[at-l] Animals on the trail

[dfaddleton@mindspring.com (dfaddleton@mindspring.com)]

On last year's HATT hike I stopped for a rest and water at Tellico Gap. Resting, I heard behind me the rattle of the snake that goes by that name. I didn't need to see it to get up and move. When I turned around I saw this huge rattler not a foot and a half away from where I'd been sitting. After a while, it moved on, but while watching and waiting for it move a beautiful green hummingbird came by to inspect the red REI hiking poles leaning against my back pack. 

I've not seen bears on the AT; I have seen them in the Cohuttas, however, where I went for water to a creek behind my camp site. The juvenile and I simply stared until the light faded. I got my water and returned to my hammock. The bear did not bother me that night. The next morning, however, I watched the bushes crash around as it ran through the woods. Hiking down to the Jack's River falls I noticed a camp ground where people informed that a bear had run off with a back pack and they'd chased the bear and recovered the pack. 

As a teenager I was left at a fork in a trail in northern Pakistan to direct stragglers to the campgound. It was dark. I heard the bushes and the grunt of a large, himalyan snow leopard or panther circling where I was standing. Needless to say, I left the spot and reported back to camp as quickly as I could. No one believed my story until the next morning when we found the carcass of a goat on which the cat had dined during the night.