Sharing the Trail with Wildlife

Cassandra and I saw the doe and the fawn in the photos on our first day's hike on the Appalachian Trail (AT) in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. I came upon the doe suddenly, it being only 10 feet from me and perfectly still, not bothered by my presence. It later moved across the trail very near us, followed a little later by a fawn that had been drinking from a mountain stream close by. Cassandra took the photos as we crouched on the trail. The deer on the AT are called by hikers Prozac deer because they seem almost relaxed in the presence of humans. Bears, on the other hand, were skittish and scattered in our presence.

Our first bear sighting was on the second day of our hike when I spied a black bear cub climbing a tree. Then we spotted another cub just below. Finally, the mom appeared and I was a little tense because bear moms are known to protect their young vigorously. But Cassandra managed to get the photo of one of the cubs before they sauntered off deeper into the woods. Later, two more bears rustled in the bushes very near one of our campsites and another snorted about the woods near us. We also heard others just off the trail in an area ripe with blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries. I've included a closeup generic photo of a black bear cub sleeping.

But Virginia, have you no snakes? I know there are plenty of snakes on the AT in Virginia, but the only one I saw on the eight days on the trail was a very small dead snake. I had read of horror stories of snakes curling up with hikers in their sleeping bags, but for some reason snakes were no problem throughout our hike.

Another spectacular sight was soaring hawks near the mountain tops and in the valleys.