We were nearing the pass in the WA Cascades (around 5500’) at about 5am in September some years ago when we had to stop for a creature lying on the warm pavement. It was, of course, as startled by us as we were by it, and it ambled off the road to let us pass by.
For years, I have assumed it was some sort of wolverine. It had curly brown fur (perhaps that is normal for late fall), and it seemed somewhat long-legged for a wolverine. Way too small for a bear cub (which would have been out of season). Its coloring seemed fairly consistent brown-ish all over.
Anyone have any idea what we encountered? Baby sasquatch (they do get this far north)?
Sure sounds like a wolverine, yeah. We ran into one in the New Mexico mountains in the 70s. Or that’s what we decided that it was.
Fewer than twenty presumably. Wolverines only started re-establishing themselves firmly in the Cascades in early 2000’s, though they had started filtering in in the 1990’s. Even now there are probably fewer than 25 in the entire range. Much more recently (starting ~2015) there have been deliberate fisher reintroductions into the Cascades as well.
I wouldn’t describe either as curly-coated, though I suppose at a distance shaggy might come off as curly. A wolverine is maybe ~20-50 lbs, a fisher 5-20, a black bear cub 5-80 (emergence to 1 year old), so there is overlap. But a black bear cub hanging by itself in the middle of a road seems unlikely, even though they are far more common than the other two.
More common than any of these are the marmots. There are hoary and yellow-bellied marmots in the Cascades (and Olympic marmots on the Olympic peninsula) and these can seem deceptively large because they are very bushy and autumn is the peak marmot fatness range. As per the above-linked wiki the grand champion hoary marmot hit 30 lbs in autumn, but 15-20 lbs would be common. AND marmots love to bask on sunny rocks - it is by far their favorite pastime after eating. Just on habit and commonality, I’m going to guess this is the most likely culprit.
But a wolverine is certainly possible and that would be the sighting of a lifetime 
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My guess is always chupacabra.
There have been a least 4 wolverine sightings in Oregon lately.
Fourth wolverine sighting reported in Oregon | kgw.com
Unless marmots get as large as a golden retriever, I doubt it. This was much larger than any, say, raccoon I have ever seen.
Fair enough, though golden retrievers are a little bigger than wolverines . As you can see from Jaspar here, they’re not all that big relative to a person - just massively broad and sturdy relative to size. Marmots are quite a bit smaller of course. I’d say if it was that big a young bear might be a better guess just by the numbers game.
But again, wolverine IS a possibility and there aren’t a lot of others. That large and barring a random shaggy dog, bear or wolverine is going to be the best guess up there. One of the felids (bobcat, lynx, mountain lion) would probably have been too distinct even on a quick glance.
Yeah, I’m going with baby Bigfoot 
Except, as I said, one does not see bear cubs in September. And, for the kind of bears found in the Cascades, this critter seemed particularly lanky.
Yeah, but I do not think it had big feet (such as would grow into adult bigfoot feet).
Badger? Badger? We don’t need no steenkin’ Badgers!
Wolverines are appreciably smaller (especially in height) than golden retrievers, they don’t have curly fur, and they are not lanky. So I don’t think it was a wolverine.
Badgers are much smaller than even wolverines.
Hmmm…wolves are still fairly rare in the Cascades, but they almost certainly outnumber wolverines (not by much, but by some). Outside possibility, I guess.
I doubt there are any honey badgers in the Cascades.
Wolverines are pretty uncommon in that area, but there are two other mustelids (weasel family) that you might have spotted: a pine marten or a fisher. Both are smaller than wolverines, though.
Someone suggested marmots. Although they might fit the size (they are the 3rd largest rodent in North America), they definitely couldn’t be called “long-legged.”
Could it have been a coyote? They are often out and about near dawn, and they’re less skittish around humans than something like a wolverine. I’ve definitely seen them “amble away” casually where something like a wolverine would have either run or gotten aggressive.
Clearly it was a Tasmanian Devil. The fact that you can tell us about this means it was in an unusually friendly mood.
It was only ambling because there were no wabbits in the area.
That’s my guess. It sounds like coyote behavior, and the description fits.
It would, but I have kind of an idea what a coyote looks like (though I cannot say for sure that I have ever seen one), and I think the legs (fairly thick) and face (not very dog-like) correspond to what I would expect for a coyote. It was also a pretty dark in color. (And the hour was not “near dawn”, it was like 3am in early September.)
