Date: 2003-06-24
From: All God's Creatures - Great and Small

To: All God's Creatures - Great and Small
Miles today: 0.0

It seems that at least once a week, we get the daylights scared out of us but some sort of event. But I imagine many of you driving on the roads have that event daily. As perhaps I have mentioned before, life on the trail has made me acknowledge and deal with my fear of animals larger than me. When I encounter a cow, a bull or a horse on the trail, I realize my primal "fight or flight" instincts are alive and well. Such was the case when we crossed through a horse pasture to follow the trail. There are ladders (called stiles) or stairs over barbed wire and electric fences which allow people to cross the fences but not livestock. And so it was that 'Guana and I were hiking on our way to route 11 when we came to such a field. A sign on the fence said "Livestock may approach - do not feed or touch!" As we got over the fence we saw two horses grazing just 20 feet from the trail. One of them had a mask over his face which covered his eyes. 'Guana was in front and decided that it would be less frightening to the horses to talk to them. This just made the one with his eyes covered perk right up and he began walking towards us at a fast pace. We were already going at a pretty quick pace but the horse came right into my line of walking on the trail. I had to walk off the trail around him and got back on the trail in front of him. He followed me so closely and I could feel his hot breath on my back as we were slack-packing that day.  'Guana looked back to see my frightened face and the horse following right behind me and we kept trucking. Then the horse got the idea that he was going to pass us and he ran by our side and then ran in front of 'Guana putting his butt right in her face. We stopped in our tracks thinking he might start kicking, but instead he just snorted and trotted off having established his right to harrass us. We quickly finished crossing the field and breathed deeply.On another heart-stopping day, 'Guana and I were walking in the famous Pennsylvania rocks when all of a sudden I found myself three feet from a coiled rattlesnake who was looking at me and making a heap of noise. 'Guana had just passed by this snake who must have been awoken from a nap and was ready for me when I came. I slowly backed away from the snake and called 'Guana back to see it. The look on her face was priceless. It was her first encounter with a rattlesnake. This one was a five foot timber rattler with a yellowish hue and brown spots. He was still coiled up and rattling by the time 'Guana came back to look at him. After looking at him for a bit, I slowly started my trek around him, but he began rattling again. So I made my path even a little further away from him and he relaxed. We tried to toss a few sticks his way to move him off the trail, but he was unresponsive. I am sure he was still groggy from his nap. It happened to be the first sunny day since all this rain and I am sure every snake was out sunning themselves. I was just hoping he moved before the next hiker came by. And sure enough, no other hikers reported seeing him.In case any of you are panicking, I do carry a snake bite kit with me at all times. This is probably only going to be used if we happen to step on one and his only defense is to bite. That's probably how it would happen since most snakes, if not backed into a corner, would prefer to go their own way.And so it is that All God's Creatures - Great and Small tend to give me a heart attack when first encountered, but it turns out to be okay in the end.