February second is Groundhog Day in the United States, and we wait in anticipation to see if chubby Punxsutawney Phil will see his shadow or not. Of course, the shadow means six more weeks of winter, while no shadow forecasts an early spring. Though Phil is located back east in Pennsylvania, I always cross my fingers for a cloudy day. Though spring is still far off at 43 - 44 degrees north latitude, I’m ready for longer days and warmer temperatures.

 

Groundhog Day is rooted in German traditions surrounding Candlemas Day, which is the day half-way between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. Europeans would take stock of their candle inventory and livestock feed to see if they’d have enough to get them through until spring. German people added animal weather-forecasting to the day by paying attention to hedgehogs and badgers. When German immigrants settled in present-day Pennsylvania, they continued this tradition, using groundhogs instead, thus the birth of Groundhog Day.

 

In addition to groundhogs, there are other harbingers of spring. Today I saw some pine siskins at my feeder, and they haven’t been around since late fall. According to my bird book, they could winter here, but they’ve been absent until today, so I figure we must be at least at the point where we can start thinking about spring. And in five to six weeks, the mountain bluebirds will return, which means spring truly is imminent. They always show up here within the first 10 days of March.

Maybe it’s not time to break out the flip flops just yet, but if we pay attention, we can see that winter won’t last forever.  

 

 

I’ll admit this entry has been a long time coming, but I’ve been hesitant because it’s such a loaded subject in the Black Hills. However people may feel about lions isn’t always the point; the fact is that lions are here, and so are we. The endless, circular debate about proper lion management is not my topic today. So how do we go about living with lions? Knowing how to react around a lion is perhaps the single-most important thing that everyone can do. There is a line in Tolkien’s book, The Hobbit, “It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations if you live near him.” Same goes for lions.

 

Before I go on, I want to clarify that I do not aim to cause any type of hysteria. I don’t believe that lions are so thick that you’ll see one each time you venture into the woods. In fact, my experience has been very much the opposite of that.

 

I live in the Custer area and spend a fair amount of time outdoors hiking, running, and so forth. Last summer, over two years after moving to the area, I saw my first wild lion while hiking on the edge of the Black Elk Wilderness near the Iron Mountain Road. My daughter and I were about 300 yards from the car when we spotted a lion trotting down the trail toward us, totally unaware of our presence since we were slightly uphill as well as downwind. We stopped dead still for an instant, looking at each other briefly before my daughter stepped behind me. Then the lion saw us; he (or she) was about 30 yards ahead of us, and we raised our arms in the air, waved them around and started yelling like we were heckling the visiting team in a playoff game. In short, we did what all the articles tell you to do: Look big and be noisy — be scarier than the lion. Well, it worked and the cat shot away in an instant. Of course, we still had to get to the car, and didn’t want to take any chances that lion would hang around, so we continued walking tall and raising cane until we arrived back at the car.

 

All in all, it was a positive encounter. No one was harmed, either us or the lion. The techniques worked. As much as we hear about mountain lions, we don’t always hear enough about how to react, and our kids may not get that information at all. That’s why it’s important we parents familiarize ourselves with the skills and take the time to instill them into our kids. Even though my daughter knew what the proper procedures were, when we met that lion on the trail, she was scared. The “fight-or-flight” impulse is very strong, and when we’re scared, everything we think we know can just evaporate from our brains. So go over (and over) the techniques with your kids – and it doesn’t hurt to refresh yourself.

 

v     Above all else: stay calm. Panic will not help.

v     Do not run! Lions are hardwired to chase prey that runs.

v     Do not turn your back toward the lion.

v     Do not approach the lion – you don’t want it to think it needs to fight you rather than running away.

v     Do not approach the lion – you don’t want it to think it needs to fight you rather than running away.

v     Hold small children; make sure older children are very close to you, preferably behind you.

v     Raise your arms in the air to make yourself look taller and more menacing. You can also pull up your jacket to make yourself look bulkier. Tell the kids to do the same.

v     Wave your arms around, if you happen to have a walking stick, wave that around too.

v     Smile by showing your teeth; again this helps you to appear menacing.

v     Yell; make a lot of noise but not screaming. High-pitched screams may sound like something the lion would like to eat, so guttural sounds are better.

v     If the lion isn’t too close, and you can reach a branch or stick easily without bending too close the ground, you can use a stick to brandish about and/or hit tree trunks to make more noise. Do not do this if you have to bend all the way down or the lion is too close because you’ll look vulnerable.

v     Continue to walk calmly to your car/house, etc. – even after the lion has gone, do not run.

v     And because it bears repeating, stay calm.

If you were lucky late this afternoon, you may have caught the sun’s finale for the day. I caught it during my run, and it was camera-worthy (not that I had one handy). It started out with a streak of peach behind a large granite formation, and progressed into an orange-raspberry-sherbet-dreamsicle affair. By the time I was on my final mile, it slid into a mauve-deepening-into-aubergine.

 

Sunsets are one of nature’s most spectacular events, and we often take them for granted, not appreciating true beauty right there in front of us. So if you missed today’s, take heart, you’ll have another opportunity tomorrow.