Trail Tales - Vol. I

Here are answers to Things To Think About questions at the end of each story. The answers are based on my experience outdoors, and your answers may be different. I would love to hear your comments about any of the answers, especially if you have something to add or maybe a better answer.

Carson & Diego

1. The animals refer to people as "twofoots" because we walk around on two feet. Most of the animals in the Trail Tales have four feet, or no feet, or feet and wings.
2. A person started the fire by not completely extinguishing their campfire. This is how many wildfires start, so putting out every campfire is each camper's responsibility.
3. Animals are neither good nor bad. Some animals are more agressive than others, but all of them are only following their instincts to survive by finding food, water, and shelter as needed. All animals contribute to our natural world in some way, even though people view some animals as nuisances and pests.
4. Fire is a useful tool. Fires are useful for cooking, entertainment, and heat.
   Fires can be bad. If there is very little wood in an area, such as a desert or in high mountains, then a fire may use up wood that animals need. If a fire is not watched and managed it can do terrible damage, even killing animals.
   A small camp stove is often more useful, cleaner, safer, faster, and easier than a campfire.
5. You probably noticed a few funny ways that animals refer to things in these stories. They call the sun "sky fire" and people are "two foots". Since the airplanes looked a lot like birds, that is what the coyotes called them.
   These were special airplanes used for fighting wildfires. They scoop up water from a lake and then dump it on fires.
6. Putting water on a fire is a great way to put it out, but sometimes the fire can burn under the ground in the roots of trees and brush. The twofoots had to dig out these burning parts. They may have also dug a wide path across the grassland ahead of the fire. This is called a fire break and can stop a fire from spreading by removing all the fuel from its path.
7. If you don't have a campfire, then you won't cause a wildfire. But, if you do have a fire, be sure to keep it small, have water ready, monitor it all the time, and completely extinguish it before leaving or going to bed.
8. Make your fire where there are no tree limbs overhead, and no brush or grass around on the ground.
   Don't have a fire if it is very windy.
   Don't smoke.
   Check local fire regulations.
   Use small pieces of wood, not big logs.

Eric

1. No, he can't. But, by observing how an animal behaves, from a safe distance, you can often tell if it is calm, distracted, or upset.
2. I've never eaten cactus, so I don't know. If you ever eat some, please tell me how you like it.
3. You could probably tell from the picture that it was a candy bar.
4. They didn't know that the plastic wrapper wasn't part of the food. They ate the whole thing, including the wrapper. Also, some food that humans eat is dangerous to animals - for example, if your dog ate chocolate it could make him very sick.
5. Animals are always looking for easy food. The less energy they need to use up finding food, the better. The candy looked good, smelled good, tasted good, and was just lying there easy to find, so there was nothing telling Eric not to eat it.
6. Make our food very difficult to get. That means hanging in a tree, locking it in a food canister, or storing it in a bin at a campsite made just to keep animals from food.
7. Litter I often see on trails is small bits of plastic or foil from food wrappers. People tear a bit off and drop it when opening a package while hiking. One piece is not much, but since it smells like food, animals still may try to eat it.
8. As long as it is not contagious or dangerous, like a kleenex or lighter, cleaning up trash someone else dropped is a good idea. If you do find something dangerous, like a needle or bullet, tell an adult where it is. Since the garbage was left by humans, it needs to be cleaned up by humans.

Mason & Tess

1. A long time ago, some snakes probably explored past the creek and ran into some Twofoots, just like Mason and Tess did. They came back and told stories to keep the young snakes closer to home where they would be safe.
2. Many places, such as parks, camps, and recreation areas, maintain trails for people to walk on. When everyone walks over the same path, it gets packed down and no plants grow on it. Trails sacrifice a small strip of land so people stay on it and leave the rest of the land wild and natural.
3. Snakes can be found all over the country. You probably have garter snakes or gopher snakes where you live.
4. The best thing to do is stay away from a snake. If you don't get close, it will ignore you. If you get close, it will try to flee. If you bother it, or get very close, it may strike at you.
5. I can't think of any. If you do, let me know.
6. Most animals are preyed upon by other animals, so they have to be wary of larger animals and that makes them afraid of humans, too. A few large animals, such as cougar, bear, and wolf, don't get attacked and eaten by other animals so they may just consider humans as other animals that they don't need to worry about.
7. They are rattlesnakes!!! Plus, you should never touch any wild animal because humans have germs, bacteria, oils, and other stuff on our skin that might harm wild things. If you pick up an animal, your human smell may get on it and its family might not accept it back.

Chase

1. Chase was following human footprints and assumed they were on the trail when they really were not.
2. I'm pretty sure that roadrunners do not really carry messages across the desert for other animals.
3. I hope you found much of the story to be interesting. I'd love to hear if you had a favorite part. I thought Chase's plan on how to keep heading south was interesting.
4. One hiker found a spot that would work well as a campsite, and walked there. Other people followed him. Over time, other people saw their tracks and went to the same spot to camp. All these footsteps over the same ground, day after day, created a trampled path to the camping area.
5. People should stay on the trail, if one exists. If you walk with a group of people someplace where there is no trail, then it is better for each person to take a slightly different route. This causes a wide area to receive only a few footsteps instead of a small area receiving lots of steps that crush down the plants and grass.
6. Yes, they do. I look for animal tracks when I'm hiking after rain and often see deer, rabbit, raccoon, squirrel, and other tracks.
7. No, litter is never a good thing. The roadrunners could have found shade from a bush or shrub if the coat hadn't been there.

Oliver

1. Oliver's "clay home" was actually an old, broken Native American pot. The person that owned it probably just left it where it fell and broke many, many years ago because it could not be fixed. These old items are called "artifacts".
2. There are many different birds of prey, also called raptors. It may have been the same eagle that bothered Chase and Jenny, or maybe a hawk or falcon.
3. Artifacts are valued by some people, so someone was probably out collecting artifacts and took his house to add to their collection.
4. Sometimes people think insects, mice, snakes, and other small animals are a nuisance, or are "yuchy", and they destroy them or their homes. Outdoors, every wild thing has a reason for being there, so destroying some animal's home is not a good thing to do.
5. If I take something home that I found outdoors then no one else can experience the thrill of seeing that item out in nature. Seeing a broken pot right where a native American dropped it hundreds of years ago is much more interesting than sitting on a shelf in my home. Also, there are laws to stop artifacts from being taken from public lands because people were taking too many.
6. In real life, a wild animal like Oliver would have found a new home on his own. Hiking Dude was just being helpful, and he did not build anything. People should not build things out in the wild, but should just leave nature as they find it.

Sherman & Herman

1. Please let me know if you come up with new words and I might use them in a new book. A road might be a "blackrock trail".
2. Hopefully, they learned to plan their trip better so they reach their planned campsite.
3. It was so close to the water that they kept the animals from being able to get a drink.
4. No, they did not think about how they might affect the animals.
5. They could have found another spot farther away from the water source. They could also look around the ground for animal tracks to make sure their campsite was not on any animal trail.
6. It's good to have a flat, open space for camping, but finding a spot that doesn't bother the animals is important, too. If there are spots defined to be used by campers, then use those. Otherwise, a good spot is away from water, off the trail, in a forest of trees, on dry ground, and safe from falling rocks and limbs.

Blake & Sparky

1. Dogs, and other animals, run around and explore things. That's just what they do. A pet owner is responsible for controlling the pet and preventing it from causing trouble.
2. Blake could have been better prepared by having a small pack with a jacket, map and compass, and flashlight. He let Sparky off his leash and lost control of him. He did not tell anyone where he was going before he left home.
3. The most important thing is that he stayed calm and did not panic. He used what he had to stay warm, and he tried to send his dog for help when he became too weak to go farther.
4. When he wandered off the trail, looking for Sparky, Blake got lost. If he knew how to use a map and compass, he could have found his way back to the trail and home.
5. A phone might have helped because he may have been able to call his mom. A whistle could get someone's attention if they were out searching for him. A small water filter could have been used to make the water he found safe to drink.
6. I'm sure he trampled some plants while wandering off the trail, and he burned up some branches for his fire. Sparky chased animals which is very stressful for them. If a small animal uses a lot of energy running away from a loose pet, it may wind up dying. Letting a pet run loose is dangerous for the pet and the other animals it finds.