Hunting Mr. Bobcat

A bobcat has been frequenting Big Meadows in Shenandoah National Park. You can’t imagine how exciting that is to me. A bobcat is not something that is seen every day. I still get excited to see deer and I see them virtually every day of my life in some sort of way. One expects to see bears when visiting Shenandoah. Catching a glimpse of them is incredible. But a bobcat? That’s rare. Bobcats truly do look like over-sized cats. The photos that others have captured of it are so precious.

The last two weeks my son and I have gone to Big Meadows to try to find this bobcat. We missed it by 5 mins two weeks ago. Talk about disappointment. My camera had died so we headed out a bit earlier than we had planned. This past week we really took our time, stayed later, and still no bobcat. In fact, it hasn’t been seen in a few days. Perhaps it moved on or is laying low.

The best part about the bobcat is it made my son excited to go exploring and hiking with me again. The last 6 months of 2016 consisted of him saying, “Ummm…no…I don’t want to go. Sorry, Mama.” And I’m not going to lie – it hurt. He and I spend a ton of time together and he loves rock jumping, climbing, exploring, going off trail and all of a sudden I was heading out alone.  Alone is okay but I missed his excitement. The news about the bobcat made him want to get out and go find it. We have spent the last two Saturdays in Shenandoah National Park taking photos and wandering around. We haven’t completed a specific hike but we’ve seen some beautiful things. Maybe we’ll see the bobcat by accident one day but for now I’m satisfied with having my little buddy back hiking with me and catching other beautiful sights.

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