[pct-l] Slightly tongue-in-cheek, some lesser hazards.

[randy_forsland at hotmail.com (Randy Forsland)]

Well put..

My two scariest moments on the PCT also had nothing to do with 
bears,snakes,bugs, snow or cougars.

The first was an encounter with a huge buck that leapt out onto the trail 
and faced me with its head lowered and its rack poised to skewer me. I had 
been hiking from Reds Meadow to Thousand Island lakes and I think that the 
sound of my hiking poles striking the granite rocks must have sounded like a 
couple of young bucks going at it. This buck that I met looked like he 
wanted to take on the winner of that contest. Luckily, the big fellow looked 
up at me with a puzzled look and then crashed through the brush and was 
gone...My heart was in my throat for hours after that..."The first thruhiker 
to be killed by Bambi"..what an epithet.

The second incident was when I camped north of Chester under those Sugar 
Pine trees...The wind picked up quite a bit that night and I awoke to the 
sound of those huge sugar pine cones crashing to the ground near me..I 
wasn't hit but I didn't sleep very well that night....had flashbacks of Nam 
though ;-)

Redwood


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Corky Corcoran" <corcoran@corky.cc>

>
> So, I'll take my chances with the cats, dogs, bears and bugs.  It's the 
> trees swaying in the wind at night that scare me.  And  the homo 
> marginally sapiens looking for some mammal to blow the hell out of. 
> Scares the bejesus out of me.
>
> _______________________________________________