You Don't Want To Step On One Of Those

There are a lot of porcupines on the trails around Juneau. I have a fear that I am going to step on one when while running sometime. It's very common to come around a corner and not see one of them right in the middle of the trail until I'm just a couple feet from it. They move slow, but when I come this close to them they usually do scurry away pretty quickly and climb up the closest tree they can find. Sometimes I need to yell or throw a little stick at them to get them to move off the trail. Today I came across a really stubborn one. This guy just wouldn't move and there was no space around him on the trail. As I was looking for a stick to throw at him this huge clump of snow suddenly slid off a tree above and landed dead center on top of the porcupine. That got him to move away pretty quickly... at least once he dug himself free of the mound of snow he was trapped under for a few seconds. Sucker.