Editor's Note: The following is pulled from the journal that I kept while hiking the John Muir Trail this past month. I'll post each entry, each day, for the next few weeks. If you are just tuning in, you can go to the first day of the journal here.
Monday, July 26th. Day 8. Been out for a week now. Crazy how long a week can be when on trail. So many new experiences, so many memories, compared to back home, where days can seem to blend into one another, monotonous in that way that lets weeks go by unnoticed, without any major milestones counting off the time. Yosemite seems like forever ago, because so much has happened since then. And then again, it's all been roughly the same too, in its own way: hiking has its own monotony. Left, right, left, right.
But today's top milestone was an encounter with two coyotes, a few does, and a wounded fawn, hunted and taken down by the coyotes. Bri saw the tracks in the pumice trail we hiked on, thru a massive burn area, started by lighting years ago. Beautiful hike despite the dead trees, as all the reclamation species were blooming and loving the sun. Bri mentioned she saw deer tracks and that someone must be hiking with a dog also, as she noticed the paw prints. As we entered the forest, we came upon the two coyotes, circling around us, and I shot some pics as quick as I could.
Then I saw the fawn, wounded and bleeding, trying to get up and failing. Looked mortally wounded for sure, and the doe was hanging by, maybe trying to fight the coyotes away, but it didn't look like she had much luck. We promptly left, hoping that the coyotes would return and finish the job. They had run off shortly after we stopped, and no one else that came up behind us saw them at any point, or noticed the fawn, so not sure what became of the scene. He'll get eaten one way or another I suppose. It was tragic to see, but it's the circle of life after all. Coyote's gotta eat too.
-llg