pine marten
While backpacking in Lassen National Park, we came upon this lady/fella along a lake. Initially I just saw something glowing along the lake and thought it was a person with a very dim led headlamp on. Then the glow disappeared and re-appeared about 5 feet away from where I saw it last – and being focused on it, I could see it was two small glowing blue eyes!!!! It continued to go ahead of us for a series of two or three starts and stops, then while I was paused in the trail, it hopped up on the trail and came towards me! We had a few moments of just staring at each other – it seemed as curious about us as we were about it. After it approached us on the trail, it climbed a nearby tree to give us a thorough inspection from a safer vantage. So awesome!!!
american pine marten / Lassen Nat Park CA
About 100m down the trail after our encounter, I found what is likely fresh pine marten scat.
pine marten scat
Quite an encounter, so amazing to get to see this creature up close and to have such a personal interaction with it. I love the weasels!!
feralzach 