Even if most of the current goes into the soil, you're still touching thousands of volts at hundreds of Amperes. You might avoid electrocution if you contact at only one spot. (For the same reason birds can perch on high voltage wires without being electrocuted.)
However as soon as you make two points of contact, you offer a path for electricity. Suppose your skin offers 1 Mohm of resistance. Our flesh is an electrolyte. Merely 1 mA through the body can stop our heart.
You can watch videos of linemen working on high tension lines unharmed amid electric sparks a few feet long. Naturally they wear protective suits as well as practice safe procedures in avoiding electrocution.