One time I was visiting a friend in Vancouver and the thing that was blowing my mind about Vancouver is that the public buses go to the mountains. The mountains are right next to the city and the buses will take you to them.
So my friend was at work during the day. I had the day to explore, so I made a plan. I took a bus to a mountain, and then actually took a ferry across to an island. And there was a mountain on this island, and the ferry was beautiful, the mountain was beautiful, but it was in the middle of winter and other people in Vancouver were not hiking up mountains in the winter. So it was only me on this trail going up this mountain. And the woods in Vancouver are different than the woods in the midwest. They just feel different. They’re — it’s partly — it’s some type of a rainforest ‘cause of how close it is to the ocean.
And I don’t know the types of rainforest but I knew enough to know that this, this forest felt different. And it looked really cool, but it started to slowly feel spooky as I’m going. I’m like, “These are not the woods I feel comfortable in.” And I’m looking around and I’m feeling a little more spooked as the minutes go on but I’m still going up this mountain. Like, I, I made this whole trip here. I did this whole thing. I’m going.
And then some giant bird — I don’t know what kind, but some giant, all-black bird, came down through the trees and sat on a branch right above my head where I was walking and started just squawking. And I was like, “Okay, this is a lot,” but I — you know, “Hello, bird, I’m so sorry. I, I am going as fast as I can on my way up this mountain,” so I keep going.
I round the next curve, the bird flies after me, sits on a branch up ahead of me and does it again. And it’s just squawking and squawking and squawking. So, I walk under the bird. I politely say, “I’m sorry,” and I keep going. I make another curve ‘cause this trail is doing switchbacks. And the bird does it again. And then I do another curve and the bird does it again, then I do another curve, and the bird does it again. And I look at the bird, and I look at the mountain, and I look at the forest that at this time is starting to make me very nervous. And I turn around and I go back.
And the bird immediately stops following me. I, I really — I think maybe that bird was actually helping me out instead of hunting me. That bird was like, “You should not be here,” for some unknown reason that I did not find out because I didn’t go. Or maybe I shouldn’t be there because it just wasn’t what the mountain and the bird wanted at that time. Or maybe the bird wanted a lot of food that I did not have, but maybe it thought I did. It’s, it’s very unclear to me what was happening, but I do know that it felt bad and I’m glad I left.
I’m actually not sad I didn’t make it to the top of that mountain. I think that was okay.