[pct-l] Afraid of the dark

[hiker97 at aol.com]

Hula-Snow Bunny JMT Reinhold writes: Yes Switchback, I'm afraid of the dark. The woods scare me. I'm all alone in the dark with glowing eyes all around me.  They are probably ferocious flesh eating beast with long sharp teeth & claws I wish I were brave like you.  WHAT WAS THAT NOISE???  Boo...hoo..wwhhaaa.......I wanna go home.
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Switchback replies: Say, that reminds me several years ago when I was soloing from Kearsarge Pass to Mt. Whitney.  It was dark as I descended to Viddette Meadows.  All at once I see by my headlamp ahead and off to the left a bunch of red eyes staring at me.  I had to get closer to see that they were deer grazing.  

I thought maybe there were a bunch of gremlins or wood trolls. I have run into them before in the Sierras.  Nasty little devils.  They look like the little wood dudes in the StarWar movies.  I usually cook up some popcorn and flip it off a rock into their mouths.  That satisfies them and they leave me alone.  But truthfully, gremlins and wood trolls are not bad.  They are good sources of info for my pirate raids on unsuspecting backpacker camps.  All I have to do is let them have the leftovers.