I went hiking after work today with Scotty’s mom. The last time we went, we just took the path that is currently being worked on, even though the signs and road blocks said not to. We planned to do the same today but there was a ranger driving around, so we walked past it to take the other loop.
Sam said she thought that loop was harder, but it actually wasn’t too bad. The only drawback is that it’s not a loop, because so many trails are under construction, so it’s just a walk-to-the-top-and-then-turn-around type of trail.
On our way up she filled me in on the mountain lion plan.
“If we see a mountain lion, you know what to do, right?”
“Sure I do,” I said, because I remember my mountain lion lessons. “We make ourselves as big as possible and yell.”
“And if it attacks one of us, the other one has to beat it with a stick. You can’t run away. Okay?”
Jeez.
Then she told me that when she hiked this mountain with her husband, he said that if a mountain lion attacked him, he was going to “throw the baby” to her and her job was to run away with him. I’m not sure of the validity of that plan. She said she told him no way, that she would stay and try to drive off the mountain lion with him. But I’m wondering what the new mother’s instinct actually would be…I suspect that under pressure a new mother might actually instinctively save her baby.
I hope they don’t ever have to test that theory, though.
Anyway, we saw no mountain lions. Just birds.
And it turns out that the construction they’re doing is to totally pave over the trails. I don’t know how I feel about that. On the one hand, I like walking a dirt trail. The asphalt kind of changes the whole trail feel. On the other hand, it does get super muddy after it rains, so an asphalt trail would be nice. On the other hand, it’s clearly a horse trail (there are all kinds of hints and clues leading me to detect that) and I’m not sure what horses prefer…
The Cameraphone Diaries 