Encounters and Panther

Starting out this trip I though I would be running into all sorts of wild animals. Hostile bears and prowling mountain lions were both eventualities I was prepared to deal with. My dad and a friend called me up one night, having imbibed some wine, and tried to convince me to carry a hand gun. You know, to deal with the moutain lions and prowling wood bandits. I actually had to consider that proposal before turning it down. I thought about carrying a canister of bear spray, but decided against it because of weight. I have carried a big-ass knife with me the whole way, but am yet to use it for anything besides cutting mole skin and spreading peanut butter.

Most wildlife encounters on this trail are pretty mild; people rearely encounter bears or mountain lions in a wild setting. I say wild because bears often show up near dumpsters or in Yosemite campgrounds, but those don't really count as wild animals: Yosemite bears were taught to love human food four generations ago and have not relented since. They're remarkably smart and unphased by humans, making for some interesting but usually harmless campground encounters. My wildlife encounters were restricted to a long distance view of a fox and a tame bear sighting next to a restauraunt dumster. Like I said, pretty mild. That is, before I started hiking with Panther.

Panther got his name as a result of a series of animal encounters: to prepare for the PCT, he hikedsome trail in Florida, where a Panther jumped out in front of him. Later, on the PCT proper, he saw a Mountain Lion on his first day of hiking. Since then his name, and his fate, has been set in stone. Panther has encountered at least 6 wild bears, way more than anyone I've ever heard of. Four of these bears were mother-cub pairs, which can make the otherwise timid black bear into a real danger. At one point, he ran face to face into a mother-cub duo on the trail and stared them down for 2 full minutes (as he tells it at least). At some point, the cub bolted up a tree and the mother followed halfway, still leery of Panther. Panther decided it would be good to scare her with loud noises, encouraging her to move further up so he could pass safely. Wrong decision. His WHOOPs set the momma off, who then came screeching down the tree. Panther never looked back to see how close that bear got to him.

It may be the fact that he hikes without trekking poles, but I like to balme Panther's unusual number of encounters on his animalistic energy. To call Panther an intense person is a vast understatement. He radiates intensity in whatever he does, especially hiking. Panther contracted a terrible rash while we were travelling through poison oak country. Turns out, he's terribly allergic (which he knew), yet didn't bother to find out what it looks like. I even offered to show him, but he declined. Moron. I hiked with him for a number of days while the rash quickly spread over his entire body. I cannot conceive of the amount of pain that guy endured, hiking 25-30 miles a day with his entire body itchy, swelling and on fire. After the poison oak spread up his finger tips and he stopped being able to sleep, he got off the trail to seek medical help.

Panther is an amzing person who comes from an amazing place. By amazing I mean terrifying. Panther grew up in the inner city of Chicago and had a rough rough early life. He was in a gang by the time he was 15 and went to jail not too long after. He's a convicted violent felon who's snorted and smoked everything you can conceive of, short of heroin. The number of crazy drug stories he has are mind boggling. He spent most of his young life fucked up physically, mentally or in jail. He didn't graduate from high school.

I have to give the guy credit; he's strong. At some point he realized where his life was going and did something about it. Five years ago, he joined an NAA group and got clean. This trip is actually a celebration of his 5th year of sobriety; no booze, no drugs, no nothing. Except caffeine. That man lives on coffee and Mountain Dew. I've sat next to him in a bar and watched him drink 8 cups of Java. Those weren't his first of the morning. The amount of insight Panther has gained from his experiences is staggering, and I've found that we've drawn many similar conclusions about life, despite our night and day backgrounds.

But I digress. As I was saying, my wild animal encounters were lacking until I met Panther. We were both heading for Reggae Rising, so we decided to hike a short stretch together. On the second day out I had one of the more terrifying experiences of the trail. There we were, walking along with Panther in the lead. He hears a kssssssssssssssss, the rattle of a rattlesnake, and goes to check it out on the side of the trail. This being my first rattler, I think he's insane. But as he approaches, the rattler seems ok and doesn't strike. Panther gets bored and jumps past him on the trail. I get curious and a little brave, so I decide to check out the rattlesnake too. As I approach, I hear ksssssssssssssssss, normal because the snake is warning me to back off. So I step to the other side of the trail and look to pass him.

Kssssssssssssssssss, from my right. I look down, and practiacally under my boot is another rattler, nearly a twin to the recent focus of our fascination. I'm at once terrified and pissed; the one because there's a rattler right next to my leg and the other because it didn't bother to rattle the entire time Panther was almost stepping on him. I froze a moment, let out a forceful profanity and got the hell past the rattlesnake gauntlet of death. Panther thought that was hillarious, and described my movements as an extremely nervous, frantic ballet.

During the rest of my time with Panther I saw two more rattlesnakes and we had a night visit from a curious bear. I swear, something about that guy just makes all the animals in a mile radius come running.

I stopped hiking with Panther after the festival. I haven't seen a single rattlesnake since.

Bear Bait