On the Road Again 2013 #20

I am now back in my apartment. I am obviously somewhat behind in my blog postings..... I will continue to discuss my trip in sequential order.

Laying in my little clearing it was far noisy than I thought it would be. While I had assumed that I was at least a mile or so away from the little village, it was I think, much closer than that. Through the woods I could hear people quite clearly yelling back and forth. In fact it sounded as if there was quite a party happening. While I was very aware that I was trespassing on someone's land, I was a bit annoyed that I could not have absolute peace and quiet when I wanted to sleep. However in spite of the noise I did drift off.

I think I slept fairly well until about 1:30 or 2:00. I am not too sure what woke me up. Perhaps it was the incredibly bright moon that was just showing itself over the forested hills, perhaps it was the realization that finally the party had stopped and there was no more yelling, but most likely it was the number of dogs barking.  Not just a few dogs occasionally barking but a whole pack of them going at it for five or ten minutes at a time, then a brief respite from the noise and then they would start again. Clearly something was agitating them. I would drift off to sleep during a lull in their excitement only to be woken up again when whatever it was that was stirring them up, stirred them up. When I think back to the night it strikes me that not once did I hear anyone yell at the animals to shut up. Perhaps no one did because it was a nightly occurrence.

As I lay there wondering what all of the excitement was - I remembered the bear that I had seen the year before. I suddenly realized that I was in bear country and that most likely a bear (or two) was around the village and perhaps that was why the dogs were so excited. As I lay in my suddenly far too small and far too restrictive bivy sack, I realized that if an animal came towards me, I would not be able to get out of it quickly. I decided that I would unzip the sack and then my mummy bag - just in case I saw or heard something. That way I would be able to make a quick dash to the pile of wood and grab a ten foot piece of lumber to ward off the bear if it should decide to get overly interested in me. It was a great plan except for the fact that I could not find the zipper. The more I looked for it (and couldn't find it), the more I panicked and therefore the harder it was to find. As I mentioned a number of blogs ago - it really is cramped inside that sack and it is difficult to move around. In a momentary lull from the barking and from my frantic search for a way out I was sure that I heard something thrashing in the woods around me. I would have bet money that it was getting closer. I became quite convinced that I was a much more tempting target than anything around that village.

Eventually I found the zipper to the sack (I have promised myself to practice getting in and out of it in the dark or at least attaching some sort of larger tag on the zipper) opened it up and sat up. By that point the dogs appeared to be calming down a bit and the noise in the bushes seemed to have, if not stopped, at least it was not getting any closer. I sat there for awhile making sure that my boots were close by and that I knew where my glasses, flashlight and watch were. Eventually I decided to lie down. I think I dozed for the rest of the night.

In hindsight it was all rather silly. If a bear really wanted to check me out, there is no way I could have gotten out of the bag and to the wood pile fast enough. I also realized that night that I was just a bit more claustrophobic than I thought I was.

I was up the next morning before the sun showed itself over the mountains. It was gray and foggy; I was cold and damp and there was no point in hanging around. I had decided at some point in the night that rather than stay at the corner, I would  start to walk down the road. There had to be a better place to stand. No one builds a road that has no shoulders on it - do they?