Most unusual encounters with a wild animal (any kind that isn't someones pet)

[Nictuku]

39. Not a Happy Ending, unfortunately

I went camping in Trinity California ... must have been late 60's early 70's. It was with some skydiver friends of my mothers and I was under 10 years old myself. The most fun camping I've ever had in my entire life!!

The drive on a dirt road to get there to meet up with the family that had already been there for a week took us longer than we thought and we arrived after dark. It was mystical, and we were amazed that we were actually able to find them.

This is because it was off-season, and there were no other campers in the park. We had notified the Park Rangers that we were there so they came to collect the rubbish once a week.

It was total freedom. Me and the other kids ran around nekid (it was the 60's afterall), and us girls were amazed at how easy it was to pee that way... We played in the streams and crawled on the beaver dam. Nature (and only nature) was our beautiful world.

Anyway, we had been putting veggie scraps in a circle of rocks, and at night the deer would come to feed. And the first night there, I heard this LOUD snorting sound that woke me up and standing right over my mom (who was on a cot) was a 10 point Buck! It was scary, but exhilarating.

The sad part of this story is that one evening, when we were talking story and singing folk songs and making smoors over the campfire, up on the road above our campground we saw a truck or car, with very bright lights! We hadn't seen another human in over 2 weeks (other than the park ranger guy who came to collect the rubbish) and we were all wondering who the heck it was.

Then we heard the Shot!! Motherfuckers were hunting (it was not deer season) at night with spotlights (totally illegal!) and they shot one of our magical deer.

They "gut" shot a pregnant doe, so she suffered (for probably 15 hours or so) before she died. We found her the next day, I'll never forget it. She was one of the deer that had come around the camp during the day.

It broke my heart, and made me hate hunters (with a fiery passion). The night of the gunshot, the father in the family we were camping with ran up the hill and was able to get the license plate number of the illegal hunters, and you can bet your sweet bippy that we reported them.

I don't know if the law ever caught up to them, but I sure do hope so. It really soured one of the most magical times of my youth.

I love nature. Through the years, I have seen many animals in the wild, Bighorn Sheep at the bottom of the Grand Canyon (they really can climb up incredibly steep cliffs), Beavers slapping a warning when they saw us fishing, Strange little creatures that squacked at us and hid in the holes in a rock slide at a mountain top lake... probably more than I can relate here.

I want to thank Stuart G for posting this, allowing me to stroll down memory lane. Reminding me of how much I love nature. I sure do hope the law caught up with those illegal hunters, but I'll never know one way or the other.