The Appalachian Trail At A Turtle’s Pace?

We hike at around 2.5 mph these days. That seems like a turtles pace in today’s world. For some reason, the state of Virginia is loaded with these turtles. They like to sit in the middle of the trail and wait for someone to come along and harass them. We, of course, do not harass them, we simply admire their prehistoric beauty before moving on around them. Occasionally we actually get to see them walk. They can move surprisingly quickly. It reminds us of the Looney Tunes race between Bugs Bunny and Cecil Turtle: Check it out by clicking the link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cymQHdMEUrQ

A slightly more fleet-a-foot animal we have come across on a regular basis in the Shenandoah National Park is the black bear. We usually do not have time to snap their photo as they are in the process of a quick retreat (thank goodness) but this one above has a story. I will call the story “My stand-off with Yogi”. I was not making enough noise to warn the bear of my presence so we met about 10 yards apart and looked at each other with interest. Maybe it was a bit of trepidation on my part? Protocol says never to run away from a bear as they will see it as an invitation to chase you. I yelled and banged my sticks together at first. I got “the look”. You know, the look. He did not budge and was right in the middle of the trail. I slowly backed off to 100 yards or so and monitored its movement, or lack thereof. It would not take its eyes off me either. After 20 minutes or so it slowly motivated away up the hill. I hustled by the spot where it was. This was on an uphill incline so hustle might be the wrong word. When a trail is fairly steep, trail builders use a thing called a switchback to lessen the grade. This trail “switchbacked” right toward the bear again! Damn. As luck would have it, I did not see Yogi again as I walked back toward the scene of our first meeting but at a slightly higher elevation. Walking away from the situation I realized that, indeed, Yogi was a civilized bear.