Fox in the Lost Creek Wilderness - a photo on Flickriver

            The fox story:

I had been feeling a bit sorry for myself. I had intended to head out on the trail Sunday, but a tire problem that resulted in multiple failed attempts at a fix delayed me until Monday. I finally got on the trail a bit late at noon. The trailhead was in the Hayman Fire scar, so I was concerned that the trail might not be as scenic as hoped. But I was headed first up to Harmonica Arch, a detour from the main trail that takes you up the opposite of the creek from the main trail and in the nice cool forest. A couple of miles along, the side trail takes a hard left turn and proceeds steeply up for a mile before depositing you out on a big stone basin amid various domes. A real grunt, and when I got to the top, I was pretty tired. There I realized I had lost the map! So I was forced to use the nebulous guide book I had along. I had great vistas out over the surrounding area, but couldn't figure out where the arch was. I thought I must be directly above it, but couldn't see how to get around to it without falling off a cliff. I tried a few places but finally retreated into the stone basin to sit down and puzzle over the guide book again.

As I was sitting there feeling flummmoxed, the fox trotted out from behind some boulders about 50 feet away. It jumped when it saw me and ran partly up the basin but stopped. So I whistled at it. It cocked its head and sat down and started scratching itself. I whistled again, and it got up and walked slowly down to me. When it got about 30 feet away, I said, "Whoa, you better stop there." It sat down and stared at me. So I proceeded to tell it my tale of sorrow about not finding the arch. It did a big stretch and lay down. After a while of talking, I went back to the book and pieced together from the features in the basin where the path to the arch might be. So I stood up. The fox got up. I started walking toward where I thought the arch was. The fox followed me. It was about 20 feet behind me when I said, "Look you can't come with me. So you stop right now and stay here." The fox looked at me for a bit, then walked a few yards away in the basin and lay down with its head on its paws. I felt a bit bad for speaking so sternly, but it couldn't be helped. I looked back as I turned a corner and the fox hadn't moved.

Well, I found the arch. I had been on the right course much earlier but just hadn't gone far enough. I photographed it from a few angles while trying not to fall into abyss below, and finally after about 45 minutes, I returned to the basin. The fox was right where I had left it. It perked up when it saw me, so I walked over and sat down maybe 40 feet away. I told it about my success finding the arch, and then went back to the book to figure out what was next. Finally, I said to the fox, "Well it was nice meeting you, but I have to go." So I stood up. The fox stood up. I said, "Bye!" and the fox turned and trotted up the basin, and I headed back down.

Taken on: August 2, 2021

Tags:

hiking

backpacking

mountains

rockies

colorado

fox

animals

Nikon D780

Nikon 70-300mm F/4.5-5.6E AF-P

wild

aegerter

Nikkor

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Sets appears in: • Wildlife • Lost wilderness more » • Hiking 2021 • 5000+ Views « less

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Camera: Nikon D780, f/22.0, 1/50 sec, 300mm, ISO 400 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D780
Aperture:	f/22.0
Exposure Time:	0.02 sec (1/50)
Focal Length:	300mm
ISO:	400
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Snapseed 2.0
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