Post by mikemike on Feb 16, 2012 5:27:28 GMT -5
I know this is kind of an odd thing for the valley but I'm a Buddhist actually, and I often head out into the woods around Selese creek to meditate. Hehe, that's funny: I feel more uncomfortable saying "I'm a Buddhist" than talking about a sasquatch, but hey. 
If you've been out that way you've probabily noticed my silver car parked across from the fish farm. I am there about 3 or 4 times a week minimum all year-round. And once when was I off work I went about 300 days out of a single year.
I actually posted some pictures of some bear skat piles from there years ago and you guys id'ed it and said it was just bear scat.
Anyhoo, there is something that has been on my mind for years and I never reported it, but it's something so odd I can't stop tinking about it.
I always go to the same meditation place via the same hidden path. It's a Buddhist thing I guess, but on the way out I always drop off a wee bit of dry cat food for the animals at a few locations (same locations) every time I am out there, but never anywhere visible.
For example: I always toss a bit of kibble down a few mouse holes I've noticed in the tree roots along the trail. I always do this at dusk as I am leaving, and I expect that mice pick the kibble up at night because it's always gone the next day. ~You can ask the guy at on the way store, I've bought a few dozen bags of cat food there over the years. Mostly I just do it because it's motivation to get out there and meditate on days I don't want to go out because it plays on my mind the the mice might be counting on the kibble ration. Weird I know, but it's a thought that gets me out there even on rainy days.
So as if that wasn't odd enough, here's the really odd part:
Once over a two week period 2 summers ago I was going out every day and I started to find single perfectly ripe salmon berries left out dead center on the narrow hidden path always I walk. I know where the bushes the berries came from are, and it's at least 50 meters away from where I started finding them. I found them in plain sight 3 or 4 times, and at the time I just thought birds must have accidentally dropped them. I never thought anything about it.
However one of the places I habitually leave kibble is on a certain tree branch about chin height, it's about 150 meters from the road and also the exact place I always urinate before I head out of the woods and back to the car. But even on the off chance another person went back there at dusk I can't imagine that they could ever see the kibble because I tuck it down in the moss on the tree limb so it won't fall off the branch.
This particular thing is what I always think about:
In the same time period I was finding the berries, one evening as always, I left some kibble on the branch. The next day I was heading back out to my meditation spot I glanced at the tree limb and saw something that made me go up and look closer: when I examined it I found that as usual the kibble was gone, but in it's place there was a single wild mushroom (about one inch across) that had been picked and was carefully placed on the tree limb at chin-height exactly where I'd left the kibble the previous evening.
I was totally shocked because it struck me that something or someone must have left it there during the previous night as a sort of a trade or a sign of some kind.
I have thought about it endlessly, and I really have no clue what to make of it; it's completely unlike any animal behaviour I have ever heard of to leave something in exchange for something else. As far as I know mice squirls (and birds for that matter) or any other citters I can think of don't even eat mushrooms, so for a rodent (or bird) to pick a mushroom and leave it there makes no sense. And moreover it was placed close enough to the trunk and the branch is thin enough that a mouse or whatever couldn't easily have crawled out to the moss where the kibble was without knocking the mushroom off. So no doubt in my mind something took the kibble and left the mushroom (which it must have considered of value) there in exchange.
And also since I tucked the kibble down in the moss how would any animal (or person) capible of having the reasoning to do such a thing know the kibble was there in the first place? (Unless I was watched when I went through the 90 second production of taking my backpack off, urinating and leaving the kibble there one of the many 100's of times that I've done it?) ~Other than that, I have no explaination at all.
Basically I am just completely baffled by it.
It's not evidence by any standard, but it's very odd to say the least. Even after all this time out there other than the grouped piles of bear scat I've never seen anything unusual in the area directly. No foot prints, no strange noises or anything, I can't even say I've ever felt like I've been watched.
There's probably not much to say about it but thanks for reading.
If you've been out that way you've probabily noticed my silver car parked across from the fish farm. I am there about 3 or 4 times a week minimum all year-round. And once when was I off work I went about 300 days out of a single year.
I actually posted some pictures of some bear skat piles from there years ago and you guys id'ed it and said it was just bear scat.
Anyhoo, there is something that has been on my mind for years and I never reported it, but it's something so odd I can't stop tinking about it.
I always go to the same meditation place via the same hidden path. It's a Buddhist thing I guess, but on the way out I always drop off a wee bit of dry cat food for the animals at a few locations (same locations) every time I am out there, but never anywhere visible.
For example: I always toss a bit of kibble down a few mouse holes I've noticed in the tree roots along the trail. I always do this at dusk as I am leaving, and I expect that mice pick the kibble up at night because it's always gone the next day. ~You can ask the guy at on the way store, I've bought a few dozen bags of cat food there over the years. Mostly I just do it because it's motivation to get out there and meditate on days I don't want to go out because it plays on my mind the the mice might be counting on the kibble ration. Weird I know, but it's a thought that gets me out there even on rainy days.
So as if that wasn't odd enough, here's the really odd part:
Once over a two week period 2 summers ago I was going out every day and I started to find single perfectly ripe salmon berries left out dead center on the narrow hidden path always I walk. I know where the bushes the berries came from are, and it's at least 50 meters away from where I started finding them. I found them in plain sight 3 or 4 times, and at the time I just thought birds must have accidentally dropped them. I never thought anything about it.
However one of the places I habitually leave kibble is on a certain tree branch about chin height, it's about 150 meters from the road and also the exact place I always urinate before I head out of the woods and back to the car. But even on the off chance another person went back there at dusk I can't imagine that they could ever see the kibble because I tuck it down in the moss on the tree limb so it won't fall off the branch.
This particular thing is what I always think about:
In the same time period I was finding the berries, one evening as always, I left some kibble on the branch. The next day I was heading back out to my meditation spot I glanced at the tree limb and saw something that made me go up and look closer: when I examined it I found that as usual the kibble was gone, but in it's place there was a single wild mushroom (about one inch across) that had been picked and was carefully placed on the tree limb at chin-height exactly where I'd left the kibble the previous evening.
I was totally shocked because it struck me that something or someone must have left it there during the previous night as a sort of a trade or a sign of some kind.
I have thought about it endlessly, and I really have no clue what to make of it; it's completely unlike any animal behaviour I have ever heard of to leave something in exchange for something else. As far as I know mice squirls (and birds for that matter) or any other citters I can think of don't even eat mushrooms, so for a rodent (or bird) to pick a mushroom and leave it there makes no sense. And moreover it was placed close enough to the trunk and the branch is thin enough that a mouse or whatever couldn't easily have crawled out to the moss where the kibble was without knocking the mushroom off. So no doubt in my mind something took the kibble and left the mushroom (which it must have considered of value) there in exchange.
And also since I tucked the kibble down in the moss how would any animal (or person) capible of having the reasoning to do such a thing know the kibble was there in the first place? (Unless I was watched when I went through the 90 second production of taking my backpack off, urinating and leaving the kibble there one of the many 100's of times that I've done it?) ~Other than that, I have no explaination at all.
Basically I am just completely baffled by it.
It's not evidence by any standard, but it's very odd to say the least. Even after all this time out there other than the grouped piles of bear scat I've never seen anything unusual in the area directly. No foot prints, no strange noises or anything, I can't even say I've ever felt like I've been watched.
There's probably not much to say about it but thanks for reading.
I like the trail cam idea though. I'll have to think about that if anything odd comes up again.
