because it was sunny and in the 70s and a truly beautiful day, kevin and i decided to hike at Site M, the Jim Edgar Panther Creek Wildlife Area yesterday. We didn’t get there til about 2:00 in the afternoon.
we started off and it was almost too warm, but really nice. an incredible day for november! i was kind of tired and a little sore because of two back-to-back exercise classes that i always do on sunday morning – weightlifting for an hour, then amy’s cardio jam for another hour. kevin was a little tired because he took a 10-mile bike ride yesterday morning. i’m happy that his eye is improving enough for him to to that.
so our pace was a little sluggish, but that was OK. i guess because it’s more exposed to the elements out there, many more of the leaves had fallen at the site than they have at home. we made quite a bit of noise, crunching through them.
it was peaceful as usual, and we only saw a few fishing boats.
after three miles, one hour, we decided to stop for a tea and coffee break. highly enjoyable.
we headed back, feeling much refreshed. the sun was lower in the sky, there was a light breeze…perfect.
we stopped for a photo op at a place where we could see lake on both sides of the path.
and then we marched on, discussing one of our day’s hiking in wales, on and on we went…and then, out of the sky came an angry voice. GET OUTTA HERE! kevin quickly replied WE’RE WALKING ON THE PATH. the voice replied I’M HUNTING!!!
uh oh. clearly, the hunter was up in the trees somewhere, but i couldn’t see him at all. he sounded really mad . kevin said WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO, WALK BACK 17 MILES? and the guy scornfully said YEAH!
so we marched on, but now i thought OH MY GOD HE’S GOING TO SHOOT US. kevin said that this is bow and arrow deer season, but this didn’t make me feel any better. we’d get killed with an arrow! kevin explained that no, we wouldn’t get killed, we’d “bleed out,” which could take from 5 minutes to days. that did nothing to reassure me.
as we hurried along the path, we talked about the fact that we were sure we’d seen a posted sign the last time we were here – the path was closed to mountain bikes from nov. 1-april 15, but it was still ok to hike. or snowmobile.
but why oh why was it ok to hike amongst hunters?
we had one more mile to go, as i anxiously scanned the trees…AND THERE WAS ANOTHER HUNTER! this guy was closer to the ground, not moving, not yelling at us, but he had a scary mask thing over his head. kevin waved at him and mouthed “sorry” as we went passed, and the hunter just waved back. no drama.
but still…by this point i was sure that there must be more and more hunters, and we really got back to the car quickly. we looked for the sign that said it was ok to hike, but couldn’t find it.
at home, we looked it up online, and yes, the website says it’s fine to hike or snowmobile. as well as hunt.
THIS SEEMS TOTALLY CRAZY TO ME.
i’m just saying. kevin said that hunters have their scope and can see everything, so they wouldn’t shoot at us…but WHAT IF THEY WERE A CRAZY HUNTER? OR A BLIND HUNTER?
what if we’d worn our deer costumes???
whew. if we do go back to Site M before spring, we’ll be on a path where people aren’t hunting. i know there’s a long and kind of boring paved path that we’ve been on before, but if we walked on that, we might as well just walk on the path to chatham, instead.
it’s always something.
i hope your tuesday was full of delight.
ok then,
mrs. tuesday hughes.