Lynx Along the Banadad
Bonnie and I just got back from a weekend in Poplar Creek Retreat Cabin.
Blue sky, sunny days, & clear, starry nights. Skiing & snowshoeing. And 1 really exciting wildlife encounter, one we’d never thought we’d see in the wild.
Skiing the Banadad Trail, an old logging road along the edge of the BWCA, so mostly straight and flat—we saw a critter on the trail far ahead. Just a dot, at first. It heard us and went into the woods. I watched where it went in and we stopped just short of that.
The Canadian Lynx cautiously stalked out onto the trail, 10-15 yards ahead of us—and uncomfortably bigger than we had thought they were (about 3/4 ‘ our dog,’s Nando’s size). For several seconds it carefully examined us with a fierce, intense stare. Then it apparently decided we were harmless and uninteresting, neither predator nor prey—despite ‘Nando’s yipping and whining and straining at his leash, wanting to give chase. It casually turned its back on us, showing off its high haunches, its short, black-tipped tail, and its tufted ears in profile. It continued leisurely traveling up the trail ahead of us for at least a quarter mile, occasionally stopping and staring back for a few moments, as we followed at a respectful distance. Then it went into the woods again, and we went on past, having held back ‘Nando already more than we wanted—which is especially difficult on skis, and had become what looked rather like a hilarious spoof of the sport of skijoring.