After about 2 hours of very pleasant morning and catching a few trout, we were assailed by an absolutely SCREAMING wind coming down the canyon, blew spray off the river into our faces and made even standing up a chore, so we bailed out and started the 1/2 mile trek back up to the truck.
Almost back, hiking around the side of a steep little hill in deep sagebrush, wife in front with the two little dogs. All of a sudden, she found herself nose to nose, no more than 3 feet away, from a big ol' badger on a little rise along the sagebrush trail. She stopped, he hissed and got his hair all up, she backed off and so did he, waddled off down his hole about 20 feet away. Then we had the session of keeping the dogs away from the hole, but finally got everything under control made it back to the truck.
A person doesn't want to mess with a badger very much. Their claws are ferocious and large, they will rip a large dog to shreds in short order and would do the same to a human if you got within range. We figure if Nancy had made two more steps she would have stepped right on him or kicked him at least, and the result might not have been pretty.
Just another day of life in the West.
Darn near scared the pee out of me right there and then. They can make a sound that goes right to the bone, and when a flashlight hits their eyes, it's like they are on fire. 
