When Mountain Goats Attack
Airstream RV Blog – The Goat Incident from Sean Michael on Vimeo. |
Most people who own RVs also enjoy getting outside to sample the natural pleasures of our bountiful planet. I’m not talking about the pleasures of ice cream, barbecue, and cold pale ale. I’m talking about activities like kayaking, surfing, biking, and hiking. These endeavors go hand-and-hand with camping.
Personally, I enjoy a nice hike – especially on sunny, low humidity days in the great American Rocky Mountains. There’s no better way to clear one’s head while stretching one’s legs. Of course, rocky mountain goats also enjoy hiking. In fact, although they are rarely seen surfing, goats hike on a daily basis. This brings us to today’s video, one of my favorite episodes of our long, long honeymoon. This video contains … the unexpected.
We shot this footage along a jaw-dropping hike through the upper stratosphere of Montana’s Glacier National Park. I’ve said before that if this incident had involved a bear, my memories of it may not be so fond. But it doesn’t involve a mama grizz; it stars a mountain goat. You can’t really plan this sort of thing. Life just happens, and here it unfolds on camera.
In case I’ve offended any mountain goats out there, it should be stated that the goat in question was an amiable, good natured fellow. He didn’t really “attack” anyone, although I’m quite sure he thought about having my camera for lunch. (Thankfully, most goats are still eating old-fashioned standard-definition cameras; HD is an acquired taste.)
Why would two people choose to honeymoon aboard a 25-foot Airstream travel trailer? What happened along the way from Key West to Canada? For answers to these questions and more than 50 high-definition RV videos like this one, check out our website: www.thelonglonghoneymoon.com.
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Once again a fantastic post! I’ve never been to the Rockies but it looks like a great place to hike. Dont know if I could help myself from running away though at the site of a wild animal. Is that bad? If I run? ….shivers.
I’m loving this series!
Thanks guys! With regard to running from a wild animal, you raise an interesting question. I’ve been told that you should never run from a bear. This is because running may provoke a predatory “chase” instinct in the bear. The bear might decide to chase you down just because you are fleeing! I’m not sure what the conventional wisdom might be regarding mountain goats. Our approach was simply to stand still. In this case at least, we had a happy ending.
Okay, I’m going to ask the question everyone is wondering. How did you get the camera positioned for this encounter… and how did you zoom in and out, was that done in production afterwards?
Very nicely done. This was a once in a lifetime situation and having the camera mounted as you walked along the path just set the whole thing in motion. I enjoy your posts and the beautiful videos that you take. They are very enjoyable. I don’t know if I would have been able to stand so still if a mountain goat with big horns came toward me… I give you guys a lot of credit for adapting to the situation as it developed. Continue to enjoy your lives, one day at a time, on the road.
Jason, the zoom effects were added in post. As for the camera, necessity is the mother of invention. We have a couple of small HD cameras that go with me everywhere. We also have a couple of beanbag tripods (monopods, actually) that help. So, the camera was sitting on a beanbag pod, and for a moment I thought it was going to become goat food. Once I thought I was crazy for attempting this sort of filmmaking, but it seems Discovery Channel has an entire TV show that is shot in a similar fashion with no camera crew. That made me feel validated – LOL I also do all the editing myself, so we are pretty self-sufficient. And Eileen, thanks for your comments. It really was a once-in-a-lifetime situation!
Bean Bag Covers…
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you….
The Glacier National Park video is awesome. My family and I are going in six and half weeks but who’s counting. I can’t wait to show them the video. Keep up the video’s
thanks
Rob
Thanks Bean Bag! We will keep the videos coming, and are actually planning an extended trip to take place this summer (July and August). Who knows…maybe we’ll meet a few more mountain goats along the way.
Rob, if you haven’t already been (or even if you have been) you will LOVE Glacier. It’s one of my favorite places…period!