Just a shot from Friday's pleasant trip to the field.

And in response to a few queries on one of last week's entries...

To Bonnie and Lorinda, no the elk don't know any better. They're not normally down this low, summer or winter. For that year-and-a-half old spike in the front of the picture, this was probably his first ever encounter with either a train or railroad tracks (the next-nearest rails are over 70 miles south or over 70 miles north).

They've probably never seen pavement in their lifetimes, either.

But that's not the real reason they're getting hit by trains.

The railroad wisely raises their tracks up on a gravel berm, which keeps the tracks from drifting in. In fact, the wind helps keep the tracks clear. Which makes these windswept, snowfree elevated manmade ridges terribly attractive to critters trying to get out of the snow.

You see we rode in on snowmobiles. Step off the gravel beds of the rails and you were instantly in snow up to your shins. Three meters off to the sides and you were in over your knees. Or deeper.

Imagine walking on that being an elk or pronghorn, with little tiny feet supporting all your weight instead of big fat boots.

And so, when the big, noisy steel monster comes bearing down on you, the natural, safest feeling thing to do is to run down that windswept ridgeline, rather than wallowing off into the deep snow on the sides.

The engineers tell us horror stories of watching the animals run down the tracks in front of them, getting mowed under.

And Melissa, no the meat cannot be donated to a food bank, or anything for human consumption.

Not federally inspected, you see. Not to mention, trying to get it past inspection would be difficult, given the condition of the ungutted carcasses. (At least three were rolled under the train. That is, we identified at least three individuals from the matted rugs of elk hair, bone, meat and guts by sorting jaws and ears.)

To be honest, that is a fairly recent change. Used to be we could donate roadkill carcasses to an individual, rather than some institution, to avoid the inspection requirement. But now, in this litigious age, we're not allowed to salvage any for human consumption.

Which is a shame, since some of that elk meat looked really good.

Carcasses of accidentally killed animals can and are salvaged for animal consumption, though. Particularly for raptors in rehabilitation. (No wolfdog rescues in our state, obviously.)

But not when you're on snowmachines, your fingers and faces are numb with cold, the flashlight batteries are fading, and the railroad crew that was ordered out to watch over you, because the company doesn't like unattended people by their tracks, all want to go home.