>>1646733Retards, mostly. I was solo hiking in Joshua Tree NP with a stick because no guns in NatPark, and I saw a blur out of the corner of my eye. A decent size blur, but not too big, my first thought was a yote, as it was about 6am. My animal brain perceived it as a threat, so I swung the stick around and smacked the shit out of a pomeranian. The dog yelped, and fell over whining real loud. I fucked it up, probably with a pointy end of the stick on the bottom.
Some dreadlocked bandana girl comes running up the trail, hearing her dog, and starts freaking out, as the dog was limping or some shit now. Hippie starts crying about her dog, and her husband/cuckboi comes up and starts yelling at me about how I hurt their dog and that I should pay for its vet bills or whatever. I tell them to keep their dog on a leash next time and he wouldn't get hurt. He keeps yelling, she keeps crying, and I stand there waiting for a slap or punch or something, telling them I was sorry, but WTF did they expect. They said they were gonna tell the ranger, so my 5mi hike turned into a 15mi hike as I explored some backcountry areas, waiting for the hippies/cops/UNATCO to stop caring. Got back to the trailhead about 8hrs later and didn't see a soul as I went to my house to get drunk.
I learned that day that my reaction time with a stick in hand was faster than with a pistol draw aim and fire, so now I always hike with a stick.
