Discussion: random encounters in the woods while mapping

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— West PA Orienteering (@wpaorienteering) January 28, 2018

A couple hard at it in the rear tray of what you would call a pick up truck and we call a ute. A fellow club member interrupted a nude photo shoot.

Was mapping in the east Kootenays, in southeast British Columbia. There were some forest fires very close by. Could not decide whether a given track should be mapped as a large trail, or a vehicle track. Figured I would ponder the matter over lunch. As I'm eating my lunch in a little clearing beside the access road, a large flatbed truck drives in and unloads a bulldozer, which proceeds along the track in question, with blade down, to create a firebreak. So I'm literally walking behind it mapping it in as a vehicle track, as he goes. Also watched a litter of coyote pups frolicking outside their den, on the same area.

I was out mapping and I came across a paper bag.

@gruver, and dare we ask, what was IN the bag?

More bags

While map checking in a very thick area in an isolated location we suddenly came across a smallish marijuana plot. Told mapper and we decided to mark the whole area dark green rather than put in a veg boundary change. Map was later named The Murdering Shed - but for a different reason - according to local history it referred to an incident on the mapped area where a large mob of sheep held at a shearing shed/yards were lost in a bushfire.

@upnorthguy, Ross, I had almost the same experience, in 2010, doing a last minute revision to the Norwegian Ultra Long map, bulldozer running while I'm mapping his new dirt road (503/504)

Was planning the finish chute for a national event. In on-site negotiations with the land manager was told to move the chute as runners would trample some everlasting daisies. A few months later while updating the map I watched as a bulldozer put a new track through the planned and abandoned finish chute.

While making a map of a local disc golf course, I was working away at a hole that cut through a small orchard. About the time I finished an hour of mapping the precise locations of about 50 trees, a truck pulled up. Two guys with chain saws proceeded to cut down numerous random trees.

I do not understand that first post but here goes. Other than the usual copulating couples and grow ops my interesting encounters are with snakes and like Indiana Jones "I hate snakes."
Just a few days ago while surveying the boundary of a palmetto thicket I came very close to stepping on a coiled up diamondback rattle snake. These guys usually move away when they sense us coming but this one wasn't moving. Perhaps it was the 5 degrees Celsius that kept it so still.
But the really funny one I saw a few years ago was a coral snake (red touching yellow). It was another cool day and the snake was sunning itself on a sandy path. Sensing me coming it moved away but only far enough to get its head hidden under a log. I guess it felt that if he could not see me then I would not be able to see any part of him. I was happy to let him think he was well-hidden but his body stretched for about a metre still on to the path. I understand coral snakes are pretty venomous.

Not so much mapping but setting a Rogaine a few years ago, I had the ground "explode" in front of me, when an emu who was sitting on the eggs decided I had come too close. Well I guess 1 or 2 metres is too close! Luckily we ran in opposite directions as angry emu is not quite this

Field checking and scouting control locations. Stopped to look at the map. An armadillo "exploded" out of the deep leaves, just at my feet and right under my map. For those unfamiliar with armadillos, they tend to jump 3 or 4 feet straight into the air as a defense mechanism.

Still waiting for @andyhill to post his interesting experience...