In a dense forest it can be easier to walk along a downed tree than to fight your way though the brush, if a tree happens to be lying in your direction. It will be covered with ferns and moss, if the place is dark and moist, and each step releases new smells old and familiar, and it’s easy to lose track of how far you’ve wandered and the size of the tree, its precise diameter, so that when you hit a rotten, hollow spot and your foot plunges through the bark into nothing, there is an instant when you’re not sure if you have simply stepped onto something soft, or if you are in for a long fall; if you will only kneel briefly in salmon berries or arrive in a dark place containing a rat or — why not?– bear.
I wondered why you weren’t on AIM much last week. I suppose if you were savaged by a bear then that’s a good excuse though.
Big, black bear.
Sounds like your a little homesick, or do they have salmonberries in Austria? (Maybe I’m just unlucky, but I’ve never eaten a salmon berry that tasted very good.)
I’ve been in the presence of bears twice, and even though black bears are not at all agressive, they are extremely intimidating with their combination of speed, power, and lethal claws and teeth.
combination of things – depression mostly, perhaps with a little homesickness now that you mention it(although not for salmonberries).