Natural Hazards.

We love living in the mountains, and I love running the back country trails.

Running alone, I love the silence, the immersion in the dirt, the rocks, the trees, the snow and the fresh air. It grounds me like no other experience in my life--and it sets my spirit free. Sweet.

90% of the time I venture out with unthinking confidence. With health developments of the last year I've taken to wearing my RoadID with a link to my medical requirements, and with Claudia's interests in mind I'm planning on moving into a more high-tech tracking device.

But I've had only fleeting instances where I've wondered about wildlife. The deer and the elk watch me warily and flee as I approach; the foxes and coyotes move more quickly than I do, the rabbits and Ebert squirrels skitter away or quietly munch on their feed. No concerns in that group, either them for me or me for them.

But dangers? Nah, I don't think about it.

So here's a story that gives me pause.

On a prominently--loudly--copyrighted blog called Romping and Rolling in the Rockies, KB says, About Me, I live at 8200' in the Front Range of Colorado. I love exploring nature in the mountains while riding my mountain bike and romping with my Labradors.

A neighbor of mine, apparently. Out doing her own version of what I love to do.

KB tells of chasing down an errant Lab, only to discover the remains of a deer: The body was carefully concealed from the trail with a pile of snow. A closer view showed that it was an adult mule deer, a doe, and the scene screamed violence, with blood and bits of muscle and fur scattered in the snow. The doe was covered in pine needles and snow.

Here's the gruesome evidence.

all images from the website.


And evidence of the protagonist in the story.

The concealment of the body was an obvious indicator that a mountain lion killed this deer. Moreover, her throat was sliced open, just as lions sometimes do.

So KB sets up a couple of remote cameras and records events in subsequent days. A friend puts it all together into a video--and of course posts it on YouTube.

Then gives a bit of followup, a few days later. The mountain lion drags the carcass away, ...up a north-facing slope. He traveled 1/4 mile and up 100 ft through deep snow, KB tracking and photographing along the way, once again posting images to YouTube.

(Unfortunately KB is shy about allowing others to embed her videos. Follow the links.)

Just what Claudia needs, I suppose. She's a mountain woman to her core, but that doesn't stop her from being cautious.

Reminds me of a conversation I had last night with Craig Skeie, rugged and fearless manager of the City of Boulder Watershed at the Arapahoe Glacier.

I'm old enough now, he says, to realize some of the true dangers of riding a snowmobile off into a blizzard with 40 mile-an-hour winds. Makes me think pretty good about the precautions I need to take.

And that's good advice for a guy of a certain age who loves to run the trails, forests and streams of the Indian Peaks.