Bring On the Flying Monkeys...

As many of you know, hiking is not all sunshine and daisys. More often than not, hiking can be a very dangerous pastime. Now I won't say that I never get into any tight spots because occasionally I do. But not of the white water rapids - cliff hanger type of situation. As a mater of fact it's been years since I've gotten myself into anything that was more than an uncomfortable situation.
 Three or four years ago when we vacationed in the Smoky Mountains I had the opportunity to hike up the mountainside to view a particular waterfall and let me tell you, that got real uncomfortable real quick. I wasn't really used to hiking straight up! Even there alone in the woods on the side of a mountain hundreds of miles from home the closest I came to any sort of danger was of the imaginary sort. You know bears, mountain lions, rock slides (I even gave a quick thought to the flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz)- none of which ever materialized outside of my imagination.
 Mostly I only have to worry about slippery rocks that might lead to my backside getting wet, poison ivy, mosquitoes or spiders. And particularly spiders that tend to make their web across the trail that I've chosen to take a nice relaxing hike on. There's nothing more unsettling than to be trekking along when suddenly you find yourself with a mouthful of cottony web and a spider skittering across your face only to disappear somewhere between your eyes and the closest branch! As much as it gives me the heebie jeebies, once I've convinced myself that the elusive arachnid is far from my person I can't help but laugh a little bit at what I must have looked like walking along only to suddenly break out into the herky jerky! Personally, I'll take the bears, mountain lions and rock slides over a spider in my hair any day. And oh yeah, go ahead and bring on those flying monkeys too...