Railbike Wildlife
A Photo Essay by Richard Smart
Viewing wildlife from a railbike is one of the special treats that our sport has to offer.  Over the years I have accumulated a few slides that show the variety of critters that one encounters while riding the rails.
We met up with this little fox on a Railcycle expedition in Northern British Columbia.  He was just standing by the track wondering who we were.  In 1987 Ken Wright and I hired a bush pilot to fly us to the end of steel on the Dease Lake Extension.  This was a British Columbia Railroad branch line that was originally built to tap an asbestos mine near the Spatsizi wilderness of north central B.C.
I had tried unsuccessfully in 1979 and in 1985 to reach the end of steel of this then abandoned line.  I will write about this eleven day, 300 mile adventure back to civilization in a later newsletter.  Bob Mellin shows a familiar photo from this adventure on the cover of RAILBIKE.
On the B.C. trip Ken and I saw twelve black bears in eleven days of riding.
Some of them were quite close.
Once while struggling through an impassable section of white sweet clover, I had a close encounter with a
young black bear that looked me in the      eye and then licked her chops.  I think     that she had just eaten a salmon, however, and was not really thinking about me for her nourishment.
On my first trip on the Dease Lake extension in 1979, I saw these wolf pups sunning themselves on the tracks near Bear Lake.  There was also a black pup but it ran before we could get a photo.
Notice my nose clearly silhouetted on the left side of the frame.  That is what happens when the photographer is riding second on the same rail.
 In 1996 Ken Wright and I joined Ray Marnoch on a three day adventure on the Whitepass & Yukon R.R. from Whitehorse, Yukon to the Alaskan border near Skagway, Alaska.  I remember that the scenery along Bennett Lake was very spectacular.  Outside of Carcross, we were rounding a curve and spotted this bear trying to dismantle the railroad (note the pieces of ties in the foreground between the rails and the piece lying on top of the rail).  After observing the bear for a few minutes we realized that he was simply searching for one of his favorite treats, ants!
Later on the same day we nearly got between two cubs and a mamma bear.  We stopped to avoid this potentially hazardous encounter to discuss our strategy if she charged.  Fortunately she called her cubs back to her side and then shooed them up a tree.  As we rode by the bear family she stood at the base of the tree staring at us.
Along Bennett Lake a small weasel popped its head up between two ties and glared at us, the intruders.
We watched her for several minutes and then finally she became disgusted with these rude strangers and grabbed a pocket gopher that she had been carrying and darted for cover.
In the nineties Ken and I rode on the Nevada Northern Railroad across the desert between Cobre and Ely, Nevada.  We saw several rattlesnakes on this four-day excursion including this rather large 
one shown in the photo above.  The rattlers seemed to be attracted to the warmth of the rails in the early evening.  I saw this rattler (the ranchers around here call them buzz worms) curled up near the rail in front of me and I stopped to take a look and wait for Ken.  When Ken rolled up behind me, I dismounted and gave my Railcycle a gentle push past the coiled snake to see what it would do.  Wow!  Like a bolt of lightning it struck the frame of the bike twice and truly scared the heck out of us.  I will never forget it!

Several other exciting events occurred on this trip including seeing a herd of wild horses.  We first spotted them as a cloud of dust about a mile away and running on a  diagonal toward the track that lay ahead.  Recognizing a good photo opportunity I speeded up to try to close the distance between the heard and myself.  After getting as close as possible, I jumped off my Railcycle, laid down to steady the camera, and shot a picture as they raced across the track in front of me (see the title photo at top of page).
        This photo of the jack rabbit with
 a lot of straight track in the background
was taken on the old Soo line that enters
Montana in the extreme northeastern corner
of the state.  Ken and I were riding from
Opheim, Montana to Fortuna, North Dakota.
My friend Jim McNamara is chasing a couple of deer down the tracks along 
the abandoned Canadian Pacific line between Castleguard and Grand Forks, B.C.
In 1988 Ken and I rode the rails on a weeklong trip between Spokane and
Auburn, Washington, via the Tri-Cities.  We saw this cow elk along the Green River near Lester, Washington.
This interesting form of wildlife 
was sitting between the rails in Peerless, Montana.

Whether it is a herd of wild pronghorn antelope or the simple presence of a tiny frog, lizard or chipmunk upon your rail, viewing wildlife from an almost silent running railbike is one of life's great pleasures!