TSG recently came across a social media post mentioning the "Los Gatos Creek Trail Gopher" accompanied by a photo of a large statue of a rodent-ish creature. Since we ride the trail on a regular basis, our curiosity was piqued and a mental note was made to be on the lookout for the oversized "gopher".
As it happened, we spotted it a few days later while waiting at the traffic light at the Camden/San Tomas Expwy Highway 17 off ramp. From afar, it looked more like a bear than a gopher to us.
Unable to find any kind of online documentation of the thing, we resolved to return to the scene to investigate and get a closer look.
Up close, this did not appear to be a gopher. (Gophers have a "rounder" face) More likely it was a stylized ground squirrel, which is very common on the trail. Or maybe it might be someone's idea of a meerkat, in it's oft-depicted surveillance stance, keeping a watchful eye over the scene from the top of the knoll.
