Caps Ridge Trailhead Damage

[peakbagger]

A friend of mine mentioned off hand that this weekend he was coming off the caps ridge trail off Jefferson late in the weekend and noticed a family of racoons trashing (eating) a set of kayak racks on a car parked at the lot. The racoons casually strolled away from the scene as he came out of the woods. But he and his companion got a good laugh at the unusual event. When they got to their car, there was no damage but plenty of pawprints all over the vehicle.

The general questions come up,

Why would racoons be hanging out at Caps ridge lot ? Kind oif high up for them from my experience.
No close by campgrounds for them to get bad habits in.

Have you ever seen this type of behavior during the daylight by racoons unless they were heavilly human habituated.

What the heck is so tasty in a kayak rack? Salt? (of course they may have finished off the yak and was starting on desert!).

My only speculation is that someone trapped some "problem" racoons and decided to drop them off at caps ridge (which tends to have a fair share of goofers, leaving easy pickings).

 

[sardog1]

Some horses will eat damn near anything within reach, sometimes to their great distress. (Click and Clack had a hilarious call once from a victim of equine munching. As I recall, the horse ate a rearview mirror.)

My dog gnaws a nylon bone for dental health. (Well, that why I give it to him. Why he gnaws it is something embedded in his double helices. It does seem to relieve stress for him.)

My guess is, a coon's gotta do what a coon's gotta do. I cannot account for their presence at Caps Ridge, unless they're scrounging soy/flax bars discarded there. (I had one today for the first time........)

Oh, and keep your canoe paddles, boots, etc., away from porky -- there's definitely a salt jones lurking under those quills.

 

[el-bagr]

Raccoons' (recent) traditional range is most of the US plus southern Canada. On the northern end, raccoons are found in all provinces except Newfoundland. In our area, most range maps show the population tapering off north of the St Lawrence River. Raccoons certainly live north of Route 2 -- though not necessarily at the altitude of the Jefferson Notch trailhead. As a species, the raccoon is currently expanding its range northward.

Being very adaptable, raccoons are able to use many different habitat types. Although they are more commonly found in bottomland forests, literature confirms that raccoons can inhabit boreal, montane, and subalpine areas -- particularly near water. (See Orville Dyer. 1998. Mammals in Smith, I.M., and G.G.E. Scudder, eds. Assessment of species diversity in the Montane Cordillera Ecozone. Burlington: Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network, 1998 (link)); see also California's raccoon page.

As far as diet, many omnivorous mammals will chew on and consume leather and even rubber -- e.g. the tire- and belt-eating porcupines of the Monts Groulx. This past May, at Cap Gaspe, we encountered a trailhead porcupine that kept approaching our car when we stepped away... so after picnicking, we relocated the car before hiking the trail.

Especially with a kayak rack, I think salt is a great guess as to why they were so interested.

 

[Doc McPeak]

Some people bring salt with them to heavy porc areas and set it out for them. KInd of like those Amazon tribes that need to cross the river with their herds and send a sickly beast in to the water first to keep the pirahnas busy while the rest get across.

Okay, maybe not exactly like that...

 

[MarkJ]

Racoon

Neighbor Dave and I saw that Raccoon Sunday at the trailhead around 4:30 when we finished the bushwack accross the street.He came right up without a care in the world,sniffin for food.It looks like too many people probably feed him there .If that's the case,he might not survive the winter.......MJ

 

[Dr. Dasypodidae]

At many trailheads in the West, folks wrap chicken wire around their vehicles to prevent various critters from getting at hoses and belts under the nood. This past week in Montana someone noted that people were leaving their car hoods propped open, but I am perplexed how this might do any good (i.e., would a marmot not want to gnaw on hoses and belts under an open sky?).