Sunday, November 18, 2007
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I'm heading south
It's always been my traveling style to head off in a general direction and let the winds carry me along wherever my whims blow. Today my whims are blowing south. More or less down along the western flank of the Appalachian mountains. The Graphical Forecasts at Weather.gov lead me to think the prevailing weather is about the same as I would see following the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys I had planned on following. We'll see.
Night camp: Wal-Mart parking lot in Whitehall WV
Absolute Silence
I remembered hearing of a backcountry Park Service ranger who was cleaning up after dinner one evening when he heard a chilling scream. He ran out of his cabin in time to see a mountain lion standing with a dead deer next to her. The lion saw the ranger and bounded off. The ranger realized this might be a rare opportunity to closely observe a mountain lion, so he stationed himself a short distance away from the deer carcase. He sat in absolute silence, and listened closely as night deepened. After sitting in darkness for well over an hour, he gave up hope of the lion's returning and stood up. In the powerful beam of his flashlight, he could clearly see that the dead deer was no longer there. ...
Caught in Fading Light: Mountain Lions, Zen Masters, and Wild Nature by Gary Thorp