What ws your worst experience with wildlife on the AT?

[Ricky&Jack]

Has anyone been kicked by a deer?
has anyone gotten lyme disease from a tick?
Has anyone ever been bit by a snake or spider?
Chased by a bear?

Im just curious what all bad encounters with wildlife have happened to AT hikers (section or thru).

[ChinMusic]

A whippoorwill kept me awake.

[Ricky&Jack]

just like a damn woody wood pecker

[canoe]

A whippoorwill kept me awake.

That was nt in the SNP was it?

[ChinMusic]

That was nt in the SNP was it?

Yessir .....

I wished I had had a shotgun.

[rafe]

A wild turkey in southern Virginia -- burst out of the bushes about ten feet in front of me with a roar of fluttering wings and totally broke my reverie, scared the %^@#$ out of me before I realized what it was.

[rafe]

Cattle in the meadow north of Elk Park (19E). I'm a city boy, I had no idea how to shoo cattle away from the trail. I was kinda stuck until another hiker came by and did the deed.

[canoe]

Yessir .....

I wished I had had a shotgun.

I remember one in the SNP kept me awake all night. We were at Blackrock shelter. That bird waited til we were almost asleep and then started sounding. Seemed like all night

[canoe]

A wild turkey in southern Virginia -- burst out of the bushes about ten feet in front of me with a roar of fluttering wings and totally broke my reverie, scared the %^@#$ out of me before I realized what it was.

THose grouse will do the same thing.

[rafe]

THose grouse will do the same thing.

Close, but not as loud as that turkey. Plus, to be honest, until that moment I'd never seen a turkey fly, let alone take flight ten feet in front of me. We have wild turkeys in our back yard here in the Boston burbs. Big, ugly birds. They eat tics (so I'm told) so I'm happy to let them graze.

[Sarcasm the elf]

The bears seem to always run away as soon as they see my camera, it's very rude of them.

[English Stu]

A UK experience with a cow, which unbeknown to our group and me at the rear had a calf nearby. The cow rushed passed the group and at me. I must have dug deep in my brain and remembered if you can turn a cows head its ass will follow, with both hands I shoved my stick vertically against is neck and it passed me by at speed. Only try this in dire emergency it might not work.

Over the years as well as the great views of wildlife I have had problems with Marmot,chipmunks, bears,dogs foxes and birds that keep you awake; including a Peacock which I sought out only to find it 50 foot up a tree and out of reach of a stone.

On the AT I had trouble with kitten which wanted to play and jump in and up my Tarp. We even took it about 100yds away to the property and it was back at the Tarp before we were.

[gumball]

Our friend hiking in front of us kicked up nest of yellow jackets accidentally. I ended up with about four or five stings and at least two more days on the trail for an easy out. At the end of those two days, I had quite a bit of swelling and infection--so much so that on the way to the hospital, my skin was blistering as we drove.

Fun times

[rhjanes]

A wild turkey in southern Virginia -- burst out of the bushes about ten feet in front of me with a roar of fluttering wings and totally broke my reverie, scared the %^@#$ out of me before I realized what it was.

I had the same experience here in Texas. Flew out of rocks I was orienteering near



Sent from my Plactim Clatue communication device

[4shot]

a tick bite (which lead to Lyme's for me).

In Pa., got uncomfortably close to 2 HUGE rattlesnakes on the trail. They failed to give me an obligatory warning rattle before I saw them. In my effort to create space between myself and the first one, I backed up rapidly only to trip over a rock and land flat on my back(pack). I felt like a turtle trying to get up. Who knew there were rocks on the trail in Pa.?

At a Ga. campsite, we had three owls that kept up quite a racket through most of the night. When we got up the next morning two young "city boys" (from Philly iirc) asked if we had heard the "monkeys" howling all night long. we all cracked up. They honestly did not know what the sound was and had never heard owls before.

[Damn Yankee]

A whippoorwill kept me awake.

I remembered as a kid loving the sound of these but, last year I had one keep me up with his insistent whip-por-willing. Not as I remembered but it was a nostalgic time for me any how.

[Patrickjd9]

Mouse ran across me when I was sleeping in Tray Mountain Shelter in Georgia last week. Took a couple of whacks at it and found a dead mouse next to me in the morning.

[Marta]

Mobbed by yellow jackets. Got about 35 stings. I felt pretty bad for several days.

[Tuckahoe]

It's been many years, but back in my much younger days, oh about 1976 or so I was a we lil park ranger working at a national park out in the west somewhere. The chief park ranger was a guy named Michael Kelly.

Anyway there was a killer grizzly that summer and it killed two ladies that were camping out in the backcountry. We wanted to close the park but the superintendent wouldn't hear of it until a couple more folks were killed.

A hell pilot Don Stober, Kelly and I started hunting the bear from the air finally cornering it. The bear got Stober, but I was able to pull the bazooka from the helo's arms locker and throw it to Kelly using it to kill he grizzly as it charged us.

I haven't been back west since that time. After the incident I left the park service and be some a tier 1 spae shuttle door gunner for NASA

[Starchild]

Not chased by a bear but does being chased by a leech count?

A leach got me out of the water very quickly and prevented my swim once I saw him/her approaching my foot.

But really the worst were the skeeters in CT, they had all of us run through that state to prevent them from landing on us.