This morning Jordyn showed up to ride off into the woods to Ebinsberg, PA and figured I should ride out with him for a bit before he fought the wind for the last 50 or so miles. It was cool and clear, the wind was in our faces, our bikes whistled along the corn and soy fields we find surrounding town. Today also marked the first home Penn State football game and the lack of traffic heading into town was welcome as most of the fans showed up on Friday. Our route took us on Whitehall road heading west. Lots of halls around these parts...Linden Hall, Pine Hall, Centre Hall...you get it. Whitehall shoots down the valley and green fields open up to showcase our ridge and valley system mountains. This morning was truly one for the story.
Our ride and chatting was interrupted as this dead animal flashed upward from the side of the road. At first we both thought it was some cheezy stuffed animal lost on it's way to tailgate before the game. At the same time we HAD to turn around and check it out. What we found was just what we never figured we would see here in central PA...it looks like a Bobcat, or some sort of big cat. There has been talk of the Nittany Mountain Lion being spotted in the past few months. Everyone wants to believe there are a few out there. What these images mean...I don't know. We saw it and got some quick shots, it wasn't there an hour and a half later (I checked on my way back!!!)
I really think there are larger cats out there and would have been much happier seeing it run in the distance and not have been hit and dead.
The paws looked good and were huge.
No ribs showing.
The coat was perfect and thick.
Teeth were white and clean.
It really looked in good health from what we could see.
I left buzzing with excitement and hope that there really are some out there...I also left sad knowing that this magnificent animal died.
Enjoy the images...all hail the iphone's crappy camera!!!
