To Quote Steven Wright(presumably driving his Vanagon in the
wilderness)  "  Christmas tinsel is really snake mirrors. So when you
take down your Christmas tree, save some tinsel for your next walk in
the woods so when you come up on a snake, you can just shake the
tinsel at the snake and it will go away.  Even snakes don't like to
look at snakes".

DM&FS

  At 01:06 PM 1/26/2009, David Kao wrote:
>--- On Fri, 1/23/09, neil N <musomuso@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >
> > >...... I've always been more worried about cougars
> > > than bears 'cause you might not hear them coming.
> >
>
>I have been more worried about mountain lions too. I used
>to hike in a state park with 87,000 acres of hills and
>forest. I am sure it is home of plenty of mountain lions.
>I have stopped going there after hearing many sightings
>of them on the foothills near the park.
>
>I did expect to see some rattlers. But I have not seen one
>yet. I did run into groups of cattles in the park. They
>weigh like a ton each. In the spring there are usually some
>new born in the group. That's when you need to stay far away
>from them. Henry Coe State Park is what I am talking about.
>
>In Yosemite there are a lot of black bears. But bear attack
>on human is very rare. However, bear attacks on cars or vans
>happen a lot (over a hundred a year I think). I somewhat
>worry about black bear attacking my Westy more than anything
>else when visiting Yosemite. For this reason I don't cook
>or eat in my Westy any more. It would become a target of black
>bears in Yosemite.
>
>David