Yep. We do not go out walking in the woods unarmed. Ever.
I learned my lesson once, and well!
Luckily I wasn’t injured of killed or anything!
Appalled at Amicalola— many years ago (more than 20) it was not as described. Urban street mongrels move up into the area— and live nearby? Unreal. Thanks for the info.
For that matter when in the urban jungle, the other animals require one to arm up. But in the idyll which was on the entire length of the Trail back then—never forgetting is aided in this poem from William B. Yeats “Lake Isle of Innisfree” for the memory of what is still there beyond where these demons show up:
“I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.”