BackWoods Drifter

An animal I very much enjoy encountering on those rare occasions is the fox. This is a gray fox.

Sometimes it is difficult distinguishing between the gray fox and it’s cousin the red fox. Since they both have the silvery coat for a time, the only real way to know which one you are looking at is the tip of the tail, the gray fox has a black tip and the red fox has a white tip.

A unique feature to this canine is the cat-like eyes. The fox has vertical slits for pupils just like a cat but unlike the cat the fox is said to have rather poor eyesight.

Back in my late teens I was out hunting with a friend one day when we encountered two gray fox. We were squirrel hunting on a ridge line and these two fox came running down the hill like their tails were on fire. They were flat moving on. Passing my friend and I at less than twenty feet away they went over the ridge line in a cloud of leaves. When the initial shock wore off both of us ran to the edge of the ridge to look down in the hollow for the fox.

The hollow was one of those that is pretty much wide open. You can see way down the hollow and to the ridge lines on either side. There was no way they could have disappeared that fast but yet they were nowhere to be seen. I always remember this little story so well because I will never forget what my friend asked me, “do they climb trees?” At the time I thought that was the funniest thing I had ever heard. The laugh was on me though because the gray fox does in fact climb trees and they are quite good at it. I’ve had the opportunity to witness that a couple times since then.

There are many things I love about living in the mountains, wildlife encounters is one.