Tahoe National Forest 2
Once again we find ourselves back in the Tahoe National Forest. This time both spouses are with us. We set up camp for we were going to be there a few days. Once we had everything settled in we decided to start exploring and to see where we would set up bait, game cameras and a good listening post for at night. After we had checked the area, My wife and i wondered on our own. We climbed to the top of the ridge, then down again, crossed the dirt road to the very bottom where we heard a lot of frog activity. I knew there would be a water source and hopefully tracks. One of the videos shows us getting to the source. The only tracks around the area were hoof tracks. The location would have been a great nighttime listening post, but it would have been very hard to get there being we had to traverse a lot of vegetation. Plus earlier in the day we had already marked our evening listening post. At about an hour after dark, my sister and I got ready to head up the ridge to our listening post. The spouses stayed behind at base camp. We headed up our path and needed to go about 300 yards up the ridge. It was very dark and only with flashlight could we navigate. About a 3rd of the way up we had what I now know was a cougar cross our path about 50 ft in front of us. It startled me because I as not expecting it. (there is video but not of the cougar, only the time we saw it.) We paused a moment to get our minds right. I always carry a side arm, so I felt it was safe for us to continue up the path to our listening post.
We reached our spot and we set up on a stump with our backs to each other. After about 30 minutes of very peace and quiet, I could here noises down in the valley opposite of where we had come from. I asked my sister if she could here it to, and she said yes. Then I asked her, what does that sound like, she stated, ""It sounds like gorillas"", and I agreed and said that is exactly what I was thinking. I would like to mention that for a while we were up there, the cougar would make it self known by circling us not to far off from time to time. So we were very high on our senses. The whole time I had my 9mm in my hand just in case. After we stopped hearing the ""gorilla"" noises below us, It was very quiet once again. Maybe after an hour of complete silence, we started to here in the distance further up the hill something walking coming towards us. It was moving slowly stopping at times. As it got closer, my outdoors experience told me it was a deer. So we decided just to see how close it would get to us. Once I knew it was right on the tree line I jumped up with my flashlight and ran in its direction, at that moment another deer that was only 20 feet away that We never heard snorted and scared the living daylights out of me. My heart was racing, my sister kind of panicked because I ""Left"" her, but she totally forgot she had this massive spot light in her hand she never turned on. Needless to say after all the commotion, we headed back down to base camp.
Late that night my wife woke me to use the bathroom, she did not want to go alone, and off in the distance we did hear a few tree knocks.
Author: Mike/Cindie
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