[Bedivere]

[cdestroyer]

have also had the little critters run across my face and pull the hair out of my head to line their nests... tried oncet to trap the little devils but spent most of the night empting the traps

[Kim Brown]

[kiliki]

You guys reminded me that on this site once I read a trip report where a mouse chewed into a tent (maybe at Lake Sally Ann?) and the writer woke up to find the mouse chewing on his toe. Okay, I'm afraid of that, especially after reading the mouse stories just posted. PCT camps are the WORST as I don't think there's a thru hiker out there that properly stores food. I had pikas and ground squirrels approach me and run over and under my tent a few days ago in Lily Basin. I've stayed in enough mouse-ridden NPS housing and backcountry structures to know what it's like to have them run across me at night though thank god not my face. Last time I stayed in a backcountry structure--Shriner Peak Lookout--I kept the lanterns blazing all night after seeing them run up the walls. I always wondered if anyone driving by on 410/123 or if the climbers we could see on Rainier noticed the lookout all lit up.

[joker]

I've had a mouse run over my face at night in my camper van. Not awesome. I've had a friend serve me coffee in my sleeping bag at a NH lean to shelter in my insulating cup which turns out to have had a healthy serving of mouse turds in it when he poured the coffee. Found that out when I had my last swallow. Yuck 😝

[kiliki]

My neighbors got rid of their Westfalia because they couldn't keep the rats out of it. Gee, you never see that on #vanlife...

[Chief Joseph]

There seem to be a lot of mice even in areas where camping is or was rare. We had many of them at the lake just below Vesper and at Silver lake above Monte Cristo. At Silver lake about 8 years ago I had a banana in my floorless tent in my hiking boot, woke up the next morning and half the banana was eaten and still in my shoe.

[Brushwork]

My last big worry was crossing the Suiattle river (near Chocolate creek) I didn’t know if the water would be low enough the next morning -or if I would panic when it got deep. A BIG thank-you to whoever posted here about how to ford rivers. I got 2 strong poles, found the best location (most wide), faced up stream and diagonally went across. Even in the deep part I didn’t loose balance. Remembering that advise of facing upstream and using strong poles for support , moving intentionally, really helped. (This was up stream of Choc ck junction). I won’t be going that route again.... Worried about Dusty and Vista creeks too, coming back. even though they had logs. They still looked scary. Aside from the occasional steep, exposed slopes it’s the river crossings that get me. Log or not.

[SwitchbackFisher]

Honestly it's not something I typically think of but my only real concern is that a wildfire will break and force me into a dangerous situation.

[Chief Joseph]

Yellow Jackets are beginning to worry me having been stung last year here in Idaho and again a couple of weeks ago at Priest Lake. I experienced a lot of swelling and itching. Benydryl did not seem to help, a friend who is a pharmacist said to take both Benadryl and Pepcid, so I will try that if it happens again.