Ever see that old movie called "Deliverance" in which a young Burt Reynolds plays a hokey version of Jungle Jim? Well, those local hillbillies with their perverted idea of entertainment those city boys ran into were not just the stuff of fiction. There were indeed elements of truth in that movie.
Maybe 30 years ago in this area a young fellow was traveling through here by motorbike on the interstate and he stopped to rest at a designated rest area. His tired, young backside didn't get any rest, though. He was approached by two fellows of a an alternative sexual persuasion who surprised him, pulled a pistol on him, and took turns "having their way with him." He survived that episode, but I'll bet he's carrying a gun right now.
At another time and place in our county I found some nice, fresh, but out of the ordinary things discarded in a secluded place just off a dirt road in the edge of some woods. It appeared to me that they were most of the possessions of someone who was traveling lightly and camping wherever night found him. There was no evidence of foul play, but I have always thought there was a body disposed of in that area, too. Among other things, there was a small tent, an empty gun case, and some clean and neatly folded clothing that appeared to be from somebody recently mustered out of the Navy -- complete with his name on the waistband of the dungarees. Nobody I talked to about this was the least bit interested in investigating it, though. Nobody even cared to look at what I had found. Oh, well...
Our town is near the edge of a major national forest, and every few years some human bones surface in some out of the way place around here. I am convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that these woods are littered with the skeletons of murdered people that will never be discovered.
In a small body of water right beside a secondary highway that runs through the forest the neatly sawn-off hands, arms, feet, and legs of someone were found floating by a trucker who happened to stop there to relieve himself some years back. (What can I say? Guys like to pee in the water!) Naturally, the trucker reported it and the SO investigated it, but to no avail. They were even able to get good fingerprints from the hands, but they were not in the system then. It was decided that no murder could be proven because they lacked the torso and head, and the victim could theoretically have been alive still. That I doubt, but it's just one more cold case among thousands now.
As for four-legged predators, though, many of us have had uncomfortable experiences with feral dogs and have used a gun to remind them they had pressing business elsewhere. I know I have. I was almost "treed" by a huge wild hog once, too.
When I was young and dumb I didn't carry a gun in the woods or on the waters, but now I'm old and smarter and I don't leave home without one.
