What glorious days to be in the mountains in Bonner County! Our hiking group meets every Tuesday, almost without fail, so we have christened ourselves the Undaunted. Rain, wind, snow or temperatures do not keep us from this weekly experience, even though we may complain just a tad.
These last few days of September, we selected a hike up at Schweitzer. Trees were beginning to lose their chlorophyll and to show their true colors. There were hundreds of birds chirping, which mingled with our constant, somewhat loud visiting.
These times are important to us because we can talk about anything and everything while enjoying nature: politics, family, travels, well, you name it. So you can imagine how loud 7 women can be.
As we were chatting, we came upon a large black-tailed deer doe. We were sure she would take flight, but no, our numbers and our voices didn’t scare her one bit.
Then we saw her two yearling fawns show their heads.
We commented on their beauty and were sure they would run now, but no. Momma started coming towards our formidable group. The fawns were at a loss and hung back. We took a few more steps forward; she held her ground. We inched a bit further, a little more timid this time. She came forward a bit more, staring us down.
All 7 of us stopped cold. Only then did she slowly gallop into the woods with her young ones.
She became one of the Undaunted that day.