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[arimaBOATER]

Living in our apts or homes (cement jungles) can be rather routine unless there's a car accident nearby or something like that.
But I find that it's when one ventures into the more wilderness areas there are things that can surprize or even down right come across "things" that are hard to explain.
Let me give an example of both.
As for a "surprize" example : The setting was Loon Lk (NE of Cache Cr.) in the Fall at the Gov. campsite. Only one other camper was there, in a class C motor home. As night fall set in the area just got pitch dark.  I could hardly see my hand infront of my face.
Got comfortable in my sleeping bag & extra blankets & just laid there thinking about the day.
Driving on the highway,seeing the nice mountains & valleys & people one meets along the way either at the gas stations or wherever.... It was also so quiet...like so totally quiet.     25 min. later was just about to fall to sleep then suddenly "all hell broke loose" Sounded like only 30 yards away a pack of wolves attacking & killing a deer or something. Attack was so loud but over in about 30 secs. Then total silence again like as if nothing happened. My heart was racing...finally in about 1.5 hrs I fell asleep.
       "Hard to explain" this one. While biking along the side of the Pitt River I decided to look into a small ditch & saw 2 fish heads next to each other. Gills were moving & fish were in a natural position; only that 2/3's of their body was missing !!! ( otter attack?)

[Matt]

Sure gets the heart racing when you hear stuff like that, let alone in the dark alone miles away from the nearest phone.  I was camping with a buddy up near Island Lake this summer, only truck on the lake.  When a very large animal went through breaking sticks as it went.  First thought was where's the cooler (on the roof, strapped down).   Turns out it was just a fat cow judging by the cow surprise left all over teh place in the morning;D  After a couple wobbly pops the next night my buddy thought it would be funny to try and ride a cow when we came across teh herd lying down.  He almost succeeded in stampeding the heard back through camp

Trolling in Shuswap once, I snagged down 60'... in 200' of water.  Trolled that area countless times, and never found any sunken islands.  None on the map either.  I was able to pull the snag loose in the end

[Sam Salmon]

The last time I was @ Loon Lake the guy in a cabin across the lake from that campground was playing Led Zeppelin 111 @ super loud volume.

Easy to explain-he's a degenerate red neck alcoholic who has NFC.

[arimaBOATER]

Matt Ya that would be hard to explain when at 60 ft ya would snag onto something when the depth is 200 ft.
Only thing I can think of was the possibility of some tree that was so water logged it kinda was at that depth (tree or log was floating but as time went by it became kinda like 1/2 sinking 1/2 floating if that makes any sense...to word it that way. Then you hooked into it. If it was heavy & big enough it would of felt like a snag.
As far as cattle go in the back country; it is surprizing how cattle ranchers let their cattle roam the wilderness eating wild grass then as winter comes the cattle come back down to the valleys. I've come across cattle way on top of mountain tops which totally surprized me. (sam salmon ...so much for peace & quiet at Loon Lk. that night ha)
As far as the 2 fish that I told about I can imagine alot would think I'm trying to fool yous BUT "honest to God" seen it with my own eyes !
Judging by the size of heads the fish were about maybe 14-18inches long before whatever bite off 2/3's of their bodies. They were coarse fish but to see one but two next to each other!!! (well one was about 6in behind & 4in to the side) Both sitting there with the mouths moving & gills openning & closing...in a natural fish position. Even called the university to explain what I saw. (this was about 1988 or so...do not remember exactly) Along dyke east side of Pitt R. north of the Alouette R mouth & by a pump house (if I remember corectly) Most things a person can guess or figure out but this really had me baffled. Only thing I could think of was otters just devoured 2/3 of their body minutes before & the nerves of these fish were still active.  Seen about 4 otters in that area before so that has got to be it.

[whereismyfloat]

When I first got my new float tube (many moons ago) I went up to Island on a Friday afternoon after work with a buddy. It was dark when we got to the roads leading into the lake behind the mine. Naturally, we decided we could navigate our way through the pitch black being young and stupid. Needless to say - we got lost. So we pulled the truck off to the side of a logging road out in the middle of nowhere and set up camp. Camp consisted of taking the tarp off the truck and folding it over the side of the truck to form a lean to. I drove a small Mazda back then and sleeping in the cab wasn't going to work. So we slept in the bags under the lean to. In the morning I awoke to the breaking of branches. I was all curled up in the fetal position, hiding from bugs,  staring underneath the truck bed at the bushes when out pops a bull moose about 25 feet from me. Very cool.

I also had an experience up at the Skagit one time. I was tubing in the mouth of the river at Ross Lake, floating the channels that flow from the reservoir. I had a great day there but it was time to pack up and head back to the truck. I kicked over to the side of one of the deep channels, packed up the tube and began to climb the 4-5ft side wall (water level was low). Just as I got to the top of the wall it happened. A beautiful black bear had made it's way to the edge to look down into the channel to see what all the splashing was about! I must have only been about 10 -15 ft from him and we were literally eye to eye. I'm not sure who was more scared - me or him. As soon as he saw me, he reared up and bolted for cover. He ran about 50 yards to a tree stump where he proceed to stand on his back legs and watch me make my way back to the truck.

After witnessing the bear population up at Ross I would suspect that I'm not the only one with a story to tell.

[dennisK]

Living in our apts or homes (cement jungles) can be rather routine unless there's a car accident nearby or something like that.
But I find that it's when one ventures into the more wilderness areas there are things that can surprize or even down right come across "things" that are hard to explain.
Let me give an example of both.
As for a "surprize" example : The setting was Loon Lk (NE of Cache Cr.) in the Fall at the Gov. campsite. Only one other camper was there, in a class C motor home. As night fall set in the area just got pitch dark.  I could hardly see my hand infront of my face.
Got comfortable in my sleeping bag & extra blankets & just laid there thinking about the day.
Driving on the highway,seeing the nice mountains & valleys & people one meets along the way either at the gas stations or wherever.... It was also so quiet...like so totally quiet.     25 min. later was just about to fall to sleep then suddenly "all hell broke loose" Sounded like only 30 yards away a pack of wolves attacking & killing a deer or something. Attack was so loud but over in about 30 secs. Then total silence again like as if nothing happened. My heart was racing...finally in about 1.5 hrs I fell asleep.
       "Hard to explain" this one. While biking along the side of the Pitt River I decided to look into a small ditch & saw 2 fish heads next to each other. Gills were moving & fish were in a natural position; only that 2/3's of their body was missing !!! ( otter attack?)

finally, an existentialist.