Tales from the Trail

View from my morning hike

There's a beautiful trail near me that follows the curves of a canyon. It's quiet but not too quiet. I meet other hikers and dog walkers and the occasional dog that pounces on me. I like dogs but not when they pounce on me. Especially when they weigh one hundred fifty pounds. That happened to me once up on the trail. The owner quickly shouted out, "he's friendly!" Then he told me his dog had never done that to anyone before and would I mind feeding him a treat to let him know I was friendly? I declined. 

Another day a large buck deer with a huge set of antlers that could have hung a good many coats came charging frantically down a hill in front of me and galloped straight at me. I stupidly began waving my arms crazily in the air, trying to divert the beast. At the last moment he veered down the hill, crashing through the brush and popped back up on the trail behind me. That was the last I saw him. 

A bobcat appeared one morning over the crest of the hill and trotted across the road in front of me. He wasn't scary. 

And then there are the coyotes. I often hear them howling in the hills around the trail. Dog owners have told me they like to entice the female dogs off the trail and then the coyote pack attacks the dog but I haven't seen that happen and I'm not even sure it does happen. But it makes a good story.

A neighbor recently told me that some ten years ago he was chased down the trail by a mountain lion. He was on his bike and in his panic got going so fast that he wiped out. He broke his arm so badly that he had to have surgery as well as various other injuries. I haven't seen any mountain lions up on the trail but maybe they're up there watching me.

This morning's hike was adventure-free. Just cool, overcast and gray. Perfect for a hike.