Day 91: I waited for it to warm up to 35° before heading off to climb Hugo Peak. I've been "off" Pack Forest for a while after picking up five ticks on a hike early last summer, but I figured they'd have a hard time route-finding through the layers of clothes I was wearing. Even so, as soon as I got home, I showered and threw the clothes in the washer.
In over fifty years of rambling through the forests of the Pacific Northwest, the first time I found a tick on me was just six or seven years ago. Since that day, not a single year has gone by that I didn't "collect" at least one. Five on one hike set a new record, one I am not looking forward to meeting or beating. The environments where I've encountered them have been varied: dry-grass prairie, damp forest, even in my own yard. I've not yet heard any reliable reports of them in Mount Rainier National Park, but I figure it's just a matter of time before they're transported there on the backs of deer and elk.
That said, my hike today seems to have been tick-free and very enjoyable. The air was a bit nippy for bare hands, but I soon dispensed with my jacket, keeping my head warm with the woolly Alpine Topper pulled down to cover my ears. Several Pacific Wrens were seen darting around in the brush beside the trail and a Douglas squirrel scolded me for trespassing on his territory. Predictably, there were also a few other like-minded hikers chose to bring in the New Year in the same way I did: walking in the glorious green forest.
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