Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board The Petting Zoo On Whitney

Actually I'm Nevada Bob's wife and have posted many, many times but we got a new Internet service and lost all my old log names.

Anyway I have gone up the trail again a few times this year already (no summit as yet, just having fun) and if you're new to the trail just wanted to tell you about great close encounters with the not-so-wildlife on the trail.

One year a Pica was eating grass next to the trail below Mirror Lake. Yeah, I shouldn't have but I petted the thing. It didn't miss a beat when I touched it and continued grazing it was so unafraid of humans. Two years ago a mule deer doe jumped onto the trail at about the area where the Mountaineers Route trail starts. She popped down off the bank in front of us just taking her sweet time almost to the trailhead before she finally got out of our way. Last July a female grouse (?)-it was a chicken size brown bird, with 2 chicks stood on a rock at arms distance while her chicks picked for seeds around my ankles. No fear! And above Trailside Meadows, it's the attack of the fat little chipmunks when you sit down to have lunch. Not to mention the marmots and little brown birds at the summit (and yeah, the bears.)

It's great these animals do not have to fear humans for a change! I know i'm gonna catch @%&* from some of you for touching the pica,but I just couldn't help it. Cutest thing I ever saw. That was several years ago, and I did NOT come down with Bubonic plague, rabies or Hanta virus!!

I had an encounter with a deer at Outpost Camp last August on my descent. We almost touched as we walked past each other. I looked at it and it looked right back at me and didn't even flinch.

This year, we saw 3 grouse chicks feeding about halfway up from the TH to LPL. The mother was "clucking" as we approached and the chicks never flinched and just kept feeding.

In 2004, saw a grey-crowned rosy finch(?) at the summit. That bird landed on my foot as I was taking in the sights. It was probably looking for a handout and I did not oblige. There also was a marmot up there scavenging like there wasn't a tomorrow.

Those Steller's jays at the WPS will land on your plate when you just walk away to get a napkin in the store and run off with some of those delicious fries!

I never touch or feed the wild animals. Too many things can happen.

Haven't seen bears yet. Don't want to on the trail.

I too encounted a dear around where the Mountaineers route began. She had two babies with here and they actually ended up hiking with us for about a 1/4 of a mile.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c33/kennyhel77/DSCN0517.jpg

Just thought it was strange that she was not afraid of us in the least. Same with her two little babies. It was cool.

Deer in particular are attraced to the salts in peoples urine. Were backpacking in yosemite and several deer would visit our "bush" and lick and chew the leaves after we did our business. This is a common feature with deers in the sierras.

This may partially explain their lack of fear of human on Whitney trail.

I’m puzzled by this, too. Last year one of those little brown birds at trail camp ate a sesame seed from my finger tips. I told my daughter and she didn’t believe it so we did it again and she snapped this picture:

<img src="http://www.uta.edu/faculty/feigel/bird.JPG" width=”450” height=”450”>

Is this because we’ve become too familiar with them and vice versa?

Is it just me, or does that picture look Photoshopped?

Not PhotoShopped - tell me how I can prove it to you.

Bring me the bird. I want it to eat a sesame seed off my finger too.

Just kidding. I'm not seeing any picture or link? I can pull up the one above of the deer, but no picture on your posting.

Can other people see it, or was cbswelch referring to the deer picture as being "photoshopped"?

z

I was referring to the photo of the guy in the red hat feeding the bird. I really have no reason to doubt the fact that someone could be feeding that bird, it's just that the photo jumped out at me as one that was Photoshopped (differences in contrast/clarity/focus between foregroud and background). No big deal either way, just pointing out an observation.

<img src="http://www.uta.edu/faculty/feigel/bird.JPG"

Don't know why it didn't display in the above post.

The picture was cropped from a very wide-angle view, but I'd be happy to email it to anyone who wants to see it and try to pick it apart. Trust me - it's untouched. Shoot me an email if you want the original...greg_feigel@hotmail.com.

I hate to admit this but I cropped it mainly because the wide-angle makes me look fat.

Eric Lee posted a something similar to this about a year ago - I think it was a pika sitting on his boot.

So these very friendly animals are common up there, for some reason. Is it because we're such easy marks for food?

When I saw this post I thought it referred to the pair of day hikers I saw at UBSL on Saturday enjoying each other by the lake, "petting"

Sorry, couldn't help myself to that reply, I was just minding my own, filtering water and having a cool soak of the feet when they came along.

On another note, some of the creatures we saw in four days around the zone were a variety of small birds, marmots, little chipmunks/squirrels, another large mouse/rat looking creature, ravens, and grouse.

No bears. But the climbers down from us came back to their camp one evening with a tent chewed through by a marmot. And a marmot peed just outside out tent while we were trying to sleep.

One of the things the marmot pulled out of the tent were their water purification pill bottle.

I have a picture taken a few years ago of finches eating from my sister's hand on the summit. Don't have it scanned though, nor a photo hosting site, so I can't show it. I was on Mt. Dana 2 weeks ago today. There were 4 other people at the summit and at least half a dozen brazen Marmots.

Adrian

Back in 2005 I had a close encounter of my own on the snow chute. I thought about trying to get this little lady bug to eat off my boot, but then I got cold feet (har!), because honestly, who knows what these things eat? Boot leather? Rental crampon straps?
<img src="http://www.robinwalther.com/uploaded_images/bug.jpg" width="450" height="350">

I have seen what I have referred to as martens between Mirror Lake and Trail Camp. According to Doug, there is disagreement as to whether these are martens, fishers, or weasels. All are known to populate the Sierra Nevada. The picture was taken in June, just below Trail Camp.

<img src=http://img.clubphoto.com/xyzzy/3364573/50/512/null/fun.jpg"height=200">