Hunting season in RI opened in September. The regulations are complex and arcane, but I don’t hunt, so all I have to know is that when I go into the woods, I am obliged by law to wear blaze orange. My dog often accompanies me, so she now wears her own safety vest.
Even thus attired, there are trails we avoid altogether at this time of year. There are so many hunters, it’s just too risky. We often meet people on the trail who don’t know the regulations or simply don’t care. But they’re breaking the law and they could be shot by mistake. It happens.
It seems to me that there’s almost always some season for hunting something. There are a couple of months during the summer when we don’t have to wear blaze, but those aren’t our favorite hiking months, anyway, and we often skip a week because it’s too darned hot and buggy.
It’s the one down side of fall, which is an otherwise perfect hiking season.
Digging RI 
Thanks for you helpful reminder.
I still grieve for that Maine young mother in her 30′,s who lost her life while hanging clothes in her backyardl she was killed by a hunter. A tragic event for all parties.
A few years ago my septuagenarian salt and peppered-haired friends walked the bike path east of the the Great Swamp and seemingly out of nowhere, a camouflaged hunter emerged from the woods. He scared the hell out of my friends; the backyards of a housing development were within gunshot range.
As he passed my friends, he remarked, “I thought you were a white–tailed deer; I almost took a shot”.
From late September on, I try to avoid the main bike path. Those stories haunts me. Being kiiled by a hunter’s shot or some idiot texting while driving or DUI, so preventable.
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I avoid that bike path anyway. Had an unpleasant run-in with a pit bull once.
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Good for you for staying safe. And for protecting your dog as well! Whatever it takes to avoid a tragedy.
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And she looks so cute in her little vest. Bonus!
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we were on Malta in autumn on holiday one year. Loved the place, but not the fact that they hunt the migrating birds!!
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I know about Malta and migrating songbirds. I don’t think I could ever travel there for that reason.
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