Blog Archive

Monday, October 20, 2014

That night when everything was trying to kill us.

Day 113 10/3
Mileage 23
Camped at Spanish Needle Creek

It was very cold this morning. I stiffly broke camp and reluctantly removed my jacket, and we were off. I warmed up quickly. The day began with a 2000 foot climb up to 8000 feet. Small pines, Pinyon, maybe, dotted the hillsides. The spring 9 miles in was flowing, fortunately, and we stopped for lunch. The rest of the day I had some nice vistas. With our 5000 feet of climbing, today was a big day. We were happy to reach the spring where we planned on camping. It's on the side of the big hill, so we're camping in the trail. I was setting up my tent before dinner so I could store my things away from the half inch long red ants that seem to call the section of trail home. I had just finished when Kyle called me over to the other side of the creek. He pointed to the ground and there was a large, black scorpion, just lounging out and looking generally menacing. Then, we looked up and saw a pair of eyes watching us in the darkness. Sure enough, it was a mountain lion. I'm aware that the coolness factor is off the charts, but I also know that it's circling our camp, watching us. Oh well. It's a small one. It can't eat all of us. Also there are mosquitoes.

A nice view, before everything was horrible. 

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