It was all my idea, so the praise (or more likely blame) falls to me: I thought hiking 18 miles would be a great idea.
Well, we survived it. I have a few blisters and a bee sting to show for it, plus some pretty pictures of overlooks. The highlight of the trip was the Great Bee Hunt.
When we were stopped for lunch, two men came through and chatted. Reportedly, there were yellowjacket nests on the trail the way we were going. They hadn't gone that way themselves, though. As the admitted bee weenie, I would have turned around, but my co-leader held firm. We had barely gotten started when we ran into a small group who had encountered the little buggers and had stings to show for it. Tension was running high among my fellow weenies, when one of the hikers pulled out his handy woodcraft. If we walked slowly and gently, he said, with some space between us, we shouldn't stir them up.
So after a few of us covered every inch of skin we could, we crawled forward. It was a funny sight; we looked like refugee mimes hunting wabbits. Remarkably, only our hardy woodcrafter got stung, and the yellowjackets did not chase us.
My sting? It occurred earlier in the hike, when without warning I felt a sharp pain in my butt. Rather unfair, you know, for it not to give me a chance to panic.
More photos at Darrell's page.
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