So there I was sleeping in my hammock Sunday night, when all of a sudden
\nI am wakened by the sound of someone or something SCREAMING just 50 or
\n60 yards up from my hammock. Holy shit! The noise goes on for what
\nseemed to be several minutes, and for the life of me I could not tell
\nwhether it was a person or an animal making the sounds. Quite
\nunnerving. I will also say that it immediately went through my mind
\njust how vulnerable I was lying there in my hammock. There is no quick
\nand graceful way to exit a hammock, and if someone was out there
\nintent on doing me harm, I was a very easy target. It really did sound
\nlike a person, but they were not screaming words, just sounds. And
\nthere were no lights anywhere to be seen, and I figured few people
\nnowadays would be comfortable moving around in the woods without a
\nlight, so I started leaning towards it being an animal. Was it some
\nanimal pissed that I was camped in their territory?<\/p>\n
I unwound my headlamp from the hammock ridge-line and put it on my
\nhead, but did not turn it on. Then I unhooked my sandals from the cord
\nat the foot of my hammock where I keep them and put them on before
\ndropping out the opening of my hammock to have a look around. It was
\nabout 10pm so the moon was up, but I could see nothing in the area.
\nBeing a bit of a chicken-shit I opted not to go tramping around the
\nwoods investigating, so I basically stood around for a few minutes
\nlistening and watching. Nothing.<\/p>\n
Eventually I crawled back into my hammock, and believe it or not I
\nwent right back to sleep. Then some hours later I woke to the sound of
\nsome big animal moving past me and snorting, so I called out and
\nwhatever it was moved away downhill towards the stream in Sages
\nRavine. It sounded like a moose, though moose are very rare this far
\nsouth. Every once in a while one seems to wander down from further
\nnorth in Massachusetts, but as far as I know there is no resident
\npopulation in Connecticut. Given how everything sounds bigger at
\nnight, I’m guessing it was a deer.<\/p>\n
I looked around in the morning and could not see any distinct tracks, so
\nI guess I’ll never know what it was. It sure made for an interesting
\nnight, though!<\/p>\n