# Some hiking/summit photos.



## Leopardess (Mar 14, 2004)

We hiked Welch and ****ey mountains on July 3rd. It was 4.5 miles with a 2000ft. elevation gain (mountains are approx. 3000ft), but some of the sections required rock scrambling. Open ledges are fun, but in scorching sun and dwindling water supplies (long story) - you want out! Of course, going back down was more painful than going up, though less tiring....so even the way down wasn't a relief LOL.

It was about 86F and hot hot hot. The humidity wasn't too bad, so it was actually a great day to go out. Visibility was decent (a little hazy) but it wasn't raining. Rain would have cancelled this particular hike because the ledges are downright treacherous in wet conditions.

Anyway, I put up some of the better photos if anyone was interested.

http://community.webshots.com/album/551976123buKcJR/0


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Once again beautiful shots Leopardess!

That tight spot may wouldn't have been my favorite part of the journey...


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## Leopardess (Mar 14, 2004)

Thanks Jan! And it's funny you say that about the "tight spot", because I was looking forward to it the whole trip! I had seen a picture of that part of the trail before, and the whole way up I kept pestering my husband with "I wonder where that part of the trail is. I know it's here somewhere"!

I think you might have liked it well enough though - it was much cooler in that spot than out of it. Natural refrigerator!


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Well, cool would be better, but the thing I would worry about is snakes (my only phobia) being in there and me not being able to flee fast enough... LOL!
Are there many snakes in the area?


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## Leopardess (Mar 14, 2004)

No, not a lot of snakes. I did see one on the way down, but it was in the woods, in a heavily "rooted" area. It was a measely 7" long.

We don't have any really poisonous snakes as far as I'm concerned. There used to be reports of some Northern Timber Rattlesnakes, but the last wild siting was like 20 years ago or something. The population is down to about 30 individual snakes who live in very secluded areas. In fact, you are supposed to call the state fish and game if you see one of these because they're so endangered.

The only snakes I've seen in the wild have been very small snakes (around 1 foot long) and they've all been running from me as fast as they could. Mostly we have harmless garter snakes and similar species. 

To be honest, snakes aren't even in my radar for danger when on hikes. I am always very cautious for signs of black bear though, because they're everywhere here. I'd rather come face to face with a snake than a black bear anyday!!


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Call it odd, but garter snakes are my biggest phobia of all of them, even though they are harmless and even beneficial... They are just so striped, fast and startling.... 
There are even a few rattlers here in Mn. (south of us), and they are also on the endangered list. Even though I have the snake phobia, I would never do anything to harm them. It's nice to just let nature take it's course without humans stepping in...

That said, we are on the total opposite end of our "scare" radar. I'm constantly scanning for snakes, and can come face to face with a bear (which I have) and not even wince...


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## Leopardess (Mar 14, 2004)

Yep! That's odd! (at least to me!)  

Bears are my somewhat irrational hiking fear. I always count a day I don't see a bear in the woods as a good one! Don't get me wrong, I love them...but not when I'm 5 miles from the nearest shelter and there may be cubs around. 

I like seeing them on the side of the road. There were a few places people could go "bear watch" at dusk. They were dumpsters that unfailingly attracted a group of bears to eat. My parents used to take us to go watch them (from the safety of our car, naturally). But then you always had the out of staters who would get out of their car as if they wanted to pet the bear. Sheesh 

You know, maybe you come face to face with bears because you're always looking at the ground, scanning for snakes!! And I probably just don't see the snakes because I'm looking in the woodline for bears!


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## nailalc (Mar 17, 2006)

Out of curiousity, do they still have the dumping areas where people can watch bears in your area? I remember going up into northern MN and watching bears at dump grounds which was a lot of excitement for a 5-10 year old, but that has been at least 20+ years, and those no longer exist (to my knowledge). We have a population of around 30,000 bears here and they are moving south towards Minneapolis/St. Paul, sometimes even seen in the suburbs of those towns.

I'm with Jan on the snakes, the seven rattlesnakes I've seen in the wild are something that really wakes me up and gets the blood moving. The garter snakes are a system shock when they suddenly appear after being unnoticed, especially when reach into the shrubs looking for a lost golfball!


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

They still have one place not too far north of us which used to be owned by an old gentleman (Vince Shulty or something like that), but after he passed away, it was taken over by some agency and they have it all fenced off and it isn't the same as it used to be.
The people used to all mill around among the the bears, which are very much wild, and some of the morons even went as far as putting their small children on their backs to take pictures... :shock:

Other than that, I think most, if not all of the old dumping grounds are a thing of the past now with the waste management crews hauling it away on a regular basis.



Leopardess said:


> You know, maybe you come face to face with bears because you're always looking at the ground, scanning for snakes!! And I probably just don't see the snakes because I'm looking in the woodline for bears!


LOL! I think you have a good point there....


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## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

Beautiful hiking shots. Reminds me of Yosemite, and hiking around Catalina Island (so.Cal) and Angel Island (SF). Ah those were good times. In all those hikes I never encountered anything like snakes, bears, or lions. Lucky for me it was the occassional deer, insects, and birds/hawks.

I couldn't imagine encountering a bear or lion!  What are we suppose to do if we bump into one on the path? Run like heck?! (that's what I would do).

-John N.


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

One of my face to face encounters with a bear happened a few years ago when we were having this house built. We had a mobile home that we were living in parked right on the edge of our very vast woods, and we had bbq'd the night before, so I'm sure the smell was pretty enticing. The next morning when I was heading out to work at 4:30 am with my arms loaded with my lunch, thermos, coffee cup and purse; I opened the door in my normal "before work" stupor and there was a fairly large one with his front feet on the steps and we were almost touching noses. The poor guy was just as surprised as me when he saw this human staring him in the face....  I guess I should have known something was up when I heard the horses out running around snorting/blowing, but like I said, I'm not too alert that early in the morning.


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## nailalc (Mar 17, 2006)

I've had a similar encounter like that in the Boundary Waters, early in the morning, before we knew how to dispose of fish leftovers properly.

I've also seen a couple on their honeymoon, 3 days out from car and civilization heading back because a bear destroyed their tent and ate all their food. We gave them what we could spare, shortened out trip at least a day.


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