw a deer running parallel to my direction. that's cool. a deer is running. i thought. but then i wondered what he/she was running to/from.
it was probably just spooked by something, i was still too far away to have been the instrument of the spooking. so it wasn't me, but i didn't put things together quickly enough. i walked two or three more steps before i could see the full flank of the deer running. before i had only caught a glimpse of it before it had gone behind some foliage.
then i saw a flash of gray. i was not really sure what it was going on so i just stood statutesquely.
the gray and the deer were both running and then they turned and started running down the trail TOWARDS ME. they came around the corner of the trail and down the straightaway towards me. the corner was about 20 yards away and there it was, a gray WOLF and a deer. the wolf was snarling.
now i know that it was a wolf because there have been some releases in this part of colorado within the past five years as they try to capitalize on the popularity that was created by the repopulation efforts that happened up by cam in jackson a while ago. plus i could see the fucking thing. its face was a wolf's face. it was not a fox. it was not a dog.
he looked mean as he ran. there was the snarling and the full force of its momentum as it came careening down the fucking trail, RIGHT AT ME. i was not scared. i was petrified, but not out of fear. out of concern.
see the wolf was being chased by the deer. i'm not fucking around. the deer was chasing the wolf. it was the craziest, most disney-worthy scene. bambi's mama had her head low as she ran chasing that wolf. there was a cacophonous shattering of my peace and i couldn't really make out all the noises but it sounded like the deer was grunting. i'm not sure if i was hearing things, or merely not able to separate all the sounds that were going on. there was lots of crashing and thrashing and grunting and snarling.
so these two animals were both obviously scared out of their minds. this is what i was thinking about as they came running towards me. i did not want to move and startle them further. maybe they would form an unholy alliance and attack me together, the wolf turning my calfs into roast beef for bambi's herbivorous conversion while the deer grunted and head butted my chest into tender loin shanks for the wolf to breakfast upon. so i continued to stand there with my nueroses rock-solid in order to minimize my inpact upon the situation.
plus i like to leave no trace when i'm in the backcountry. the trace i'd like to leave the least is some of my body parts on the trail or in the form of wolf scat.
when they were within twenty feet of me the wolf took a hard right turn. his swift ninety degree turn was a big quick for the deer that was chasing him, but bambi's mom made the turn quick enough. i continued to stand still while they started to do large laps and circles around me.
for no less than two minutes, one-hundred and twenty seconds, i stood there in full rapture of nature's embracing of irony. i did not really know what to do. wolves are pack animals. so did the gray phantom of jack london fame have mates (victorian version) or mates (aussie version) around that were up on the woods surrounding me, waiting for me to make my move. but if these repopulations were just isolated animals or couples than it is likely that there would not be another around and that this guy was on his own.
in either case i had to wait, at a minimum, until they left my immediate vicinity. when they did and they were doing laps on the other side of the creek, i started stepping out of there.
running would be a bad idea, obviously. maybe the wolf would abandon its hunger for bambi and suddenly acquire a hunger for casey. running would only incite his BIOS to chase and chomp. but i wanted to get out of the area nonetheless for assorted reasons that are likely to be self-evident based upon the above discourse, so i walked quickly.
i finished the rest of the approach without incident and began to walk up the main part of the mountain. it was not a technical climb, it was merely a hike. most of it was littered with high altitude grasses and flowers of the eidelwies variety. i refrained from performing julie andrews impersonations.
the top part of the mountain was very shaley. lots of them were very loosely forming the top of the mountain. the view was one of the most incredible i've seen in colorado or anywhere else. the sky was a deep blue, there were at least twelve high mountain lakes that i could see. there were four rivers that i could see. i could see higher mountains from steamboat springs (i think) to vail (i'm pretty sure) along the corridor where the road runs between the two. there were flowers and rocks and grasses. a few minutes before topping out i saw a few mountain goats doing there thing. they were like mine, a family of four. although it is hard to imagine my father lithely jumping tenuous rocks as if they were our living room mexican tiles firmly grouted into a cement floor, but you can only stretch the metaphors so far.
i signed the summit log and started to head back down. i wanted to find a shelter from the biting wind to stop and eat my apple. before i had a chance i heard some howls. i was positive that they were wolf howls. they definitely were not coyotes, i know what those sound like from when those fucking rodents used to get too close to our shit when i lived in the stumps. foxes don't really make noises. i guess they could have been wild dogs, but those are not really prevalent in colorado. so i'm quite certain that there had been a pack.
i began to fantasize that the howls were rebukes for the wolf that i had seen earlier was a young warrior who was out on walkabout and to prove his manhood and be deemed a warrior of the pack he had to bring back a bambi, or a casey, and the howls were not howls of joys for the iniation rites had become complete and now it was a festive afternoon in the woods. i thought that the howls were darker than that. eventually the wolf must have failed and was returning. the rest of the pack was less worried about not being able to eat as they were in the failure of the young man. now what were they to do with him? put him with the squaws to boil water and grind meal, i decided.
the rest of the day went by quickly, except for on the descent when i passed near the place i was sure to perform the julie andrews renditions that i had avoided singing from the mountaintops.
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