Satirical and absurd describe most of my posts. Sometimes I write of true events.

As a high schooler, my parents had a remote lake lot with a travel trailer, and I frequently accompanied my dad to spend a leisure working day there. One time I arranged to leave early to get in a run, and he’d pick me up on the way home.

A couple miles into my run, I saw a small animal on the gravel road ahead, running away from me. I caught up and slowed to its pace. Never before had I run in tandem with a skunk.

He ran a lot further than I thought skunks could run before stopping and facing me. He stomped his front feet which I knew was a warning. I didn’t react, but when he turned and backed up toward me, I backed up, too.

Eventually he ran into the woods – a smarter escape route than sticking to the road.

During my college days I worked summers at a YMCA camp north of Spokane. Running alone on an old logging road one morning, I rounded a corner and found a coyote and a badger, faced off, about to fight. It’s the only time I’ve seen a badger in the wild.

(From Wikimedia Commons. Photo by Yathin S. Krishnappa)

They immediately fled. I ran a short distance past, stopped and looked for them. I was hoping they’d come back together and resume their scuffle. I would’ve enjoyed watching a coyote-badger fight. Apparently I ruined that possibility.

My most perilous encounter occurred in a remote area of the Colville National forest in northeastern Washington a few years ago. I was doing a solitary ten-mile hike because overtraining caused a partially torn meniscus a couple weeks earlier.

I awoke an animal sleeping near the trail, and as it got to its feet, I thought it was a moose. As it galloped toward me, I saw it was a bear.

I’ve done a lot of hiking, and several times I’ve crossed paths with bears. In every instance they fled as if I was the dangerous animal. I waved my arms and yelled loudly which didn’t deter him one bit.

My torn meniscus didn’t allow evasive action. I gave one last deep-throated yell and waved my arms in the most aggressive way I could. The bear was completely deaf. He closed in at a full run.

The bear skidded to a stop, his snout nearly touching my legs. I could have patted his head. He turned and trotted away.

Though I was concerned and hyper-alert, I didn’t experience great fear. The bear wasn’t especially hostile – no growling or baring of teeth. I believe he was groggy, and his first reaction was to run at me. I figured he finally identified what I was and did what bears normally do when they encounter people.

Thankful the situation ended well, I continued my hike.

For more instances of “amazing” wildlife encounters, I describe another in the previous, farcical post, “Camels vs. Humans“.