....at first light one morning in Missoula I went on a hike. I saw so much wildlife starting with a fox (ok - it had gotten hit by a car right at the end of my driveway) but it was so beautiful. It looked totally unscathed besides one of his hind legs which was broken and twisted in an ackward position. It was pitch black when I was leaving my house that morning and at first I thought it was a neighborhood cat.... I always go to pick up my friend Sonny (yellow lab) on the other side of the road (he wasn't outside in the backyard yet so I continued without him) and as I was driving back out to the main road my headlights were directly on the fox laying in the road. So, I went out to see him closer. I was afraid to touch him - I guess I watched too many scary movies as a child - I thought maybe there would be a chance that he would come to life and bite my hand off or something. Anyway, I'm going on way too long about this little guy - but it was neat to see him up close and looking very peaceful...
Anyway, around the corner from my house (still just driving to the trailhead) I see this awesome buck heading across someone's front yard and scurrying out of the road....
Once at the trailhead with my friend Lisa we took a trail that I hadn't taken in a while and less than 5 minutes into the hike in the darkness I hear this weird almost chirping sound. We looked and looked and tried to make out what was making the noise and we could just barely make out this silhouette of an owl on the very tippy top of a big ponderosa not too far from the trail. The tree was on the downhill slope so the top of the tree was not much higher than the trail....so we stood there in silence for quite a while as the light seeped into the day....The scene was coming more and more clear and I spotted another owl about 9 feet down the tree from the top.....and finally we noticed what the top one was chirping at....beyond the tree on the ground was a coyote who was staring up at the owls who were looking at us. It was a pretty awesome scene. We waited there until both birds flew off....and then continued our hike.
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