I noticed this article warning hikers in western NC to be on the watch for Eric Rudolph…Maybe I shouldn’t show my mom this one…
http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/South/11/21/rudolph.alert/index.html
A-Train 2003
A-Train
This makes me feel real safe!
system
#1
system
#2
Strange enough, that’s our last name, spelled wrong and a relative’s first name! We got a few looks in NC in '01 and didn’t talk much.
Feakshow and Barbie
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#4
forget rudolph, there was a girl shot by a hunter near Suches this morning.From 200 feet away.I find it unbelievable that hunters don’t know about the AT in that area, maybe we need to add bells to our gear.
cowboy
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#5
Yeah especially since humans look so much like deer. It’s almost impossable to tell the differance sometimes.
Mongoose
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#6
Did you hear about the 90 year old man last week who shot a white horse while a girl was riding it.
Blaze orange hat, don’t leave home without it.
aching_toes
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#7
I had a rather weird meeting with some hunters north of 81 in '01. They seemed to like my pack an got a little too trigger happy with the trees. I was shot at here near home a few years ago walking on a fire road. Buck shot wizzed over my head. Heck, me and the wife were hit IN our canoe on a river. Hiker with a 12ga. Hmmmm.
I’m sure the orange helps but first the hunter has to use some sense. Here in Ohio last week some guy got an arrow though himself. That’ll leave a mark. Ow. We quit hiking during Elmer Fudd Season.
Bushwhack
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#8
Never knew tying strips of blaze orange onto my pack was a life saver. Better safe than sorry I thought. Living up here in the Boston area, I have little contact with hunters. Don’t hear much about all the accidents. This thread has certainly been an eye opener. Heck, when I was hiking I was more worried about all the hunting dogs we found emaciated, cold, and lost along the trail.
Grimace
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#9
Those must have bent he ones that DIDN’T try to bight us. Grimmy?, you near Bahston?. I lived is Mahshfield back in 70’s when you could still walk on a public beach. Nice place. Beats Ohio, Land of the Mal-adjusted Car Headlamp.
Bushwhack
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#10
Ok, not to step on any hikers toes but…Certainly the Georgia shooting was an accident. Just like when someone dies in a car crash…it happens…
Instead of complaining about hunters, who are human and can make mistakes…yes even serious and fatal ones… Why not talk about how to prevent them?
Hunters take education courses. Maybe they need to be “refreshed” more often. Hunters are required to wear blaze orange during deer season…Maybe Hikers or any person using the woods during hunting season should be required by law to wear 360 degree visable blaze orange…
Blaze orange saves lives.
Buckle up its the law!
heh
Rob
RobA
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#12
I hiked on the At in October-Sept 2002 starting at Springer. I had bought a hunter orange pack cover but was suprised that no one else hiking had any orange on. I wore a bright yellow cap and decided not to use my pack cover- I figured that everyone hunting in the area HAD to know where the AT was. Evidently, the young 16 year old girl recently shot after being mistaken by a 19 year-old hunter for a deer, was shot right in the area I hiked. I will wear my pack cover next time I hike during hunting season.
Zydecajun
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#14
This reminds me of the beginning of Stephen King’s Dreamcatcher–coming to a theatre near you soon–when one of the main characters sees a “deer” but it ends up being a man–he had bright orange on, too. Later the guy wished he’d shot him, but that’s not the point! 
hippie hiker chic
system
#15
I think it’s important to keep things in perspective here on the hunter-danger issues. It’s human nature to fear what we don’t understand.
Hikers sometimes fear hunters for the same reason that they fear bears, there’s a lot of hype out there and they lose track of the statistical odds of something bad actually happening to them.
You are 45 times more likely to be killed by lightening than by a hunter.
More people are killed by DEER each year than by hunters. That’s right, car/deer collisions kill a lot more people each year than do hunters.
A swimmer’s odds of drowning on any given year are about 1:39,000. Your odds of being a fatality if you bicycle are 1:58,000. Your odds of being killed by a hunter are 1:167,000 IF you’re a hunter. If you aren’t a hunter, the danger is dramatically lower.
On the AT, falls, weather, traffic accidents, lightening etc. etc are all more dangerous than hunters. Wear blaze orange during hunting season, then don’t worry about it.
Colter