[pct-l] Animal Questions

[calliger at infolane.com (Richard)]

I have stealthed camp inadvertently near a boar area and found
out where there is one,there are many (4-5?) but after some
shouting they gave us a wide bearth..but we were spooked a little
by their presence. This is only two incidence in 25+ years and
the AT and PCT..so I would not overreact.

THE only time I am aware of a death by bobcat was in the SF Bay area
when a woman runner kept on running and perhaps was not even aware of
the cat stalking her (first and foremost be aware of what is around
u...as J. Muir said: Look behind you so you know where u came from"
and in the process u become aware of all sorts of things...

The accepted procedure is to stand up, spread your arms (ie, become
bigger) and yell as the cats are really not predators of humans..

As to a 2 y/o:  with specific instructions to never leave your side
and perhaps even a child leash?? My 4 y/o did fine on the JMT
and he is 12 now and has ascended a peak with a 10 mile approach
hike with no problems. Is your 2 y/o controllable? Close to Mom
and Dad? Willful? Curious? Tend to wander/get distracted? Focused?
These are some of the factors I considered with my son b4 taking him
out into the wilderness...

I would not be freaked at all..after all: 1- Boars are not wildly over
populating/dominating any hiker areas in the US; 2- It is
infrequent to encounter them, 3- After all it is "their" territory
as we are the "intruders" and must accept/deal with the flora and
fauna (poison plants, snakes, cats, bears, etc) as best we can. 

As Muir stated, again, Darwin is continually at work and I suspect
(since he was a designer par excellence) he did not exclude
humans from that equation <smiles and gentle chuckles> as I
think of friends who have died in the wilderness and cannot
but help to think Darwin was at their side as they perished
from one careless act such as removing pro without putting
another one in (duh!! why did Dave fall to his death!!)

Finally, again, Muir's one (of many) famous quote in YNP, to paraphrase
says to fear not and enjoy to the maximum the Wilderness.
(The original quote is left as an exercise to the reader
to find! I gotta get back on the trail and keep my blood
chemistry in balance!!)

I might have a pic on one of my websites which u are welcome to
view at http://www.infolane.com/calliger..which is really
a switchyard and pic holder and not a true web site.

Richard



At 09:28 AM 7/24/03 -0700, Staven Bruce wrote:
>I need some help and would appreciate any info or recommendations. 
>
>Recently, my wife, my 2 year old, and myself were packing out of Lane Trail
>Camp at Big Basin. About a mile out of the camp, something resembling a wild
>boar jumped across the trail in front of us and went into the brush on our
>right, while what appeared to be four small bob cats who were chasing it(?),
>fanned out and stayed on our left. The animal on our right stopped and was
>growling, while the ones on our left continued to approached. We didn't move
>for a few minutes, and eventually, everyone went their separate ways, and we
>continued on. 
>
>However, ever since, I've been rather freaked about going back out, and
>especially about taking out 2 year old. I don't really know what to think
>about the whole thing. I've never really thought about carrying anything for
>"defense", not that that would really help, but I'm really kind of spooked.
>Is it a good idea to have some kind of mace type product or something?
>Anyone have any suggestions? Any recommended books I should read? I've never
>carried more than a leatherman, so the idea is pretty new to me. May be I'm
>just overreacting?  
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