I really enjoy night hiking. I look forward to the change of pace that the shorter days bring.
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Where I am from we have mountain lion and bear, but none come close enough to hikers to have to worry. I also hike with a teenager who makes too much noise for anything to want to come close. In the summer we love to hike at night and rest during the day, but if that ever happened to me I would be getting ready to kill something with my staff :)
Well the only thing I can think of that would fit that height in that area would either be a young deer or a bear. The deer would never get that close, especially at night, and bears don't stalk. But if you were indeed near Asheville, it could have been a really "enlightened" hippie who lost his/her way. Did you happen to hear drums in the distance? :)
Is the Blair Witch anywhere near there? :D
i once watched a deer slowly circle our camp, eating grass, unconcerned. we weren't talking loudly... just laid back... & so was she.
she was just barely close enough that i could see her from the light of our small camp fire.
we were (again) in the mt rogers rec area were they see hikers regularly.
check out a picture in my gallery from that same place were i took several pictures of a deer & a rabbit eating grass about 7' apart from each other. http://www.hammockforums.net/gallery...5/P7080079.JPG
It probably was a very humanized deer then. Usually wild deer hate to be near humans. They'll even avoid the lingering smell of humans who've been in an area recently.
El Chupacabra!
http://republika.pl/blog_nj_1206103/...pacabra1gh.jpg
:D
once while canoe camping i was night fishing for catfish..i kept hearing something out in the darkness..i figured it was deer or wild boar both are very common in my area...i was growing tired and was thinking of calling it a night and returning to my hammock for some rest...i had just reeled in and was picking up my gear when this explosion of sound and movement happend on the bank behind me...i droped my pole and directed my light toward this thing...it took several seconds to realise what i was looking at..30 ft away was a mud covered..90 pound hunting dog...and he was frothing at the mouth...so i knew he was rabid...i dropped everything and dove into the river.. i swam to the far bank and sat on the sand bar ...I watched him for over an hour as he went thru his fits and attacking things like my gear...he would spin and bite the air..like he was battling demons i could not see..finally he moved off and i returned to camp...swimming back across that river and walking up into the darkeness of those woods knowing that this was still out there ..was one of the scaryest things i have ever done
And back on the other side of the river.