Cool animal encounters in Maine

This will be part of a trip report, but it snowed about 10 inches Friday night in BSP. Saturday the woods were all fresh, deep powder, no tracks like we had seen on Friday. The Tote Road to Abol Campground was packed out by snow mobiles. Hiking up, our group of 10 was all strung out along the road; full packs, skis, snowshoes, sleds - a real yard sale. Up the road I notice movement coming toward us and yelled "Rabbit" ! A large snow-shoe hare was running full bore straight down the road at us. Expecting it to veer off into the woods I never reached for my camera, but it just kept coming, slalom style right past all of us. This hare was sick or scared, not worried about us, and taking the path of least resistance down the road. A few seconds after it passed us, running down the road a ways above was the reason for the hare's concern; a healthy Pine Martin ! The Pine Martin did veer off the road and into the woods when it saw us, however.

Lots and lots of tracks seen on the way out Sunday, including several sets where it appeared the hare may not have been as lucky.

That is awesome! Nothing like seeing a life or death drama being played out in front of you!

Up the road I notice movement coming toward us and yelled "Rabbit" !

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Right, how many did we lose? Bors, Ector, Gawain... that's five. We'd better not try another frontal assault...

nartreb said:

Right, how many did we lose? Bors, Ector, Gawain... that's five. We'd better not try another frontal assault...

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Exactly ! No one stepped INTO the hare's path.

what is it with you and rabbits? Have you ever been on a trip when there were no rabbits?

I blame The Caterpillar of my youth, primarily. Remember what the Dormouse said...

Last June, a friend and I were hiking down the Davis Path after summiting Isolation on a full Rocky Branch loop (red-lining) when a large rabbit came at us head on at "a high rate of speed" (as the cops say), nearly mowing us down before veering off into the brush. But, we did not see what if anything was chasing it.

yeah, it almost ran into me as I was dragging my sled right next to somebody else and it jinked left to avoid hitting the person to my left and then had to jink right before hitting me!

Many comments about spearing it and having rabbit stew for dinner but I think we just hit the section of the Baxter Game Preserve part of the Tote road....

Jay

Chip said:

Up the road I notice movement coming toward us and yelled "Rabbit" ! A large snow-shoe hare was running full bore straight down the road at us. Expecting it to veer off into the woods I never reached for my camera, but it just kept coming, slalom style right past all of us. This hare was sick or scared, not worried about us, and taking the path of least resistance down the road. A few seconds after it passed us, running down the road a ways above was the reason for the hare's concern; a healthy Pine Martin !

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Maybe the rabbit was executing that old prey vs. predator trick, "I don't have to outrun the pine martin, all I have to do is outrun this managerie!"

That's pretty cool. On the plus side, your group may have saved that little rabbit's life! On the down side, the Pine Marten may have gone hungry.

Matt