Watch Your Step

Day 258: Travelling cross-country in lower-elevation forest presents a number of hazards. You never know when your projected route is going to terminate in a devil's-club thicket (although if you're near a spring, it's pretty much guaranteed). You must be alert for small holes which might indicate ground-nesting bees. You must watch for ankle-grabbing vines, shin-cracking stobs, spidery drop-nets, eye-poking branches, slippery slopes, animal dens...in fact, I'm convinced that if the list was numbered, it would be equivalent to the number of steps taken during any one adventure. In other words, you must always, always, always watch where you are going. And that bit of woods-lore is precisely what saved Junior. Joe looked behind the log before he threw his leg over it, and therefore didn't step on the fawn.

We'd heard mom bounding up the hill a little earlier and didn't give her a second thought. The forest is home to all sorts of wildlife, and unless it's huffing or growling at you, the sounds it makes are pretty much just background noise. Small birds chirp and chatter, squirrels drop cones, grouse drum...silence in the forest is rarer than you might think. You become familiar with the normal noises of the woods even as you're attuned to notice something out of the ordinary. The thump of a deer's hooves on thick forest duff are one short phrase in the woodland symphony. Mom Deer has a different definition of "music appreciation." To her, the sound of three humans discussing the potential for Phantom Orchids occurring in pockets of her habitat were as glaring as a cymbal clash. With Junior still too unsteady on his legs to follow her with any speed, she imparted to him the cues which meant "stay still, don't move," and he froze in place, not even blinking during the brief time we spent cautiously taking photos.

Even when walking on an established trail, it's wise to mind your step. Little critters will be crossing that pedestrian highway, be they caterpillars, mice or voles, snakes, frogs or other species. Many of them can't get out of your way quickly, so the burden of their welfare is on your soles.