"Make sure you use the right terminology and call them 'snowshoe hares,'" Bill advised me last night. "Some of your readers may correct you if you just call them 'rabbits.'"
After we'd seen about 15 of the cute little creatures, either solo or in conclaves of five or six at once, my hubby knew I was gonna feature them on my blog this morning.
Yup, first time ever I've seen that many "snowshoe hares," hanging out together.
In the past, I've seen a few during a day's drive in the back country but always solo and always running into the bushes.
Last night after dinner, when Bill and I decided to beat the evening heat and head up to Caribou Creek, off from Upper Pack River Road, we were hoping to spot a bear or some deer or maybe an elk or, better yet, Sasquatch.
After all, there WAS a Sasquatch sighting last year just over the ridge from where we parked the pickup and took a short hike.
On the way up to the area where we walked on an unusually wide, well-maintained mountain road behind a gate, we'd spotted only a single sample of wildlife, a snowshoe hare.
Bill wondered, as we headed back down the mountain from our hike if the Sasquatch presence had scared away all the larger wildlife.
Well, that may be, but ol' Bigfoot has not daunted the hares.
Even this lady with her own big feet could hardly scare one hare away as I got out of the pickup and walked within five feet of the little bunny with the big eyes before it decided to go into the brush.
At one point during our drive down the mountain, we saw a group of five or six and then at least two racing around on down the road.
We kinda thought we had hit pay dirt, so much, in fact, that we worried that a big black bear might be just hanging out on an open hillside waiting for its picture to be taken and we'd miss seeing it cuz we were so mesmerized with all the "hare-ems" of hopping and racing and hunkering on the road.
Nowadays, up in the mountains, brilliant purple fireweed, bright red paintbrush, pink and gold spirea and goldenrod, along with a few other seasonal wildflowers are brightening up the dusty roadsides as best they can.
Plus, it was a lot cooler up there in Sasquatch/snowshoe hare country than down below.
So, we not only enjoyed a break from the heat but also happened on to a hare-raising and racing phenomenon unlike Bill and I have ever seen.
Could be the hare population up there has even driven Sasquatch on to safer places.
Happy Thursday.
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