Day 94: The Blueberry Trap!

June 9: It rained hard most of the night. A pounding rain that was deafening on the shelter's metal roof, but it was a comforting sound as well because I was in the shelter and not in the rain! =) But by morning, the rain had finally tapered off by morning. Thank goodness! The ground was still wet and tree snot fell from the trees so I took my time leaving the shelter. Anyhow, weather forecasts predicted a 60% chance of rain later in the afternoon so I planned to make a short day of it and hike a measly 12 miles to the next shelter. I was in no rush!

These colorful critters come out in huge numbers during and after rainstorms!

The day's hiking was comfortable and pleasant. Much of the day the trail ran through a wildlife refuge which was completely and utterly flat--a sensation that one doesn't get to feel very often on this trail and I loved it! At one point, the trail follows along some dirt roads forming three sides of a near-perfect rectangle leaving me to wonder why the trail just didn't go straight rather than this long-winded loop around. I suspect the trail does that sort of thing a lot but being in all of the trees and the trail not so straight, it's not as obvious as here. I could see Heavyweight nearly a mile ahead of me on the trail as I watched his progress around the wildlife refuge.

I had a lot more time to think during the hike today because of all of the easy terrain, and somewhere in the dark corners of my mind, an idea developed: a Blueberry trap. Of sorts.... His chasing after that chipmunk a couple of days earlier gave rise to my idea, and I still remembered his threat of the "Tortuga trap" whose bark turned out to be worse than its bite. But I had an idea, and I was calling it my Blueberry trap. It could wait until I reached the shelter, however.

The water source for the next shelter was actually at an abandoned house at a road crossing shortly before the shelter. When I arrived at the road crossing, I could see what looked like an abandoned house nearby, but the trail went into the woods next to it and I wasn't entirely sure if I was supposed to walk up the driveway to the house or if it was accessible directly from the trail. Not wanting to backtrack with a full pack if I decided incorrectly, I dropped my pack, hid it from view, and walked up the driveway to check it out. A few minutes later, I found the working faucet at the back of the house and a trail leading into the woods from it. Assuming it re-connected with the AT that was off in the woods, I followed it where I caught up with Heavyweight.

Heavyweight was stunned to see me. The surprise was quite visible on his face. "Where did you come from?" he asked. "And what happened to your pack? You pulled a Karaoke!" he exclaimed, referring to the time when Karaoke had inadvertently hiked up the trail the hard way without his pack.

Well, not exactly like Karaoke, since I knew there was a chance I would meet up with the AT again. I wasn't surprised when I stumbled onto it. My "sneaking" around by walking up the driveway had thrown Heavyweight off a bit, but that was the gist of it.

I walked back down the official AT where I retrieved my pack, then walked back up it again and on to the shelter.

The only rain for the day was the slightest of sprinkles that lasted a few minutes and I arrived at the Pochuck Mountain Shelter dry. The skies had some beautiful, puffy white clouds, but nothing that looked like it would threaten rain, and I toyed with the idea of continuing further for the day.

But.... what if it still rained later in the afternoon? It didn't look like it would rain, but weather can change in an instant! So I lingered at the shelter for a bit. There was a lot to do at the shelter in any case!

For instance, there was all sorts of gear left by a previous hiker including some really nice rain pants that looked absolutely brand, spanking new. I wondered if they'd even been opened! They seemed a bit bulky and heavy to carry on the trail, but I wouldn't have minded mailing them home for later use around town. I needed to make sure they fit, though, so I pulled them out of the bag they came in and tried them on. Turns out, they were much too big. I don't know who bought them, but they must have been an eight-foot giant! Heavyweight told me that I looked like one of those really old people with suspenders and they're pants come up to their chest, so I started goofing around with an old man's voice which Heavyweight recorded for posterity. Hope you enjoy! =)

I didn't take the pants, but I did take some extra shoelaces the ones on my shoes were wearing thin and in danger of snapping any day now. I hadn't worried too much about that since I figured I'd just run my thin rope through the shoes if it came down to that, but since these shoelaces were free for the taking, may as well use 'em!

In the register, McGuyer, who was now ahead of me on the trail, had written something about seeing a whopping SIX different bears along the trail today! New Jersey is well-known among thru-hikers for its abundance of bear sightings, but even by thru-hiker standards, six bears in one day is a lot of sightings! (At the next shelter, where he would spend the night today, he'd write something about seeing a couple of more. I don't remember the exact number of bears he saw that day, but it was something like 8 or 9!) I was envious. I saw zero. He probably scared them off. *nodding*

Then, of course, there was the Blueberry trap I needed to set. Blueberry hadn't arrived at the shelter--not yet, at least, but I knew he was behind me on the trail and due to arrive at the shelter at any time.

First, I needed to find just the right stick. Something long and thin, a little bendy would be nice. I searched the ground around the shelter and found the perfect stick a few minutes later.

Second, I attached one end of a short bit of thread to the stick.

And finally, I needed a "toy" to attach to the other end of the thread. Also left in the shelter besides clothes was a plastic spoon, and I figured that would work perfectly. Before I had learned of all the stuff left in the shelter, I was going to use a pine cone or something natural that I could find in the woods, but a plastic spoon I figured would work even better.

And now I had what could generally be called a cat toy--where I could dangle the spoon and cats would try to catch it or paw at it. Except that there weren't any cats around, and although Blueberry wasn't a cat, I had a hunch it would work on him! =)

I dangled it around, testing it out. I'm not sure what Heavyweight was thinking about my idea--if he thought I was crazy or that it might actually work. Or probably a little of both.

Pumpkin Butt was the next person to arrive at the shelter, and I dangled the spoon in front of him as he arrived. He tried to move away from it, and I followed him with it, but he wasn't having any of it. "Get that away from me!"

I turned to Heavyweight, "It doesn't work on Pumpkin Butt," I said, "but I still think it'll work on Blueberry."

In the meantime, I started cooking dinner. I was still toying with the idea of moving on, and Heavyweight was talking about hiking 24 miles the next day. I knew I wouldn't want to do that, however, so now I had another incentive to continue on today. If I could get in another five miles today, I'd only have to do 19 miles tomorrow to be in sync with Heavyweight (and Superman and Blueberry) again.

But I knew I'd be camping between shelters and possibly away from water sources so I wanted to get the cooking done here. And give myself more time to see what the weather might do. I'd hike late--all the way up until sunset--and at that point I wouldn't want to spend the time or energy cooking dinner. Nope, better to do that now!

So I cooked dinner, ate dinner, cleaned up, and eventually.... along comes Blueberry.

I quickly grabbed my improvised toy and dangled it outside of the shelter as he arrived, and Blueberry immediately opened his mouth trying to catch the spoon in it. I drew it away into the shelter, and Blueberry's mouth followed. It worked! It worked! I knew it would work! =)

Blueberry laid down in the shelter, and I dangled the spoon over him as he swatted at it like a cat would. It was kind of amusing at first, but as with real cats, it does get old kind of fast so I gave Blueberry the stick and he started dangling it over his own face to grab the spoon with his mouth.

"This is even better than a real cat!" I told Heavyweight. "Cats can't dangle these things for themselves!"

Good times. =)

Blueberry told us that he was thinking about continuing on to a viewpoint several miles ahead, so I said, "Yeah! I'm thinking about going on too! Let's go together!"

Heavyweight didn't like this idea, however, and encouraged Blueberry to stay at the shelter for the night. "I'll build you a campfire!" he said, even though campfires were illegal in New Jersey.

Bribery. *shaking head* I grabbed the stick. "But you'll miss this," I said, dangling the spoon in front of his face. "Won't you?"

Heavyweight countered that he'd build Blueberry the biggest darned campfire he ever saw!

Then I came to my senses. I turned to Heavyweight. "Are we fighting over... Blueberry? What has become of us?!"

Heavyweight became pensive. "OMG--we're like parents getting divorced and fighting over custody of the family dog. Visitation rights every 50 miles."

We laughed at the idea. "You can have him," I said. "He probably still needs some potty training."

The weather still continued to look nice, so I repacked my pack and once again hit the trail agreeing to meet up with them again at the shelter 24 miles up the trail the next night if I didn't see them earlier.

Those last couple of hours of hiking were pleasant, and late in the day, there was a mile-long boardwalk to follow that was immensely easy and quick! Views were quite nice too!

Finally the trail left the valley bottom it had been following for so long and started ascending into the mountains again, and I called it quits at a small viewpoint just before the so-called "Stairway to Heaven." My initially planned on 12-mile day turned into a 20-mile hike after hiking an additional 8 miles beyond the Pochuck Mountain Shelter.

The weather still looked fine with nothing that hinted at rain, so I decided to cowboy camp. It was near sunset and I figured it was likely that nobody was around, but holy cow! There were still a lot of people coming up and down the trail! At the top of the mountain was a lookout point and it seemed like all of the locals were headed up to it to view the sunset. A dozen people must have passed my impromptu campsite. A few stopped to chat and ask if I was thru-hiking the trail. I ate a few snacks out of my pack, but since I ate my dinner a few hours earlier at the shelter, I just used the snacks to fill me up before going to sleep.

After the sun had set and shortly before fading off to sleep, I saw what looked like an enormous spider crawling up towards my shoe. I went to flick it off as I normally do, but this spider exploded into what looked like a hundred mini-spiders. I jumped back a bit, surprised. WTF?! They scurried around individually, generally heading away from me. To this day, I still have no idea what exactly it was I saw there, but it was pretty darned weird! I went to sleep hoping that there weren't more of them around....

This road heads into Unionville, a town that neither Heavyweight nor I had any reason to go into. HOWEVER, we did call a pizza place to ask if they'd deliver a pizza to us at this road crossing. Alas, they didn't have delivery. No pizza for us today!

Here we're in the wildlife refuge which had some nice views because there weren't trees in that area.

The water source for the Pochuck Mountain Shelter was at this abandoned house! (Out of curiosity, I did try the doors to see if it could even be used as a shelter, but the place was locked up tight.)

Heavyweight at the Pochuck Mountain Shelter.

I try out the "Blueberry trap" I created. See the spoon dangling near the bottom of the photo, a little left of center?

And it worked like a charm! =) Even better than I could have hoped for!

Hey! That's totally the New Jersey High Point monument in the distance!

The mile-long boardwalk was a joy to walk on! =)

There's even a suspension bridge along the boardwalk, but it's not one of those bouncy, unstable ones which is always a little disappointing for me!

Lots of rabbits along the trail today, but I couldn't get decent photos of them because they're small and fast and very camera shy!

Another bad photo of a rabbit! (And these two photos were by far the best two I got!)

The view from my campsite for the night! =)

Day 93: New Jersey's High Point

June 8: It didn't rain during the night--which was good since I had cowboy camped--but it did rain soon after I started the day's hiking much to my surprise and dismay. Rain was in the forecast, but not until later in the afternoon! Fortunately, camping on the bright and exposed Rattlesnake Mountain allowed me an extraordinarily early 5:30 start. I usually don't get such an early start, but I wanted to get as much hiking in before the afternoon rains started. Little did I realize it would start within minutes of my hiking--but at least the early start saved my camp from being rained out. I'd have been in a real pickle if that happened.

The morning started wet and drizzly!

I hiked through the rain, soon arriving at the Brink Shelter where I found Superman along with a couple of other hikers awake but still wrapped up in their sleeping bags and generally unresponsive. Who I did not see, however, was Heavyweight and Blueberry. Superman asked where they were.

"That's a good question," I replied. "I thought that they were ahead of me... but if they hadn't arrived yet at this shelter, then they must be behind me. But I'll be darned if I know what happened to them!"

It was a mystery, but I wasn't particularly concerned about them either. They can take care of themselves. Well, at least Heavyweight can. =) But Blueberry may have chased a chipmunk off a cliff or something crazy. Somehow, I must have passed them when they got off trail to get water or do a dump or something. It happens! But they probably weren't far behind me either. Mostly, I was just glad to learn that they hadn't deliberately ditched me. Turns out, I ditched them! Completely inadvertently, of course.

McGuyer, much like myself, got an early-morning start to his hike and we started hiking together. I'd met him earlier at Delaware Water Gap but hadn't learned much about him. Today, we'd get a lot of one-on-one time together! We hiked together chatting about nothing important for much of the morning and the entire afternoon.

The rain stopped after a couple of hours, much to our relief and by noon, we had largely dried out.

At the Mashipacong Shelter, we met a woman who was putting up a missing persons poster. It was her brother who was missing. She explained that a couple of weeks earlier, he had quit his job unexpectedly and run off to the A.T.--or at least that's what he told his former boss--but no family members had heard from him since that incident and they were a bit concerned about his well-being. They weren't even entirely sure he was on the A.T.--the only information they had was that his former boss said that's where he claimed to be going.

Seems like an inconsiderate thing not to at least inform your own family where you'll be headed, but on the positive side, his family had no reason to think he was hurt, injured or dead either. He'd run off on his own accord. I offered to take one of the missing posters on to the next shelter up the trail, which I did. I have no idea whatever happened to the missing brother--if they found him or if he ever contacted his family, but I'm hoping it all worked out in the end.

Good grief! This thing was huge! (It was also injured--McGuyer accidentally stepped on it when he didn't see it on the trail at first.)

Late in the afternoon, we reached a lookout point for New Jersey's high point. They got really creative in naming the highest point in the state: They call it High Point. =) I was inclined to skip it since I'd been there before on my first thru-hike and it was 0.3 miles off trail, but McGuyer had never been there and liked the idea of hitting a new high point and I wound up following him up the trail. The things I do people! *shaking head*

The high point itself is marked with a large obelisk that looks not unlike the Washington Monument in Washington, DC. Unfortunately, the monument was closed. It was closed during my 2003 thru-hike as well. I'm not sure if it's always closed or if there are times when visitors can climb to the top of the tower.

The only other people in the area were doing a photo-shoot. There was one woman in a billowing black dress that everyone else followed around taking photos, carrying props and such. The black dress was gorgeous, not the least of which was because there was a stiff wind that would blow it all around. McGuyer called it a Marilyn Monroe dress, except this one was black.

McGuyer wanted a photo of himself on the wall where the model was posing, which wasn't a big deal because it was a long wall and plenty of space for a second photo-shoot happen! =) He gave me his camera and started walking towards the wall... then stopped suddenly and just watched the girl--seemingly enchanted. Although his admiring the girl wasn't supposed to be part of our photo-shoot, I thought the look hilarious and quickly took a photo. The timing of the shot was absolutely perfect too--just as a gust of wind blew up the woman's dress and blew her hair back. I managed to crop her troop of followers off the photo (although if you look real closely, you'll see what looks like a single foot just barely in the photo to her right), so it looks like she's standing alone and McGuyer has been hypnotized her by.

I absolutely love the photo! It makes me laugh every time I see it!

I know you all wanted to see the photo I was talking about!

Eventually, McGuyer managed to pull his eyes off the girl and we wandered off to do our own little photo-shoot, but still watching the woman with her entourage from our vantage point. He got another laugh when the woman laid down on the wall and hung her head--upside down--off the side of it with her hair streaming down. It looked gorgeous (sorry, I didn't get a photo of that pose!), and I joked with McGuyer that he needed to do that because she certainly looked great doing it! Somehow, the effect is lost without the long, flowing hair. Oh, well.... After that, though, we joked around about taking "glamour shots" of each other. Just because we're dirty, stinky thru-hikers doesn't mean we can't have glamour shots! =)

Eventually the festivities were done. Our mysterious model and her entourage went back to the parking lot, and McGuyer and I headed back down the trail and returned to the A.T. (We never did learn who the woman was. If you recognize her, let us know!)

As we left High Point, the lightest of sprinkles started falling and McGuyer and I both hustled in the hopes of reaching the High Point Shelter before the rain really let loose. We were dry right now, and we wanted to stay that way!

And we did make it to the shelter just as the rain started to pour buckets! A heavy, drenching downpour! Oh, it felt good sliding into that shelter just in the nick of time! Already in the shelter, a bit to my surprise, was Heavyweight and Superman. Heavyweight?! Where did he come from?! I hadn't seen him all day, but somehow he'd managed to pass me! He probably passed me when I walked the half-mile off trail to the shelter to put up the poster of the missing poster, but it was good to catch up with him again. Blueberry, apparently, slept in late but was expected to arrive at the shelter for the night. He did arrive, completely drenched from the rain. =)

The shelter was a crowded one for the night, but we all fit in snugly and listened to the thunder crashing all around us. Yep, it was a good place to be for the night!

McGuyer hiking through the mist.

By afternoon, we'd already dried out from the morning rain.

New Jersey's High Point in the distance. A measly 1,804 feet (550 m) above sea level. I'm a little surprised they'd build such an elaborate monument for such a low high point. *shrug* =)

This is MY glamour shot at the high point. I used my trekking poles as props by hey, I wanted some props!
What do you think, girls? Sexy, huh? *nodding* =)

This is McGuyer's best glamour shot, but I don't think it turned out as well as mine. ;o)

A few days later, when I knew McGuyer was just behind me on the trail, I laid out on this rock with my head hanging over the side upside-down in imitation of the woman's pose at High Point. So this is what I looked like when it turned the corner of the trail--McGuyer just laughed knowing exactly what I was doing, but took the photo for me anyhow! Then made some sort of rude comment that the girl was better at the pose than I was. *rolling eyes* =)

Day 92: And into New Jersey!

June 7: I left the town of Delaware Water Gap first thing in the morning. The town sits right on the New Jersey border and the trail crosses the Delaware River along a pathway next to Interstate 80 so with the roar of semi-trucks a few feet away, I stepped into New Jersey. Seven states down! Seven left to go! Whoo-who!

The trail left the town of DWG alongside the busy Interstate 80.

It was a beautiful day for a walk too! Sunny and warm and generally delightful. I stopped for a bit at Sunfish Pond, still amused to see the same sign I remembered from 2003 about it being one of the seven natural wonders of New Jersey. =) Although this time around I knew that New Jersey was a beautiful state--at least the section that the AT runs through--it still amuses me that they have not just one but seven natural wonders to point at.

My main reason for stopping at Sunfish Pond, however, wasn't to admire the views or reminisce about being filmed here for Appalachian Impressions (a wonderful documentary about thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail) during my 2003 hike. Nope, it was the city of cairns I stopped for! I remembered huge quantities of enormous and elaborate cairns on the shoreline and I planned to stop to add to the collection. I was a bit disappointed when I arrived, though. I remembered there being a lot more cairns and much more impressive ones than what I saw today. It was much earlier in the hiking season this time around, though, and I wondered if the winter snows knock most of them down and they just hadn't been rebuilt to the degree as I remembered last time.

Well, whatever the reason, I'd be adding my own cairn to the collection so everyone who comes after me can at least enjoy one more cairn to look at. I spent about 10 minutes building a large cairn. It wasn't particularly elaborate or noteworthy, but it was mine! =)

Seven states down, seven more to go!

And then I continued hiking. My next stop was to be at the Mohican Outdoor Center (MOC). It was a bit off trail, but they allegedly had food, cold drinks and a gift shop and I figured I'd check it out. Why not?

Along the short road walk to the facility, however, I got sidelined by PA Runner and his friends. They were parked along the road and handing out trail magic. Shortly thereafter, Heavyweight and Blueberry got sucked into the trail magic as well. We only escaped after PA Runner and his friends started closing up shop to leave.

At this point, I was ready to walk back to the trail and skip the MOC, but Heavyweight and Blueberry convinced me to go the rest of the way and the three of us headed up the trail. Superman had decided to skip the MOC and therefore missed out on the trail magic. His loss! =)

At the MOC, I merely ordered a Coke. The girl working the front desk spoke with an exotic accent--at least it seemed exotic to me--so I asked where she was from. New Hampshire! I figured she was from Europe or something and spoke English as a second language. Her English was good, but it had a definite accent I didn't recognize.

"That's a New Hampshire accent?" I asked, somewhat astonished. I knew there was a Maine accent (and if you wanted to hear it on the trail, just talk to Turbo--he has it thick!), but I'd never heard of a New Hampshire accent before.

And she told me that when she was a child, she had an ear infection so she didn't hear people speaking correctly. The ear infection is long gone, but because she couldn't hear correctly as a child, she learned to speak her own distinctive accent.

I felt so bad for even bringing it up--like I had insulted her or making fun of a speech impediment or something. I totally didn't mean to, and she didn't seem upset by my question or annoyed at explaining the reason for her unusual accent. She's probably sick of telling the story, but she did it with grace and patience.

"I'm special," she said.

Yes, I thought, that's a great way to put it.

Heavyweight, who was listening in on the conversation said that Blueberry was very special too. We both laughed at that.

"Oh, yes!" I agreed. "Blueberry is special in very own way."

Anyhow... I took my Coke and went to the picnic table outside, still feeling somewhat ashamed for asking the girl where she was from. She could have told me some exotic Eastern European country, though, and I totally would have bought into it. =)

Back outside, the three of us were sitting around a picnic table chatting, and in mid-sentence, Blueberry jumped up and ran off chasing after a chipmunk. The sudden, unexpected change took me by surprise, like a dog that was laying around suddenly jumping up and racing after the chipmunk.

The chipmunk ran off into its burrow, and Blueberry kind of growled at it like he was the coyote and the animal was the roadrunner. Foiled again!

I turned to Heavyweight and jokingly suggested that we really needed to keep that boy on a leash. Has he done that before?!

Heavyweight nodded and told me that earlier, Blueberry had chased a chipmunk into a bush that Blueberry whacked around with his trekking pole. And when the chipmunk started to chirp, Blueberry started to chirp back!

I raised my eyebrows a bit at this. Heavyweight told the story as if Blueberry chasing chipmunks and thwacking bushes with his trekking pole was normal behavior, but to chirp back at the chipmunk had crossed some sort of invisible line of crazy.

"I see," was the only thing I could think of to say. "Yeah, we really need to get a leash for him."

Idling in my head, though, was a bigger question: What would he do if he actually caught one? I was a little afraid to ask....

Sunfish Pond--one of the seven natural wonders of New Jersey! This sign still makes me laugh, even 12 years after the first time I saw it. =)

 
We continued hiking. Heavyweight and Blueberry quickly passed me since they hike faster than I do, but before they left me in the dust, we had discussed where we might camp for the night. The shelters were badly spaced at this point--the first shelter out from Delaware Water Gap was 25 miles away and I didn't want to do that. My longest day ever on the AT was 24 miles, and that was during my 2003 thru-hike!

Heavyweight and Blueberry wanted to camp at a site next to a creek so water was nearby, but I was looking at something a bit earlier but wasn't near water which meant we'd have to pack some water in. But I could make it to the creek. Why not? *shrug*

So with those vague plans, they headed off ahead of me.

Sunfish Pond

 
The rest of the day's hike was uneventful. There were wonderful views along the ridgelines. More rocks on the trail than I remembered, but hardly horrible. When I reached my preferred campsite along the trail, I kept my eyes open for Heavyweight and Blueberry stealth-camped nearby in case they had decided to stop there, but as I thought, I didn't see them and I continued on to the creek where they preferred to camp.

And at the creek... I still didn't find them. I did find Turbo set up in his tent nearby and asked if he had seen Heavyweight and Blueberry. Turbo didn't know who they were, however, but a couple of hikers had passed by about a half hour before I did and that, presumably, was them.

But I could find no sign of them which disappointed me immensely. I could only assume that they decided to push on and do the full 25 miles to the shelter to meet up with Superman again. I wasn't going to make that shelter. Even if I wanted to, it was near sunset and I wouldn't arrive until well after dark and I needed light to take photos. I was on my own for the night. Which wasn't a big deal--I'd camped alone many times over the years--but I was a little annoyed too, like Heavyweight and Blueberry had deliberately ditched me. If they had wanted to hike all the way to the shelter today, they could have mentioned it earlier.

But since I was on my own, I figured I'd camp anywhere I wanted and decided to push on a bit further to Rattlesnake Mountain. Mostly to get away from the creek--fewer bugs away from water sources and all. The mountain was on an exposed hilltop which was lighter and breezier than in the trees, and without all of the trees above me, I didn't have to worry about those pesky gypsy moths pooping on me all night long. I got to cowboy camp for the first time in two weeks! So I really liked the campsite, even though it wasn't really designed as one.

And without Heavyweight and Blueberry to distract me, I got a serious lot of reading done. I missed my leisure reading, and it felt good to read for a couple of hours before going to sleep. =)

But where the heck did Heavyweight and Blueberry go?! I still missed them.

I wish I was fast enough to get this photo before the lizard's head went behind the left, but I loved the color in this fellow's tail! It's a lizard I don't ever remember seeing before!

I pose with my cairn contribution to Sunfish Pond. =)

The Mohican Outdoor Center. Look at that--we've come 1,277.3 miles and only have a mere 881.9 miles left to go! =)

The campstore is just inside....

Heavyweight takes a photo of the view!

Fire lookout tower along the trail.

 

SNAKE! SNAKE! SNAKE ON THE TRAIL!!!!

I'd see these little bugs everywhere, but they were SOO hard to get a photo of! They're so small and would move so fast! But they're so pretty and colorful, so I really wanted a photo of one and it annoyed me to no end how difficult it was to get a photo. Until now.... these two seemed preoccupied with other matters and didn't move so fast. ;o)

Rattlesnake Mountain! I'd set up camp a few steps to the right of this photo. Despite its name, I never saw any rattlesnakes here. But I bet they're lurking!