I’ve had a lot of wildlife encounters, including bears, wolves and moose, but seeing a wolverine is the only time I’ve ever removed the safety from my bear spray, and one of the few times I’ve started to psych myself up mentally to fight an animal.
Luckily it was pretty much a non story, I was hiking up a forest service road in western Montana on the Pacific Northwest Trail, and heard a noise behind me. I turned to see what looked like a 4ft tall badger trundle out of the bush about 40 feet back. It kinda stood or sat up on its back legs and we locked eyes for moment as I drew and readied bear spray. The moment passed and it slumped back to all fours and just ambled away down the forest service road away from me.
I’ve had a lot of wildlife encounters, including bears, wolves and moose, but seeing a wolverine is the only time I’ve ever removed the safety from my bear spray, and one of the few times I’ve started to psych myself up mentally to fight an animal.
Luckily it was pretty much a non story, I was hiking up a forest service road in western Montana on the Pacific Northwest Trail, and heard a noise behind me. I turned to see what looked like a 4ft tall badger trundle out of the bush about 40 feet back. It kinda stood or sat up on its back legs and we locked eyes for moment as I drew and readied bear spray. The moment passed and it slumped back to all fours and just ambled away down the forest service road away from me.