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Bees ... honey bees, bumblebees, yellowjackets, hornets, wasps, etc. etc. they will leave you alone if you leave the bright colored clothing at home (love my drabs and camos). Hate it when I am mistaken for a huge flower, and ladies, flies, mosquitoes, bees, they love it, when you wear perfume and scented hair sprays.
Accidently stepping on a yellowjacket or ground hornets nest in the middle of a trail can be unpleasant. A single warrior bee can deliver numerous stinging stabs, it is entertaining (for him), when you are hiking with a dirty OLE man and several get inside your shirt. Proper medications should always be carried, especially if you have an allergic reaction to bee stings.
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Midgetbugs like gnats, midges, seed ticks, and here in the South chiggers and the no-see-ems ... they annoying to say the least! It is wise to wear layered clothing and have a long sleeve shirt when you pass through tick-thick terrain with insect repellent treatment added and sprayed to your clothing. I apply it to the tents and sleeping bags as well. Each night and morning it is wise to inspect each others bodies and clothing (no giggles please).
There are scores of snakes common in the American wilderness areas, but only four carry venom. They are the coral snake in the South and Southeast, the water moccasin (cottonmouths, we call them) in the wetlands of the South, the copperheads are throughout the East and the Rattlesnake Family, which are just about everywhere. Snakes fear man and if given the chance will flee. Very few hikers have ever been bitten.
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There are beast out there too, they have a thousand eyes, jaws, fangs and claws, but very very few threaten man. The menace is the other way around. Cougars and mountain cats do not attack man unless they feel cornered. It is rare for a hiker to see one, let alone even hear one. The same holds true with wolves.
Elk and Moose should be shunned in rutting season in the fall ... passion mad bulls will attack and mistake a hikeer for competitors. In the spring and summer it is the mother cows that should be avoided.
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Skunks ... avoid them and let's just say do not frighten them.
Bears --- do not fraternize with them ... forget DIsney cartoons and Gentle Ben. These are not cuddly bears that live in the wild. They basically tolerate people and they hate us. Sometimes we can be seen as a food source. Enjoy them only from a distance. Leave no scraps, no garbage, and leave no food visible. Stay away from cubs ... the dealiest beast of them all is their mother and she is nearly always, and ready to take you out!!! There bears and then there are BEARS ... we will not even discuss the Polar or the meanest and the biggest of them all, the Kodiak Grizzly.
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^Yellowstone National Park Grizzly's
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A hiker, no matter how inexperienced, should almost always realize when he is in great danger. He knows when the terrain is too steep and a fall could be mortal. He knows when the wind is so ominous a bad storm is building.
Beginners, get in trouble because they have been led to believe that man has conquered the Earth and that when he is confronted by the naked force of nature, that he is breaking faith with the pioneer spirit that he thinks he has acquired.
Fear is healthy and when scared, say so proudly and don't give a hott about being called "chicken" !!! Hiking builds humility and respect. These are qualities that not only improve the soul but enhance your chances to walk wildlands for years and with little or no disaster.
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Ecology, the study of life systems and the inter=relationships of all their components, should be the hiker's passion, not merely to enrich his pleasure but so he may understand the functioning of individual ecosystems and how to fit into them as unobtrusively as possible.
The hiker should be a bird watcher, animal watcher and a bug watcher. He should be curious about rocks and minerals and note the slow process by which soil is created. Gain a feel for the dynamic balance of a river, or a glacier. See how valleys are carved. He should grow intimate with trees and flowers, mosses and lichens, fungi and molds. Learn the meaning of progression of clouds, a change in the winds, and the relationship of the atmosphere to the mantle of the living green plants and the underlying rocks. At night he should look out to the moon and the stars and deeply comprehend in his soul, this is the Earth on which we live and the only Earth we ever will have.
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Many of our inner city children see their "valley" as streets and avenues, with concrete or asphalt floors and their "mountains" as skyscrapers of glass, aluminum and steel. As adults, we can lead them into natural valleys and natural mountains. We can teach them how to be comfortable there, so they can grow up and expand in an environment which even under hostile conditions is fair. They can learn to enjoy, perhaps lvoe, and surely respect nature. Most of all, they can come to the realization that all things natural ... including themselves ... are beautiful!
Hiking adventures are best when you begin with one step at a time!
Copyright (c) Nancy J. Copeland / Moments In Time 1998-2002
All rights reserved
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^PA fawns / Tree Frog^
Yosimite Falls
Yosimite, National Park
a crack in a rock yields life
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undated 01-04-2003
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