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MT. ZIRKEL WILDERNESS (Day 1 - part 3)
We dejectedly hiked back down to the aspen forest, near where we had had lunch. It was hard to find a spot to camp since it wasn't very flat... but this was really our only chance before heading down the steep hill all the way to the river. The flies and mosquitos were mildly annoying but not nearly as bad. We set up the tent in a field of tall columbine and fragrant mint (taller than us), surrounded by towering aspens and large rocks.
Passing through the dead forest on the way down
Gorgeous penstemons!
The tent
Ever get the feeling you're being watched?
Lichens are composite organisms that are comprised of a fungus and an alga growing together in a symbiotic relationship.
We decided to have dinner about a half mile down at the river (mostly because we were almost out of water). We set up in a small clearing a short ways from the water and cooked up some mac & cheese and black bean soup. Delicious!
The trail down to the river
Eeew!! We weren't the only ones thinking about dinner! This poor flower was completely overrun with aphids. Also known as plant lice, these tiny sap-sucking insects have been around a long time, first appearing around 280 million years ago.
The river (this was crossing #5 from earlier in the day)
Our dinnertime view
Lovely evening light
Sometimes it's hard to be a vegetarian in the great outdoors.
As we sat eating, Jo nudged me quietly. I looked up to see a deer standing a short distance away staring rather blankly and confused at us. Apparently it doesn't see this kind of stuff often! Within a second it had regained its senses and was bounding off with that incredible gravity-defying, pogo-stick jumping that they do.
Our fleeing deer
All was going well until around 7 pm when suddenly we were hit with an onslaught of mosquitoes. We hurried back to the tent, hung the food bags over a tree (which we had scouted out earlier) and then ran for cover in our small shelter.
The first swing, which was a rock, didn't work because the string came untied as the rock sailed through the air. This stick proved to be much more effective.
The food bags now hung safely high in the air... too tall for a bear to reach standing below it and also with no nearby trees that a smaller animal could climb and reach it. If they ever figure out how to untie the rope, then we're in trouble!
The safety of the tent
Once inside, we sat listening to the loud constant buzz from hundreds of these things coating the tent. We had planned to camp here for two nights since we wanted to do do Luna Lake trail, but we decided to instead go back down to our lower first campsite where the bugs weren't so bad.
It almost felt like we were trapped during a zombie invasion... holed up in a tiny room while hundreds of blood-thirsty, not-so-intelligent creatures clamored relentlessly to get in.
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