Trail Talk – May 2025

WE SUPPOSE AT TIMES that it’s the unexpected that catches our attention. On a recent Spring day, as folks in camouflage spread across the grassy hillside, the juxtaposition of urban grays, navy blues, and desert beiges against the backdrop of Spring’s new growth was startling. We’d come to view the wildflowers, whose late arrival after a long, cold, lingering winter was most welcome. The wet soil supercharged their appearance and blankets of pinks, whites, yellows, and magentas lay scattered in contrast to the ubiquitous underlying verdancy.

Continuing our hike, we recalled other chance encounters from many miles throughout the years on the trails, either serendipitous or startling. Chance meetings should be anticipated; it’s the nature of the meetings that makes them memorable.

We’re quite familiar with the Pacific Crest Trail, a footpath running border-to-border across the Western United States. Our chance meetings there were, at times, not what we expected. One day, as we dropped off Onyx Peak on our way to San Gorgonio Pass in Southern California, we were running through a forest of oaks and firs, and there, front and center, was a Bengal tiger. Traveling through a mixed-light canopy of light and dark, we’d failed to see the wire enclosure until we’d come to a screeching halt. Can we agree that this was unexpected?

Other encounters along that trail were with our favorite heart-stopping creature: the Western rattlesnakes. In the cool mornings, they were often stretched across the trail to gain sun’s warmth for the oncoming daily hunt. These, we simply hopped over, always joking that it was the second runner who’d have to deal with the fangs. But in the scorching heat of mid-day, while we were anxious to refill our water bottles at a trailside spring, they could become quite belligerent. Wearing nought but singlets and shorts, we were a bit vulnerable, and a quick hunt for a long stick, to persuade these Guardians of the Fount to be threatening elsewhere, was necessary.

Cougar and bear encounters have been more peaceful, these large mammals suddenly remembering their business elsewhere, except that day on the Upper Kenai River Trail in Alaska, when Mama Grizzly decided we were a bit close to her three young’uns. After a short bluff charge that scared us behind a trailside birch, pepper spray at the ready, she was satisfied we’d head back up the trail and let her be.

But what of those serendipitous trailside meetings? We all thrill at Canyon wren’s, or locally, Pacific wren’s song. And, in our nearby woodlands, perhaps we’re startled by the silent shadow of Great Grey Owl winging through the conifers. Or surprised by that spot on the Naversen Family Trail in Forest Park, where visitors walk the narrow arms-width passage between old-growth (large) Sugar Pine, Douglas Fir, and Ponderosa Pine. Perhaps the Pacific Hound’s tongue bloom on Rail Trail with its brilliant blue cluster hiding the shy pink cluster just behind it. Unexpected? Hike with an open mind and open senses. Prepare to be awestruck.