lcarreau wrote:jesu, joy of man's desiring wrote: He'd been sighted on the edge of the canyon, sleeping in rabbit hutches and chicken coops--probably smoking meth and having long conversations with the hens.
Funny ... should have been nabbed for Beastialitality --- did he do the smoking after he did the chickens ? I think I know the man.
He shall be directed to the bath of shame, but I wouldn't count on him showing up.
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In all my years hiking I've seen one fisherman with a holstered handgun at a backcountry, high mountain lake on forest service land. I suspect a small number of other wilderness users carry, but would bet it is generally not common outside hunting seasons and areas.
A friend who doesn't hike much once insisted on packing a handgun in his pack on our backpack trip into a known black bear hot spot. Despite the weed and rum that he consumed, he slept restlessly and complained about my dog sleeping too deeply to guard us. He had heard lots of stories about grandpa hunting bears, including cubs, and seemed to view them as likely to be vicious. Well, if shooting at them, I suppose aggressive behavior could be a likely response. He did refrain from shooting a six foot rattlesnake that crossed the road on our drive out when I calmly asked him why he was going to shoot it and he couldn't come up with an answer.
Awareness, loud noise, movement/retreat, trekking poles, sticks, and rocks are all I have ever relied on to keep extremely rare confrontations, out of many animal encounters, from turning ugly.