So today myself and my mom went over to Eaton Canyon to take a few of the dogs on a hike. While there, we encountered this really angry person who acted as if he was just looking for someone to fight with his free time. All was well for the first hour and then we hit this break in the trail that led us down into a stream and falls area. Almost immediately this dude comes from out of nowhere and starts haranguing me from the top of the cliff. He must have saw our dogs coming and worked his way down the side of the hill, and with the sole intention of insulting us.

Guy: You must be a really big pussy to feel the need to bring 2 Pit Bulls out here with you.
Me: What you talking about, man?
Guy: Are you that big of a pussy to need to have 2 Pit Bulls?
Me: Nope, they’re just my dogs. Why you being a dick?
Guy: I’m not being a dick. You are. Why do you gotta bring your 2 aggressive Pit Bulls into this stream, there’s 2 more right over there. All these Pit Bulls shit everywhere and no one picks anything up. Did you bring your bags with you?
Me: Yeah.
Guy: Sure you did…
Me: You wanna see them? (Pulling the roll out of my pocket) Here they are.
Guy: Take your aggressive dogs and get the hell out of here.
Me: You don’t even know my dogs, why you calling them aggressive?
Guy: (Shouting now) They all are aggressive. It’s in their nature, you fucking idiot!
Me: The only one being aggressive here is you.
Guy: Yeah, you want some? I am aggressive. I’m a Pit Bull like that.

Keep in mind that while this is happening the 2 dogs that are with us (Falcor and Zeus) are happily swimming together and pouncing around splashing water everywhere. There’s a girl and a guy, both probably younger than me, with their 2 dogs (1 senior Pit Bull-type and 1 little English Bulldog) that are less than 10 feet away but up a level on some concrete. This dude refers to their dogs as Pit Bulls as well. They are looking at me like wtf, who is this guy and why is he so unhinged? My mom is standing there trying not to get her shoes wet and telling me to come on, let’s go.

Long story short, he ends up standing still on his perched area until he’s thoroughly alienated everyone and we all 4 leave this little falls section that the dogs were really happy with. It’s like he was praying to come across another loose cannon personality so that he could pick a fight with them. Either that, or he knew that no one could easily reach him from up on his elevated cliff and so desiring to spew hostile foolishness was his preferred outlet for his low self esteem. I mean, who goes out of their way to make their presence known in such a pretentious way and then break the ice by calling someone a pussy twice? For no reason. Other than the fact that he obviously hated my dogs, not because of anything that they actually did but simply because of the way that they looked and their perceived breed. Another thing, he made it seem as though only Pit Bulls were shitting in the canyon. First off, dogs have no ability to pick up their own shit, and secondly, he’s making the random pile of poop on the ground a Pit Bull issue and not a general dog and their owner issue. That’s rational.

I feel bad for this dude. He’s clearly not too bright, but then he’s taken his ignorance and slanted ways of looking at things and soaked them in aggression and anger and a desire to control and this mentality of needless posturing. And while calling my dogs aggressive. I mean, is that just simple hypocrisy or more like being so out of touch with what is actually happening that you become your own cartoon character? He’s literally out in the middle of a canyon trying to provoke other people by being as big of an asshole as he can be to them. Unloading his learned ignorance onto me and my dogs for no reason whatsoever other than that he’s got this quite obvious axe to grind against Pit Bulls. It kind of boggles my mind.

We encountered at least 100 people today. All nice, all smiling, all actively doing something and all minding their own business. This is kind of a nice metaphor for society as a whole in comparison to individual ideologues who have a visceral disdain and hate for entire groups of anything.