camping and hiking

we camped just south of safford in the mountains near riggs lake. it was much cooler at 9000 feet. we set up our tent not too far from a heaping berry-filled pile of bear poop. (considering my hyper-paranoia for bears, i consider this a brave act on my part. of course, if a bear had shown up at our camp, i guess i would have considered it a stupid act, but we were safe in the end, so i get to claim courage instead.) we also camped with a colony of mice; they came out at dark to scavenge for food, boldly zigzagging past our fire and tent. snark saw a baby deer early in the morning, but it ran off before i could peek out the tent. on our way up the mountain, we caught a photo of this rabbit. it was munching something quite yummy and didn't choose to run away until it saw veggie dog eagerly watching from the car window.

thursday we hiked the cunningham loop, about 5 miles. after about a mile and a half in, it began to rain lightly. then the lightning and thunder began, and snark proclaimed aloud that he hoped for some lightning close by, so he'd have a show. i tried to balance this request by telling the listening-world that i did not share in his desires for nearby lightning. only a couple of minutes later, though, his wish was granted over mine. the thunder felt like it was on top of us--the lightning between 1/2 mile and 1 mile to us--and vdog and i instinctively ducked as if that could protect us. after, we walked as quickly as possible as the rain got heavier. snark put on his windbreaker, but still got soaked. i pulled on the lovely poncho seen above, so mostly just got soaked on the lower half. (my shoes were warm and juicy by the time we got back to the car. yummmm!) v-dog trudged along between the two of us, snatching bites of wet grass along the way. it was really a beautiful hike with all the trees and ferns and raspberry brambles. and since we're not dead from lightning attack, i'd say it was a success!