A Wildlife Extravaganza

So the plan was to climb Fletcher, an easier Centennial 13er.  The trailhead is at the Blue Lakes Reservoir which is at 11,700′ – another high trailhead.  I got there around 5 PM last night and things were pretty quiet.  At least until the wildlife show started.  I walked around and spent a little time watching some marmots play.  Their chubby little faces are always fun to look at (at least when they aren’t eating any of your gear).

A bit later I was hanging out in the back of the car when I looked up and walking right toward me was a group of 3 goats.  They got pretty close:

They proceeded to hang around for over half an hour.  At one point I sat in the back of the car with the hatch open and they literally walked right next to me.  I had to scare them off because I thought one was going to grab something out of the back of the car and run off with it.  The picture below is blurry but you get the idea.

Finally as it was getting dark the goats started to wander off.  Suddenly I turned around, and 5 feet away from my car was a red Fox.  I moved to grab my camera but he got startled and trotted off, so I was only able to get this one blurry picture of him before he was gone.

Not a bad evening.  Once dark had set in I crawled into bed and fell asleep almost immediately, something that rarely happens for me (it usually takes an hour or two before I drift off).  Suddenly, around 11 PM I was startled out of a deep sleep.  I was rather disoriented so it took me a minute to figure out that there was something….some noise……oh…….THAT noise.  Sigh.  I pulled on my shoes, grabbed a headlamp and the bear spray, and jumped out of the car.  I quickly looked around the car and there was no waddling critter to be seen.  So I laid down in front of the car and sure enough – another ugly porcupine.  He was a brave little fella – they usually run off as soon as you open the door.  He had picked the wrong time to be brave.  From a few feet away I gave him a full blast of Grizzly grade pepper spray right in the face.  A few seconds later I heard the coughing and wheezing that let me know I had got him good.  Yes, I am now accustomed to the sound of a wheezing porcupine.  As he ran off I chased him for a bit and tried to hit him again with the spray (just for good measure) but it was pretty windy so I didn’t manage to get him.  With that done, I hoped that was all I would hear from that porcupine for the rest of the night.  I crawled back in to bed.  Around 3 AM I suddenly awoke and thought I heard something.  Once again I hoppped out of the car to look around – but this time found nothing.  A little paranoid perhaps?  I searched in a wide circle around the car just in case something had run off before I had seen it, but things looked clear.  Back to bed.

I woke up just after sunrise and was eating a few lousy Little Debbie’s donuts when I looked over and there was a new trio of goats approaching.  This time it was a momma and two kids.  The two little ones were hilarious to watch – it is the best example of frolicking I have ever seen.  They were bounding around the area and jumping on each other.  Mommy goat was more interested in looking for pee stains.  When I finally got out of the car they seemed a bit more nervous, though they still approached within 15 yards of me.  The mother was acting a little strange.  Every once in a while she would stamp a foot heavily.  Not in the funny way that deer do when they are nervous – more like a “Think what it would do if I stamped on your head like this” kind of way.  I’m not sure if goats are as protective of their young as, say, bears are, but I decided not to stick around and find out.

Let’s see…..oh yeah, I went and climbed a mountain.  It was a really nice hike up a nice basin.  Yatta Yatta….big views….Maroon Bells clearly visible…etc, etc.  When I returned to the car there was one last friendly goat who just wanted to check that I had made it back ok.