Hikin' (pt. 2)

I decided to go hiking last Sunday. The weather was great, my day was free, and I was curious if the roads to the trailheads in the Sierras were open, so I threw some stuff in my CamelBak and headed toward Onion Valley, outside of my old home town of Independence. Sure enough, the "ROAD CLOSED" sign was flipped around and the road was mostly clear, so I drove up a ways to an old dirt road. I walked along the old road-turned-foot-trail, not really sure if I'd bother getting to the end of it or not, and took in the sights and sounds of the day.

I forget where that road goes, but I'm pretty sure there was a mine at the end of it that was destroyed by an avalanche over a century ago. One point along the road is a wash with a few twisted and rusted remnants of mining equipment, so I think the avalanche thing might be right. Either that, or a flash flood took everything out. Maybe they just got fed up with mining and threw their mine carts off a cliff.

I should brush up on my local history.

Anyway, as I was walking along I got the sense that something was watching me. Thoughts of mountain lions popped into my head and every boulder, hill, and bush seemed to hide a big cat waiting for me to be dinner. It was most likely just paranoid thinking; there weren't any signs there was one in the area, no paw prints, no poop, nothing. Still, that paranoia hung around, and I'd started to wish I had invited someone to come along with me.

I heard a rustling in the bushes. Grabbing a rock, I stood in the middle of the trail and stared at the brush, waiting to see what critter was hanging out.

Deer began piling out from behind the brush like it was a clown car. At least a dozen does sprinted up the hillside, probably thinking I was the mountain lion I was so paranoid about. I laughed to myself and watched the deer, a mere stones throw away (I had a stone but I didn't actually test the distance with it), dart up higher and blend in to the scrub foliage above. I felt a little bad for spooking them; they were probably just hanging out, doing deer stuff, but I had to come along and rain on their parade. Sure, they scared me too, but I was kind of barging around their home and all.

I moseyed around that area awhile, then headed up to Onion Valley to run around (and slip in patches of snow, and nearly twist my ankle). On my way back down into the valley, driving down the winding road, a bunch of deer ran across the road. I moved at a snails pace as a dozen or more deer scampered further up the hillside. I thought to myself, Are they the same deer from earlier? Are they following me? but remembered there are a lot of deer, and even if they were the same deer I was, like I said, in their home, so I just smiled and watched them trot out of eyesight.

Wildlife is pretty neat.