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July 15, 2006
Wildlife + (some) Americans = No Good
So, I have been very busy with school the past month, however, there has still been time for some "fun". The most exciting adventure was during the Canada day long weekend when Jon and I traveled to the Olympic Peninsula for a couple of days of hiking and camping. What an amazing park that is! The only thing I was a bit upset about was the fact that the deer appear to be completely tame. I am assuming it is because of the mass numbers of park visitors that come annually, most of whom have never left a city. Being inexperienced in the woods, (naive), they believe a deer should eat out of their hands?!?! Anyways, at our campsite there were 6 resident deer that were never more than 20 meters from us, and while dinner was being prepared, never more than 5-10 meters away. This was regardless of how much we screamed at them, or how many rocks that were tossed in their direction, (idea to startle them and have them run away). The deer thought the rocks were food and came closer, we quickly stopped doing this.
So after three days and two nights of being stalked by deer we headed back to the MV Coho ferry. We were there early and I spent a couple hours in the parking lot studying for my instrumentation class. The window was opened and I was able to catch another wonderful interaction between the public and the wild animals.
“EEEWWWWWW-EEEEEEE, honey there is a RACCCCCOOOOONNNNN!” Shrieked the rather obese and obtuse woman in the pickup beside us. “EVERYBODY, look a raccoon! Son and daughter and husband, everybody must get out of the truck and look at the raccoon. Let’s feed it!” She waddled over munching on her jumbo bag of cheezies.
With a chubby arm she placed a handful of the puffs in front of the “wild” animal. The raccoon sniffed them and turned away. “IT WANTS CHEESE OR MEAT!” she hollered at no one in particular as she managed her way back to the truck. “Husband, pop open the back! I need to find some real food.”
A few minutes pass, and then I see the large figure walk past the car window with something grasp tightly in her hand. “Jeezus,” I heard Jon mutter under his breathe, “that women is feeding that varmint 10 dollars worth of edam.” Sure enough the lady placed this block of cheese in front of the raccoon. There was much more interest this time from the pest, (the raccoon, not the lady), and it took the mound of cheese down to the water, no doubt to give it a good washing.
Posted by jmclean at July 15, 2006 09:02 AM