BackWoods Drifter

I was in the mountains all day yesterday. I didn’t camp as I had thought about doing mainly because after about 12 hours of riding and taking photos I was ready for a shower and a comfortable bed.

I was lucky to see a variety of wildlife yesterday which included two deer, five bear, and countless turkey. I have come to the obvious conclusion that while sitting on or riding an ATV you will not get very good, if any, wildlife photos.

The five bear included two encounters. The first with a lone bear and the second with a mommy and three cubs. I would have loved to have gotten the family on a photo. The cubs are still not much bigger than a house dog and to see them take off running at the sound of my ATV, it was actually quite funny. They are still uncoordinated as hell and were falling all over each other. I know it was because of fear and for that I hated it but I did stop and kill the motor as soon as I saw them.

I didn’t come home completely photoless. My exploring actually led onto a clear-cut mountain by accident. That is one thing about mountaintop removal coal mining, you can find it whether you’re looking for it or not. Anyway the photos from that are on the Stop MTR blog. I also came back with some pretty decent photos from the top of a mountain looking into Raleigh County. I’m going to post my favorite to the Bolt Mtn. blog as soon as I am done here.

It seemed as if yesterday was my day to meet new families. Not long before the bears I came upon a turkey hen and her young ones. One of the youngsters is in the first photo and I’d have to say fear is what taught this little fellow to fly. He wasn’t very good at it but he was good enough to put distance between us. I’d say that is mission accomplished.

All the while the youngsters are making their grand escape, mommy is cackling softly from the safety of her perch. Lucky for her I did have a camera and wasn’t turkey hunting because if she was hiding from me she could have picked a better spot.