The Moose is Loose in Washington State

I grew up hiking in New Hampshire, one of the moose-densest states in the union. Moose are everywhere in the Granite State. Highway signs warn of hitting them which is a real road hazard in the state. On return trips to my home state to hike and paddle, I almost always see these largest members…

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Attack of the Agitated Owl

If you hike and trail run frequently this time of year,  you may feel the wrath (but hopefully not the talons) of an overly protective barred owl. Now most folks are worried about not-so-friendly encounters with bears, mountains lions, rattlesnakes and other assorted critters. Fair enough. But it’s those owls that worry me and you…

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Cougars in Heat–a Chilling Encounter!

Okay, before I get started here. Absolutely no jokes about attractive older women in pursuit of younger men or randy Washington State University students here. This post is about mountain lions following nature’s orders to make more mountain lions. And it’s about how a few autumns ago I nearly walked in on a mating couple.…

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Hiking among Paedomorphic and Neotonic critters—oh my!

  Here are a couple of fifty cents words you can impress (or bore) your hiking friends with over your next post-adventure beer. I recently had an encounter with a paedomorphic critter. They are actually quite common in the Cascades and Olympics of Washington. Just what is paedomorphois? It’s a condition (sometimes referred to as…

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National Squirrel Appreciation Day–what a nutty idea!

How could I get through most of January 21st without realizing that it is National Squirrel Appreciation Day? Yep-another one of those appreciation days decreed by some declaration somewhere sometime in the past. Evidently this one was founded back in 2001  by Christy Hargrove, a wildlife rehabilitator in Asheville, North Carolina in the Great Smoky…

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