Deer Poop,

On my birthday weekend Deanna and I went camping with some friends. We rented a Yaris and drove 6.5 hours north to a tiny lake near Lillooet called Carol Lake. Gas for the entire trip was $62 but the Yaris is uncomfortable to drive – the steering wheel isn’t far enough from the pedals, and the seats have a weird horizontal curve to them. On our trip we saw:

1 whitetail deer (from the car)
1 black bear (from the car, scaring the above deer)
several hawks or eagles
2 duck families (1 duckling I almost ran over in the car)
1 grouse
trout of some kind
1 water beetle (as big as my thumb)
1 loon
dozens of bats, several of which came within a few feet of me
2 huge ravens
2 deer

This hilarious drawing was on the back of a truck as we were driving along the highway.

In Hope at the Visitor’s Centre they had this, and also a woman doing a survey. I totally got a free Supernatural British Columbia magnet. Do you think they will do a spinoff of Supernatural in British Columbia? With the ogopogo and bigfoot?

Here’s another supernatural thing in BC – demon dog.

Here is the tiny lake. There was a pier and we went swimming 3 times.

We hiked to the top of a very small mountain, but the view was amazing. Too amazing to share.

Deanna wanted to bring a cake for my birthday but I talked her down to s’mores. This has 2 candles in it and I don’t know what that signifies.

This is Carpenter Lake, which is very close to Carol Lake, and has a big cool dam and a little rough tunnel through the mountain.

Oh yeah, Deanna was with me too.

All in all a wonderful trip, but I slept horribly and here’s why:

My brain: What was that sound? Is something drinking our camp water right outside our tent? Oh my god. Is it a bear? No, it’s not a bear, it must be a deer. A bear would be noisier, right? Should I wake up Deanna? No, she’d scream and the bear would know for sure we are here. Maybe it’s Angus (Dillon’s dog). Why would Angus be out there in the middle of the night? I remember them saying he wasn’t allowed in the tent, or did I imagine that? Yeah, it must be Angus. Okay cool I can go back to sleep. Oh no, wait, Angus has a little bell around his neck TO SCARE OFF THE BEARS!!! It can’t be Angus! Unless they took the bell off, or it came off somehow? No, it’s nothing. If it were a bear Lunch (Deanna’s dog who slept with us in the tent) would be growling or barking at it. Let me check to see if Lunch is here. She is here, but she’s not moving. Oh my god she’s in such a deep sleep that she can’t hear the bear. That bear is going to rip the tent open and Lunch will run away! Do bears even forage at night? I don’t hear anything now. Does that mean it’s gone away or is it just standing outside the tent being completely quiet? Holy crap I’m just going to lie here completely still, continue having the scariest night of my life and pray to Jebus that I don’t have to go pee. Remember that time when you were camping as a boy scout and you woke up in the early morning having to go pee, but you heard noises outside the tent so you just peed in your pajamas and sleeping bag rather than go out. Better than being eaten by a bear any day of the week. Oh my god next time we get a reinforced kevlar tent with automated machine guns outside.