Confluence, PA. 2019.


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Five-lined skink. Woodbine, NJ. 2019. They turn a muted orange with light green bellies when mature.


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The second fastest land mammal on the planet. Over distance., it could outlast a cheetah. With eyes roughly the size of an elephant's, it has terrific vision. Somewhere south of Edgemont, SD. 2015.


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Last ones for now....

Grazing deer at the Towne Campsite in Waterton Village, AB. 2009.


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Curious cows. Kiowa, MT. 2009.


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Eastern Water Snake. Bulls Island Recreation Area campground, Raven Rock, NJ.


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Old Darby Road, between Hamilton and Darby, MT. 2011.


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Famous Lucy the Elephant, that once served as a speakeasy during prohibition. She recently underwent a complete makeover. Margate, NJ.

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Seen a few feral hogs, but never been charged by them. Otherwise the usual deer and various varmints. Have seen a few bald eagles and they are magnificent. I see turkey vultures on every ride. They're not magnificent, but they can be quite large. Much less frequent are wild turkeys, but I did see a group once on a thanksgiving ride.

A month or so ago I saw a gila monster in the wild for the first time:

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...more often it's roadrunners, rattlesnakes, coyotes, that sort of thing.

Full grown with the white head. She said it was BIG. She said rather than looking at it, she should have lowered her helmeted head in case of an impact.

Was doing a 12 mile TT last year and was at mile 11.5 with the finish in sight when a black bear lazily walked about 150 feet across the road in front of me. He was obviously not afraid and I didn’t want to risk being chased so slowed to a crawl as my time when to he!!. A week later the park was closed in that area due to bear altercations with humans.

had a pretty special moment w/ nature yesterday. not cycling related tho. went to the beach w/ Wifey. as we sat looking at the water, we saw an Osprey dive into the water, grab a fish, depart the water, shake itself off, mid-air, then circle around over us. just as Wifey exclaims wow look at that fish, but wutz all that red stuff on the fish & I say that's blood, she screams, it just dripped fish blood on me!

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hysterical!

I had an osprey fly right over my head while cycling west of Thompson Falls, MT. The sun was low and at my back, so I could see his shadow in front of me. When I looked up, I saw a fish in his talons. I could almost swear I could reach up and grab it.

A hydroelectric damn on the Kootenai River near Noxon created a large lake. The ospreys are everywhere. Perfect hunting ground.

==============

We're probably only a couple years away from some limited hunting or intervention here in the Lower Hudson Valley. I'm just guessing this based on the escalating number of bear posts I'm seeing on social media. Never used to see them (bears or bear related posts). 40 years ago I camped in some of these same woods as a Boy Scout and it wasn't even a thought. Now you would be pretty crazy not to have a bear bag. I even started carrying bear spray on hikes as we've twice encounter them at dusk in the past couple years. One seemed to shadow us in the woods. We had just eaten some Cliff bars, so I think he might have been on the scent.

There was a cop at my first bear sighting. I just saw a cop on the trail and assumed he was looking for a bad guy, so I asked "is there something I should be looking for?" He replied "yes...a bear." I rode about 25 more yards and spotted him. I called back to the cop alerting him and asked "you're not going to hurt him are you?" He said "Not yet." Wasn't thrilled with his response. Felt like he was looking for an excuse to escalate on the bear. Would have liked a reply of "hopefully not" or "going tot try to scare him away. With that said, I don't want to be overly critical of the response as as I previously mentioned we're clearly on course for bear/human interactions that are almost certainly going to require some controversial decisions here.

My SO with a Clyde (other than me) after we stumbled on a Clydesdale stable on the Columbia Rail trail. Started in Highbridge, NJ...up through Ken Lockwood Gorge...Caliphon. 32 mi round trip if I recall. We've done it a few times. Clyde thing was a nice surprise.


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Found pic of me too. I was really taken aback by how big these horses are up close. For perspective... I'm 5'11" 215 lbs here.


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Lots of rabbits where we are. They love to dash out across the path at the last minute. Killed one last year. Two or three times I've had one bounce off the spokes. I dread a small rabbit or a rat getting stuck in my front wheel at speed. Ran over a rat with my rear wheel a couple of months ago. Wheel went airborne, rat kept going. Tough buggers.

Also the occasional coyote, skunk, snake, and raccoons.

Saw earlier in the thread someone found a snapping turtle laying eggs. Last September I found two hatchlings heading the wrong way towards a parking lot so I carried them down to the river.


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There is an osprey nest about a mile into my rides, and last year we had a bald eagle nest nearby as well. Unfortunately the nest fell (lost a juvenile), and this year they moved on.
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Hanging out on the osprey nest in the middle of winter.


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Mark

Rescued (in the true sense versus adopting) a box turtle that had walked into a traffic lane narrowly missing getting hit. Haven’t picked up a turtle since I had one as a 5 YO. After his initial shock of being airborne, s/he started kicking with their back legs grazing my hand. I held on and get him back to a nearby pond where it quickly disappeared into the water with out even an ‘up yours’.

the other surprising thing is they can't trot very far but are super impressive when they do trot. I had the pleasure of leading a team of bud horses one time. absolutely amazing how slathered up in sweat they get.They are also not bothered by loud things. the driver told me he had his team by a funny car when the funny car fired up and the horses did not even flinch

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thursday on the trail of the cda.

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We see lots of wildlife down here in southwest Georgia. I have pics of deer, wild turkeys, a young alligator, cows, horses, raccoons, opossum, goats, pigs, turtles and wild hogs (no pic of that one, it was on a night time dirt road ride).

My closest "encounter" was on Dec. 13, 2022 when 6 of us were riding dirt roads at night. We all use bright lights, front and back. We were out in the country when a deer ran across the road RIGHT in front of the cyclist in front of me. I remember thinking "Wow, that was close!" - and that's when my memory stops.

The *second* deer JUMPED from our right and hit me in mid-jump, the cyclists behind me told me later. The "encounter" knocked me off my bike, knocked me unconscious for 3-4 minutes, broke my helmet, knocked my hearing aids off into the dirt and broke 3 ribs on my right side.

The deer ran off, evidently unbothered by any of it.

I wasn't able to ride for 10 days, and then vewwy vewwy gingerly and carefully.

I'm good now though, 9 months later. I rode my annual "birthday x 2" ride yesterday - 128 miles!

Gary

I’ve ridden that trail a few times up to Califon. Last time I did there was an electric sign on NJ 33 on the edge of High Bridge warning of bear activity.

Vorhees State Park is just to the NW of High Bridge. One weekend I camped at Spruce Run. A ranger told me he took a drive up to the park but made a hasty retreat after seeing 6 black bears. They usually stay to the north of NJ 33 because of all the traffic. There’s a stuffed one in the office of Spruce Run. It was hit by a car trying to cross 33.

The blurry photo (it’s actually a still from a video) of the bear in the woods I posted above was taken a little west of High Bridge, near Woodglen.

I like Percherons more than Clydesdales.

I’ve rescued a couple red ear sliders before.

If I remember correctly both times they emptied their bladder into my hand.

LOL! No good deed goes……

=============================================

That trail is such a beautiful run.

On one of our early times doing it we stopped to read the historical marker about the train crash in the gorge. Chill went down my spine as we realized it was the exact same day the crash occurred so many years earlier. It was like the 120th anniversary or something.

Interesting about the bears. I recently did a gravel run on nearby Sussex Branch rail trail (38 mile round trip) which is substantially rougher at points. Many times on that one I went through swamps and stuff and thought...bear territory. I've been going out early when you might be more likely to see a bear too, in order to avoid some of our heat waves.

Snapping turtles are known to do that when you try to move them out of the road.

I was on a day ride while camping in S. Jersey when I came up a giant one in the road. His shell was a good 2.5" long, if not more. I picked it up by the back of its shell. The thing started thrashing like crazy, Jurassic Park style. They are strong SOBs. Put him. down. A driver pulled over and got out of her car. Too look. Eventually, and township maintenance worker driving a front-end loader stopped. He found a large stick and started directing the thing toward the bucket. It was thrashing around like gators you see in videos. The woman said "Careful. Don't; hurt it." The worker said, "You can't hurt these things." He eventually got it into the bucket and deposited it in the grass by the side of the road.

I will never go near one that size ever again, much less try to pick one up.

today on the bike trail.

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:love:
Ok. If I can ever get back to touring imma ride the CdA trail. I’ve only done the first seven miles west to Wallace. Not much to look at along that stretch. At least it’s fast.

it is a pretty fantastic trail. I did 111 miles on thursday with a buddy and today I took my wife over and we did 28+ miles. I am planning on going over on my own next week and doing the whole thing out and back for about 144 miles. from Kellogg on it is pretty nice. I think the total elevation gain on the 111 mile stretch was under 1000 feet. amazing amount of bear scat on the trail but in 3 times on the trail I have not seen any bears.