Highlights:
A 20-minute rainstorm soaked EVERYTHING, and the air was humid enough that it never really dried out--but it only caught myself and Whines, because we were early. Yay! The hail was a nice touch, I actually got photographs of it streaking through the air and bouncing off Josef. The dogs were quite scared, so I bravely hid under the picnic canopy to protect them.
Talking with Kipiroo, a dolphin "fur" from Germany, has been fun. He's been visiting for a week or so. Interesting perspective, and a bit of a sense of "in character" that's been fun.
The dogs went to the top of the mountain with us, and drank from a lot of the little ponds. There's apparently a species of endangered fairy shrimp (they eat fairies?) I'm sure they're .06% more endangered now.
I always love making breakfast at the campsite in the morning. It's one of the positives of being a morning person.
We didn't have a lot of evidence of the animals out there except for a swarm of yellow jackets that seemed to take a shining to us--but we did see something--probably a racoon--in the shadows, when we were climbing down the mountain late at night. Didn't get a sense for what it was, except for seeing a pair of eyes flashing. Whines said he heard a chorus of coyotes, but I missed that?
I think I said that it was nice to have a moment of communion with nature. But I do think that more realistically, camping for Joe Average is more like a moment of dominion over nature, asserting that we can survive in the manner to which we've become accustomed in the "middle" of "nowhere." Regardless, it's very nice social time.