Once in a lifetime thing that you've seen in the outdoors??

[gordy28]

Ive had a few - but this one is top of mind

Had one two weekends ago - on the golf course

Friend hits his ball over some trees and into a farmers field - we are waiting shot to shot so I venture into the "forest" really a strip of trees maybe 10 feet deep

Just before I step into the field (keep in mind I am scanning everywhere on the ground for said golf ball) I almost step on something - like when you get up early in the am and almost walk on your dog - I cant of jump to the right and look

A small fawn - head up, breathing slow - just sitting there - didnt move, didnt flinch just sat there - called my buddy over - he came through, fawn still just sat there

Not sure if it was the heat (was 33 degrees out) or it just heard us coming and froze - but I have never seen that before - see lots of Deer at my fther in laws place - does, bucks, fawns - but the moment they hear/see/smell you they bolt

Edited August 10, 2012 by gordy28

[OhioFisherman]

While fishing a tournament here in Ohio at Alum creek lake. My partner and I were beating the banks in a quiet cove and kept hearing noises up in a tree. He said squirrel, I said it sounds too big to be a squirrel. After a look around to see? There was a groundhog up in a tree, maybe 10-12 feet off the ground. The only one I have ever seen off the ground.

[Moosebunk]

Early afternoon March 12, 2000.

 

About 2 1/2 miles outside of Attawapiskat I had been walking the Diamond Mine Road north. I stopped for lunch having a tuna sandwich and hot chocolate from my thermos, I just sat down in the middle of the abandoned road on a long straight stretch. It was absolutely DEAD quiet. Every chew and gulp were the only sounds heard until finishing my food, then it was just my breath. No wind... silent.

 

To both sides of me were the stunted black spruce one would find in the muskeg. Not thick like jungle, it was dense enough that you could only see in and through the bush various short distances. Being that it was March, there had actually been a mild spell of weather that compressed the snow, and now it had all refroze to hard pack off the trails that in most places I could walk atop the crust and not break through.

 

When deciding to walk on I got up and took a few steps before an eerie feeling shot straight up through my spine like a bullet. To my left, something inside the spruce and invisible to me took steps as well and then stopped just one of two seconds after I did. It was loud enough that it was breaking through the snows crust making that crushing sound. Dead in my tracks I paused, listened a moment but heard nothing more. I began to walk on and only got a few more steps in before whatever was in the bush began walking again. Same thing... loud steps from something I could not see, but I felt that this thing in the bush was right on top of me. When I stopped, it took a step then stopped as well. I waited longer, scanning the bush, looking into every shadow in the spruce, heart pounding in my chest. Nothing??? Again, I took some steps and the same thing happened. Crunch, crunch, crunch and it stopped an instant too late after I stopped. It was at this point I pulled my knife from the sheath at my hip. It was a knife like the one Rambo has, with the hollow handle for putting stuff in, the compass on the butt and a good long solid blade. There'd be no outrunning whatever was in the bush, not in Sorels and heavy clothing, in the middle of nowhere's nowhere along a long stretch of vacant ice road. With the knife in my hand I tried to tease steps out of whatever was stalking me, but now it was gone. I didn't hear another sound.

 

My plan was to walk another mile or so up the road, then use a bush trail to loop me back to the Monument Channel and walk that river home. On route I stumbled upon a well used game trail and followed it into the bush until it ended in a tiny clearing where all the tracks cirled about but must have left the way they came. On eight of the trees there was orange tape that I noticed first, before then seeing the chains go under the snow. It was then I realized I'd walked into traps set by someone and was very likely standing on top of some. But, as I said before, the thaw and refreeze had made the snow crusty and I could walk atop of it. And, at the time I was only about 160 pounds. I didn't know if the traps were set, I just very gingerly retraced my steps out of the clearing.

 

Whatever had been in the bush that day broke through the crust with every step it took.

[SylvanOwner]

Great thread Dan!!! Some really terrific stories coming out, mine is not about something scary....unless you have a butterfly phobia

 

A little over 20 years ago I was invited to stay for a few days at a cottage on Long Point (north shore of Lake Erie). The three of us went for a walk in the marsh and on the way back came across a Monarch butterfly migration. All the butterflys were landed on the vegetation on either side of the trail and were so thick there was more butterfly than leaves for about a 100m stretch. Not one of us had brough a camera with us and it was getting a bit late in the day so we decided we'd come back the next morning and take pictures. The wind and temperatures must have been perfect for an attempt across the lake because when we went back the next day there wasn't a single Monarch to be found.

Edited August 10, 2012 by SylvanOwner

[NAW]

 

Whatever had been in the bush that day broke through the crust with every step it took.

 

Samswatch!! No question in my mind..

[danbouck]

When I was young I had stayed over at my Grandparents house and we had seen a completely white buck standing beside the forest. We decided to get a little closer and we were able to walk right up to it. We were literally 1 foot away from him and I was able to pet him. I wish we had a picture.

[davis]

Great stuff. I think I posted this one a while ago in another thread, but hands down the weirdest sight I've ever experienced in the outdoors was when a deer swam out to the boat me and my 2 friends were fishing in on a small'ish river, circled us (close enough to reach out and touch it) and then attempted to get in the boat. We couldn't believe what we were seeing, and managed to snap a couple of shots on the disposable camera we had with us. After getting over the initial shock we decided it'd be best to move away from the crazy deer - plus my friend who owned the boat was pissed about it getting whacked by the deer's hooves. It swam after us for a few mins before heading back to shore and stalked us from the shoreline for the next hour. We later learned from some locals further down the river that it was most likely a "tame" deer that many of the cottagers fed on a regular basis. We thought the thing had some sort of disease. I doubt we'll ever experience something like that again.

[DoubleDigits]

My brother and I were fishing off Moreton Island, Australia, in his 19 ' boat when a pod of very frisky humpbacks came just about as close as you would want. The whales were a common sight at that time of year, but it was something else to look over the side and see the blue water turn black. I could make out the barnacles and texture of its back as it slowly glided under us, so close I could have dipped my 7' rod into the water and touched it. He came to the surface about 25 feet beside us, side on, and just sort of floated there looking at us as if to show how huge he was. He gave a sort of hostile kick of the tail and left us alone.

 

A few days later in the same area we witnessed at very close range, humpbacks herding up and feeding on massive schools of bait. We were marking huge balls of bait when the surface began to bubble and boil not far from the boat. Big clouds of air bubbles were rising to the surface. Our first thought was some sort of gas being released from the bottom, until the big open mouth of a whale came up through the foam and took a giant gulp of fish, which we could make out, flying out of the water. The feeding continued as we drifted away, and when I got home I looked it up, and sure enough, humpback whales do that!

 

Once a friend and I pulled over to pee at the side of a logging road not far from Cobalt, Ontario. As I stared into the bush, I saw a lynx (much bigger that I thought they were!) about 15 feet away, staring straight at me. He stood motionless for 10 seconds or so, then disappeared.

Edited August 10, 2012 by DoubleDigits

[CRUD150]

Great thread!

 

One that come to mind vividly:

 

My wife an I were snowmobiling back into Cochrane from Quebec late one season in April. It is about a 100 mile stretch and we had not seen one other sled on the trail the whole way. About 15 miles before Cochrane we came across three lynx on the trail, moma and two cubs that were nearly as tall as her. As we slowed and aproached, mom went left and sat in the pines only about 3 yards off the trail, the cubs broke off trail to the right. My wife pulled up behind me and started to fumble around trying to get the camera out. As I looked back to see what was taking her so long, she started pointing ahead of me and could only articulate a "woo .... wooo", her eyes went as big as saucers. I turned and looked ahead to see that the two cubs had come back onto the trail and were calmly sniffing around the front bumper of my sled! ( an Arctic Cat of course). After what seemed like a long time but was probably only 30 seconds, with two very large wild cats at an arms length, moma let out a long low growl and the two cubs imediatley obeyed and skipped off into the bush and quickley disappeared into the pines with moma. It took us a while before we picked our jaws up out of the snow and even began to speak about the amazing encounter we just expirienced!

 

 

[jimmer]

So many amazing stories by everyone!

1) Sitting quietly while bow hunting, heard a rustle close by, turned to look and it was a coyote/bush wolf sitting about 10 feet away looking at me. Next think you know he was howling at me and I broke out laughing.

2) Just this spring while lake trout fishing there was a family of mergansers swimming across the lake when there was a splash, my buddy said "did you see that?" He thought a fish had grab one of the chicks, but then it happened again and we realized it was loons attacking them from underneath. The loons didn't let up until the chicks were nowhere to be seen.

3)I live on the lake and like most we have a goose problem. Coming in from fishing the other day there was a bunch of them relaxing on the neighbours lawn. I took a second look and there was a fox walking around between them all like they were a big happy family. I was hoping that fox liked eating goose! :-)

4)Watched a small hawk from my pool pluck every feather out of his dinner and then feast. He didn't care that I was watching.

Edited August 10, 2012 by jimmer

[kemper]

I forgot a good one...nature from the great INdoors!

 

Sitting at the kitchen table having a coffee and looking out the window with my old man (we live in suburbia). All of the sudden this streak of grey flashes past the window and slams into the lawn, feathers flying everywhere. Some type of bird of prey (I don't know much about birds) had come down and knocked a smaller bird out of the air and pummelled it into the ground, killing it instantly.

 

The hawk (falcon?) grabbed the victim in its talons and flew away. My dad and I were left staring in awe and couldn't manage to say anything other than "COOL!".

[Rod Caster]

Great thread idea Dan!

 

1- I was reeling in my line, watching my lure as it approached the boat. Just as I was pulling my lure out of the water, a huge silhouette rushes up towards my lure, makes a huge splash in the water, jumps out of the water and..... fly's away! haha, I took me a few seconds to realize this was not a flying fish but a loon/duck. Completely messed me up for a few seconds, I thought I was losing my mind.

 

2- While I lived in Alert for a few months the local Arctic wolves would nip at our boots and snow pants while walking around. The first time I walked onto the tundra alone I was surrounded by this pack of 6 or 7 very tall wolves. They just eyed me out for a while and then turned. I later learned after telling my story, that the wolves were just looking for me to kick up some lemmings or rabbits from the rocks.

 

Those are the two that come to mind

[ctranter]

I have two instances to share.

 

The first happened when I was 12 or 13 and we were heading in to town to grab groceries at the cottage by car. A huge cougar leaped out of the bushes, nearly over the hood of the car, in one single jump it had cleared the road and was long gone in the bushes. We are in the Parry Sound area and haven't spotted another since.

 

The second (hopefully not once in a lifetime) happened just a few days ago when I realized we had wild, nesting Peregrine Falcons on our property. I was there with a friend and he snapped some great shots, which may be once in a lifetime images. If he gets me the pics soon, I'll post one!

[danc]

Some great reads here guys. Thanks for sharing.

 

One more from me that is similar to trevy727's story of the cat chasing the rabbit across the road. About a dozen years ago I spent the summer in Nakina working on a new sawmill. With lots of daylight after work, of course we went fishing practically every night. We had heard of a lake to try which was about a 10 mile drive down a gravel road. There were rabbits every 50 yards or so along this road. Suddenly a rabbit being chased by a Lynx came running out of the bush and ran along side of our truck and at the same speed. This pair was not 5 feet from the truck and they continued to run along side of us for at least 5 seconds. What an amazing sight that was. The obviously hungry Lynx didn't care at all about us in the truck. The only thing on his mind was dinner. It all ended when the rabbit turned back into the bush with the Lynx right on his tail.

[JoshS]

Neat thread. I've not spent a ton of time in northern ontario but down here I saw a hawk grab a squirrel from a tree in my backyard in the city. I had a group of 6 deer walk right past me last winter on the credit like I wasn't even there, could of touched them with my float rod.

 

Do you remember that thread about pike swimming with their head out of water? Well, the first time I saw it I was at a cottage with a bunch of friends long ago and we found an old spear lying around. We were hooting and hollering and jokingly/drunkingly someone yelled, "let's go spear a fish!!" (I know, I know). We proceeded to the dock in the middle of the night to see a big pike swim right up to the foot of the dock in the moonlight with it's head out of the water while I stood there with a big spear in my hand staring at it completely amazed. I obviously didn't spear it to my friends dismay (makes me laugh thinking about it) but still cannot believe it came right up to us under those circumstances.

 

For the record I would never spear a fish HAHA and took the reigns of the spear that night just in case it landed in the wrong hands.

 

One time at a remote lake in Quebec I was fishing off a dock at dawn and a spherical ball of light (baseball size to the eye) cleared the horizon and ripped across the sky. Not sure what the heck that was.

[crappieperchhunter]

One time I was a backseat passenger on the drive home from ice fishing on Nip. I looked out the window of the car and saw a group of sparrows flying out in the middle of an empty field towards the tree line on one side. Up in the treeline behind them on an old dead treetop was a hawk. He swooped down from his perch and headed straight for the sparrows about 100 yards away. When he was within 50 feet of the sparrows they knew something was up and split off all in different directions. He homed in on one of them. It was zigging and zagging all over the place but he matched it move for move and was gaining. Finally he caught up to it and nailed it with a claw. There was a small puff of feathers on impact. The last thing we saw before we drove past was him lumbering back up to his perch with his prize.

[Acountdeleted]

These are probably ho hum for most of the OFC members but for me they will always stand out.

 

When I was tree planting in Hearst on the first day and last day of the season I saw the Northern Lights. The first night it was like a living breathing mass, slowly expanding and contracting, the last night it was entirly stationary but looked like a race track that started miles off in the distance and hooked right above where we were.

 

Another year of tree plant I saw the starting point of a rainbow which I had never seen before, saw an upside down rainbow once which was really cool.

 

To be perfectly honest though the things that I most classify as "once in a lifetime" would be the sunsets on the lakes in North Western Ontario, Kenora, Dryden and the like on the fly in lakes. It was hard being at some of those and realizing I will probabally never be there again.

[misfish]

Great post/thread Dan. I have been pondering,and for the sake of me,I have not come close to anything you guys have seen. There is one ,well ,it's ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

 

One day I was sitting in the back yard. I seen this young gal walk by. Cant say what it was,but I got up,walked towards her and introduced myself.It was ,ELECTRIC,. The rest is history.

 

Does that count?

[crappieperchhunter]

 

 

 

One day I was sitting in the back yard. I seen this young gal walk by. Cant say what it was,but I got up,walked towards her and introduced myself.It was ,ELECTRIC,. The rest is history.

 

Does that count?

 

Did you capture the event with a picture something like the one trouty shared with us

[backbay]

These are probably ho hum for most of the OFC members but for me they will always stand out.

 

When I was tree planting in Hearst on the first day and last day of the season I saw the Northern Lights. The first night it was like a living breathing mass, slowly expanding and contracting, the last night it was entirly stationary but looked like a race track that started miles off in the distance and hooked right above where we were.

 

Another year of tree plant I saw the starting point of a rainbow which I had never seen before, saw an upside down rainbow once which was really cool.

 

To be perfectly honest though the things that I most classify as "once in a lifetime" would be the sunsets on the lakes in North Western Ontario, Kenora, Dryden and the like on the fly in lakes. It was hard being at some of those and realizing I will probabally never be there again.

 

I consider seeing the Northern lights to be a birthright of all Canadians. a wondrous and beautiful thing, for sure.

[misfish]

Did you capture the event with a picture something like the one trouty shared with us

 

 

Sorry,I didnt Steve.

 

I treated her like a woman.

Edited August 10, 2012 by Misfish

[backbay]

Sorry,I didnt Steve.

 

But, Brian, did she?????

[danc]

 

 

To be perfectly honest though the things that I most classify as "once in a lifetime" would be the sunsets on the lakes in North Western Ontario, Kenora, Dryden and the like on the fly in lakes. It was hard being at some of those and realizing I will probabally never be there again.

 

Tough to beat the sunsets up here Jeremy. They don't call it "Sunset Country" for nothing.

 

One last quick story from me guys. I'd hazzard to guess that not one other person on the planet has seen what I'm about to describe.

 

The Minnesota border is only a half hour drive from Thunder Bay, where I live. We go there often. Near the U.S/ Canada border, on the Canadian side, resides a taxidermist. He has a sign out along the highway advertising his business. A few years ago, Nita and I were on our way to Minnesota to pick up some packages. As we approached the taxidermists sign, we noticed a bear standing upright on it's back legs not two feet away from the sign. Wow. Good advertising I thought. It looks so real. This guy does nice work! I don't know why I did, but I looked in my rear view mirror after we passed the sign and the bear. What I saw next blew my mind. The bear dropped down on all fours and proceeded to run across the highway. It was a real bear. I've seen hundreds and hundreds of bears in the wild, but this is the first and only time that I've seen one standing upright. Just like you'd see a bear mounted by a taxidermist. Absolutely true story.

[mercman]

Quite a few years ago, i used to Hunt.I was deer hunting in Rawdon Quebec, just north east of Montreal, with a firend.We slit up at a fork in the trail around 3PM.I was walking quietly through the fallen leaves, and decided to take a quick pee break.

I engaged the safety on my browning, and lay it on the ground and prepared to relieve myself. I stood there enjoying the feeling of solitude, when i felt watched.I very slowly turned my head to peek behind me, and when i did, i almost fainted. No more than 20 feet from me, and standing on the trail in plain view, was a huge,fully antlered Bull Moose.It was so close i could smell it and here its breathing.I have no idea how it got so close without me seeing or hearing it.

After what seemed like an hour, it grunted, and turned its back to me and trotted off into the bush.I then realized that i had peed on my boots and gun.

[Broker]

One more for me too ,

 

Waterspout- Camping at rockpoint on lake erie near dunnville, it was packing day as we were heading home. We wanted to go for one more stroll on the beach before we went home, so off we went and someman come screaming tornado !!! we turn around and notice a huge water spout over lake erie coming towards us an sudden soaking of rain and gusty winds came through and we went running for the bathrooms as it was the only solid building aroud! Scary moment for sure