One of the things that stood out to me on my first BWCA trip was that some of the animals were not afraid of people the way I had been used to before. I've had a family of grouse forage around me and approach close enough to peck my boot, have had the grey jays come into camp to visit, turtles and garter snakes swim right to my feet while I was in plain sight. Saw a wolf that had the sense to take off when the car slowed down.(Excluding the food habituated bears and other animals that have otherwise in some way theatened campers) Anybody else have stories of encounters with unusual animals?

Have had some mice that pretty much figured they were part of the group.

We are a food source for many of them...well, our food is :) And with 200,000 of us passing through each paddling season, they are probably getting somewhat used to us.

Back in the early 80's, we were at Ensign, in the evening, enjoying an adult cocktail, telling hunting lies...er, stories, and we heard a rustling up in the foopack tree...no, IN the foodpack. We dropped it to the ground and a mouse popped up from the pack, ran to the rope, up the rope and sat on the limb from once it came. Big bears are not the problem, it's the little bears!

Non BWCA, but anyway, hows this for a close encounter?

They like our food.

This squirrel thought my chocolate cake smelled and looked good enough to eat. We did NOT share with him, although I suppose we may have dropped crumbs that we didn't know about.

quote bruceye: "Non BWCA, but anyway, hows this for a close encounter?



"

Did you let the poor guy in out of the bugs?

Non BWCA, but cats will one day rule the world. No fear and lots of attitude.

Campsite #1119 at the narrows on Horse Lake is a veritable petting zoo of animals who have obviously become accustomed to humans. Doe, snowshoe hare, red squirrels, Whiskey Jacks, Ground hogs/or squirrels. They came very close and put on quite a show.

Lets see we had a mouse and a rabbit on knife lake. A moose and chip monks plus otters and a duck that show up at the sametime every day on Seagull lake.

These guys fear no one.

quote Mort: "Campsite #1119 at the narrows on Horse Lake is a veritable petting zoo of animals who have obviously become accustomed to humans. Doe, snowshoe hare, red squirrels, Whiskey Jacks, Ground hogs/or squirrels. They came very close and put on quite a show."

Stayed in this site last September and I can attest to the resident red squirrel having no fear of anything.

i was attacked by a rabbit on the trail to the potty chair.

My last trip in August 2011 had a Snowshoe Hare wander through camp, a red squirrel that liked to raid my food bag two feet from my chair with me in it, and a mouse that decided the inside of my main pack was a great place to look for food and use as a restroom....

This guy wasn't afraid at all.

Red squirrels, mice, chipmunks, raccoons and a particularly obnoxious snowshoe hare who planted himself in the middle of the set out dinner.

I want nojobro to tell the story of the shrew? that gave birth to babies in her pack and then moved them to safer ground... or somthin' like that. Amazing.

My brother had a mouse enter his food pack then he tied it up in the tree. Next morning we found that hd had ate his way out of his pack leaving a hole in the pack.
I have had many ducks waddle into camp. One year on Seagull I saw a Grey Jay steal a pancake right of the pile and fly back up on the tree to eat. Also have had a Pine Martin come into camp day after day.

Two Pine Martens chasing a rabbit stampeded right through the middle of camp one morning on Horse Lake last year. We could hear them galloping before we saw them because of the thin soil on top of the ledgerock.

My first trip to the Bwca ep23 camped on Tin Can Mike. It was my first experience with a whisky jack (grey Jay). It was the most fearless bird I had ever seen, would take food right off your shoe. I thought it was the neatest thing, and they have been one of my favorites ever since.

I recall two other incidents:
We were camped on site #43 on Lower Pauness. A couple of us were laying on our backs on the still-warm rock face at dusk, when a swarm of mice came stampeding over our bodies. That sure got our attention. Ha!
The second experience was when we were camping at site #1540 just below and north of Basswood Falls. This huge, ...and I mean HUGE beaver came waddling up the portage trail and right through our campsite to get to the quieter section of rushing water. At first glance I honestly thought that it was a medium-sized dog!

These are good! Man those rodents, they think they own the place!

A Marten chased a squirrel around our campsite for two days. Once running right through my legs while I was sitting on a log. Only stopped when the Marten finally got his meal.

At Big Bend NP you get a bevy of creatures. Vultures sit on top of your shelter house (each site has one for shade), coyotes sit in the roadway and beg, road runners (beep beep) scurry through each campsite performing tricks for treats, and the raccoons can open car doors to get at your coolers.

This pine marten wouldn't take no for an answer.

On the same trip we had a Black Duck hen land in front of camp, swim up on shore and follow us around camp, quaking. She would stick around 'til dark. That gave me the idea of using cardboard cutouts of pigtailed 5 yr. old little girls dropping popcorn, instead of goose decoys when hunting resident(Maximas) Canada geese.

I was at the Sawbill campground sitting in my camp chair reading the BWJ when a red squirrel all of a sudden ran up my shin, jumped from my knee over the magazine, landed on my shoulder, and then jumped through the air behind me. The people in the campground that thought they heard a school girl scream.... well it was a 39 year old man.

May 2010 had a large Beaver jump sort of through the air out of the weeds into the water in front of us on Pocket creek. Bernice, my Chessy almost out of reaction dove in after it, but she caught herself and stayed put. Really startled me... and Bernice. I didn't think a Beaver could jump like that. You had to be there!

nctry, i was paddling up pine lake, hugging the shore as tight as i could to avoid the winds, suddenly a beaver jumped from the steep slope into the lake. he must have done a ten foot belly flop, almost landed in my boat. an unforgettable site, and not glorious.

quote snakecharmer: "This pine marten wouldn't take no for an answer.
"

That pine marten has some big cojones...

Here's the young fearless grouse. Not quite a fearless marten...

This spruce grouse had no issues with us being in his campsite for a long weekend. He seemed to enjoy watching us do dishes.

I had a Short-tailed Weasel watch me set up my tent, on my solo last fall. He was watching me from a birch stump.

quote Zulu: "Two Pine Martens chasing a rabbit stampeded right through the middle of camp one morning on Horse Lake last year. We could hear them galloping before we saw them because of the thin soil on top of the ledgerock."

Last year we base camped, every evening a big rabbit would run through camp and shortly after a pine marten would follow. It happened 3 times and it was always from the same direction.

quote bassnut: "On the same trip we had a Black Duck hen land in front of camp, swim up on shore and follow us around camp, quaking. She would stick around 'til dark. That gave me the idea of using cardboard cutouts of pigtailed 5 yr. old little girls dropping popcorn, instead of goose decoys when hunting resident(Maximas) Canada geese."

LOL Bassnut!

In a group, I think of the friendly critters as photo fodder. Solo, I think of them as company.