20 replies to this topic

[Dianne]

Thank you for the info. I love it when people give animals credit for their intelligence. And their fight for protection or hunt...not just because they feel like it.
How great for you to be able to be near cats and bears.
(You know, house cats will sit somewhere up high and watch the goings on like that)

[Rhonda]

You said trust your instincts. Well, one time my grown son and I were hiking to Cub Lake in the early fall and we were going up the steep switchbacks through the aspen grove on the moraine, and just as we were turning a corner on one of the upper switchbacks, we both smelled a strong "wild" smell and both felt the hair on our necks stand up. We quickly moved along without saying anything about it to each other until later, but then we talked about it a little further up the trail and we both felt sure that a wild animal was somewhere close by. It was just a gut feeling combined with that definite strong smell that was hard to describe. We felt like something, maybe a bear, had been in that spot just moments before we came along. It was kind of creepy, but neat that we both had the same thoughts and feeling, and both chose to wait a while to say something for fear of spooking the other one.

Rhonda

[foxfire]

Sharon and myself both beleive we smelled cat at a certain area along The North Fork of The Big Thompson Trail! At the time we past nether of us mentioned it but we discused it on the way back down past that area! On the way up I felt very uneasy and became and stayed extremely alert! Gives me shivers to this day when I think about it!

Fox

p.s What ever it was, was there and it was close! ---- Ah ---- Ah ----

[John]

That smell follows Aaron around too, even when he's not in the park.

[wjmann]

Oh man I was hoping that I would not hear about an unknown strong smell and the feeling that the hair on the back of your neck standing up. And the creepy feeling....If you google Larry Battson you might understand what I am talking about. I was not even going to bring that up on this fantastic forum, I was trying to stay away from that subject..it just seems to follow me around.

This was an interesting thread before this came up, and now I have to respond! I actually have a similar story from when I was growing up... I was in the woods with a friend (in IL) and stopped as we came upon an area with a lot of dense undergrowth. I couldn't see anything, but I just stopped because I felt something (had the hair on the back of my neck stand too) then something bolted away leaving the leaves and trees swinging from the ground to about 6-8 feet (judging from my memory of being a 10 year old - it seemed like it was 15ft then!). And the area I lived in did have a local legend about it - the Cole Street Monster - so who knows, maybe that influenced my feelings. To this day, I don't know what it was or what I believe... but I still get chills thinking about it.

But needless to say we didn't go back to that part of the woods.