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Field trips 2.0


BC witness

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The Warns are classic with years of experience under their belts. Should be able to winch Old Hairy outa da woods with that little baby :) Chains too? Drag 'him on home LOL. Seriously though? Looks pretty unstoppable even in mud season

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1 minute ago, cmknight said:

Beautiful area. Reminds me a lot of the Osoyoos/Penticton region of BC.

 

 

Iam about 40 miles south of Trail, BC. Thank you!

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15 hours ago, norseman said:

 

Iam about 40 miles south of Trail, BC. Thank you!

 

I used to visit your neck-of-the-woods a lot, when I lived in Castlegar and Nelson.

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1 hour ago, cmknight said:

 

I used to visit your neck-of-the-woods a lot, when I lived in Castlegar and Nelson.

 

Ive been soaking at Ainsworth HS since I was a boy and learned to ski at Red mtn. My paternal grandfather was raised in Calgary and immigrated to Seattle.

 

Kootenay country!

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  • 5 weeks later...

A co-conspirator and I just made our third trip out to Skinwalker Ridge. The first account is in here somewhere, the second was back in January, across a snow blanketed mesa top under foggy sun which added some interest.

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And zooming in on the above photo afterwards i saw this "critter" peering over the rocks ( i added eyes to illustrate!):

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And then made our way down to just above the ranch:

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No anomalies experienced on that snowy trip, just a nice day out on the ridge.

 

Yesterday's venture had the ridge under sun and whipped by wind. Quite a few desert flowers in bloom too.

If familiar with the goings on or the "went ons" at the ranch, you'll know the Gorman's experience of the 4.5' tall bulletproof black wolf.

With that in mind,  we were quite surprised to see this thing staring at us from 120 yards away as we dropped down below the 2nd tier of ridge. I've found size hard to gauge when in canyon country, distance can be deceiving and boulders that seem similar in size to a car have often turned out to be closer to that of a house. This guy looked every bit the 4.5' at the shoulder from where we stood.(This with a 70-200mm at 260mm equivalent with aps-h.)

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Convinced we were seeing the invincible yee naaldlooshii, we were frozen with sheer terror and did the only rational thing-- unfroze and walked over to investigate.

It had disappeared in the interim of getting there. As we stood on the "rim" looking across to the point where it was last seen we debated how to approach. If not a murderous guardian of the

in-between worlds then maybe it was a guard dog from the ranch trained to shred interlopers. Regardless, we didn't want to meet it on the rocky slope below us so we whistled for it, surely skinwalkers answer to whistles...at least this one did:

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As he drew closer we watched him shapeshift down into less formidable size right in front of us! He ambled over, let us pet him and promptly rolled over for a belly rub. He had us fooled and knew it. He stayed with us all afternoon leading us off into the wilds  down along the ridge as their kind are wont to do....(most who follow are never heard from again)....finally leading us back to the car, he knew where it was, a mile and a half away, just after sun down. He made a great companion, never uttered a peep. He would take some of our sandwitches but would have no part of water, seemed afraid of it really, probably characteristic of yee naaldlooshii. A beautiful day on the Path of the Skinwalker.

 

And down at the ranch with the heli-pad and the trailer where Tom Gorman's prized bulls were "corralled":

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One of the 3 watchtowers:

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That second picture looks like an owl looking at you that is on the ground that might have killed it's prey. If I had a dog come back with me like that one and it was so submissive I might of kept it as a pet. All I can say is that it sure had a big neck when it was sitting by the rock. The way it had it's head lowered seemed like it was trying to be submissive with that one year lowered while it was still alert. This dog must have been domesticated by someone at some point in it's life and was surprised to see you. I would of loved to have a dog like that one in my yard. Not sure if my Shepherd would get along with him though. 

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Nice pics and 'story' of your trip, Kiwakwe!  Glad you made it out and in one piece.  It takes intrepid travelers such as yourself and your co-conspirator to explore the mysteries of the universe.

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1 hour ago, ShadowBorn said:

That second picture looks like an owl looking at you that is on the ground that might have killed it's prey. If I had a dog come back with me like that one and it was so submissive I might of kept it as a pet. All I can say is that it sure had a big neck when it was sitting by the rock. The way it had it's head lowered seemed like it was trying to be submissive with that one year lowered while it was still alert. This dog must have been domesticated by someone at some point in it's life and was surprised to see you. I would of loved to have a dog like that one in my yard. Not sure if my Shepherd would get along with him though. 

 

We did see great horned owls, one in a large cottonwood the other hunting from pole tops along a roadway. I don't know what that critter is, if a critter at all and not simply an anomaly of the rocks but if it's alive, those seem, to my eye, to be too large and far apart for tufts of an owl.   We spent a lot of time trying to get that 'skinwalker' to stay. He wouldn't, just kept leading us back to the vehicle. Once there we tried luring him into the car for a trip back down to the road or the ranch gate. He wanted no part of getting in. He seemed very healthy. can't imagine he got that way on hunting rabbits and scavenging (there are bones of animals all over that ridge) He sat there and watched us drive off, we slowly crept back around a bluff to see if he sauntered off--he had, we didn't want him following us down the road.

 

Thanks hiflier! We were thinking the same.

Glad you enjoyed, JustCurious...we did:)

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  • 4 weeks later...

I spent last weekend with my daughters and grand-kids at Beavers Bend State Park in Oklahoma. My daughter lives in east Texas and loves to vacation near Hochatown Oklahoma. We stayed in one of the many Beautiful cabins there. If you are ever in East Texas or south eastern Oklahoma check it out. The forest there are beautiful, I just wanted to get out and hike the trails. I had such a short time I was unable to, I had to spend much needed time with family. I hope someday to go back there and explore. Our last evening I went for a walk to check out

some of the cabins. I spotted this guy after my daughter and 2 granddaughters walked by without noticing. It looked mechanical, I figured the owner of the nearby cabin had fun with guests. 

 bigfoot.thumb.jpg.e0d0fd0e592cf710fdd8917169908f1b.jpgbigfoot2.thumb.jpg.4112e46c44871135c3949dcc991f72c1.jpg

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