Elk Story

While we were at the Hoh Rain forest in Western Washington in the Olympic Mnt range, we went on a little hike.  It was an easy, paved mile long trail that took us through the most amazing forest with trees dripping with moss.  Near the end we came across a herd of elk on the path - maybe about 10-15 elk.  Some other hikes in front of us came across it first and so we all were stopped and taking pictures.  It is mating season for elk, and the male elk or bull gather a bunch of female elk to form his own harem.  Supposedly one should never get between a bull and his harem during this courting season - they have a tendency to get very aggressive as they would see you as a threat.  Female elk would supposedly kick and swath at you with their front legs, while the males would ram you with their horns.   So respectfully we waited until the herd was over the path and then waited for the bull, who we knew would be following up the pack.  We waited for several minutes and sure enough the bull meandered slowly and cautiously down the hill and across the path.  The group of hikers, now about 15 of us, started to continue along the path, amazed at what we just saw and how close we were to these huge, beautiful animals.  Then all of a sudden, a guy in front the pack turned around and in a calm panic told everyone to 'go back, go back'.  Here comes an even bigger bull trotting down the path, directly towards us.  Another lesson I learned during that hike, even though you don't ever want to be caught between a bull and his harem, you never, never want to be caught between two bulls during mating season.  So with the first bull stopped on the other side of the path and the new, bigger bull directly on the path just feet away from us.... you can image just where this group of 15 hikers were - directly in between them.  It was at this point that I quickly formulated my plan of action... shove the kids into the hollowed out log that we were backed against and Leif and I would cover the opening.... well luckily it didn't come to that as the 2nd bull past by and we quickly ran in the other direction.  At the point of the 2nd bull crossing, we were literally 2 feel away from him.  I have to say that I was a bit scared and couldn't help but think of what a crappy, freak story this would be if one of us were impaled by an elk!  Campbelle, who really held her composure during the whole ordeal, really broke down and cried after it was over on the way back to the car.  It would have been interesting to stick around and see if the two elk ever did spar, but we were all a bit relieved to be on our way.