There
has been an abundance of animals on the trail,
especially when you start off early and no one has
been through the trail yet. All the animals have been
hanging out, sitting around, resting around the trail,
hunting for food and so you surprise them,... or they
surprise you, quite often.
When I was up in VT, one time I was hiking along the
trail and I was a little ahead of dad and there about
40 yards ahead of me was a bear.
And because of the wind direction, this bear didn't
have a clue that I was there, so I got to watch him
roaming around the woods for a few minutes. And at a
certain point, I realized that I didn't want to scare
this bear by making noise or walking just in case he
might suddenly be afraid enough to come and swat me.
So I wound up going back up the trail out of sight and
then started whistling very loudly. Sure enough, the
bear ran off. I could hear it running away. Bears are
not the quietest of animals, and I felt comfortable to
continue on my way since before that, the bear was
between me and the rest of the trail.
Now when I was in PA, I had to deal with snakes. Why
do there have to be snakes? Anyway, I've seen a lot of
two types. Up in Maine, there are garter
snakes...
a lot of them. And after a while you get used to
them.... and the toads,
thousands of them. In Pennsylvania, I have seen a
black
racer...
about 5 feet or longer, very dark black and they love
to stretch themselves along the trails. As you're
walking along, basically paying attention to your feet
to be sure you don't trip on the rocks that
Pennsylvania is famous for, suddenly, you think you
are about to step on a root and it's not. .... it's a
snake! And even though they aren't poisonous, they
still look like they should be. Seeing those made my
heart start pumping ... and I jumped over it
continuing on my way, hoping I wouldn't run into
another.
The other type of snake I have seen is a rattlesnake.
I have seen 2 so far. The first was right on the trail
and another hiker showed me where it was. There was a
little overhang of a rock that you stepped up and over
and under this rock was a rattlesnake den with mama
and a whole bunch of babies. When the hiker told me
this, I wasn't particularly interested. But I decided
it would be best if I KNEW where this rattlesnake den
was, so he showed me. And sure enough, as he and I
looked at this rattlesnake under this rock, it
realized we were there and started rattling at us. I
continued on, but I was worried the rest of the day
about every rock that I happened to walk on.
The other time I was sitting on a rock outcropping
enjoying a 360-degree view, and I had about an hour to
kill before I had to continue on to meet dad. As I sat
there just enjoying the day, I looked across at a rock
about 30 feet away from me jutting out in the sun and
suddenly I see this thing just come slithering out for
a sunbathe. It came out onto the rock to enjoy the sun
just like I did. The only difference was I saw it, it
didn't see me, and I was scared of it. Those are the
snakes I've met so far.
-
George
d'Amboise
a.k.a. George of the Jungle
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