Jess: This one's for you.

I'm back! Was this my longest absence? Really, there is no excuse: I am on summer break from school/work and have spent summer hours tutoring, wedding planning, and procrastinating for nothing. At times I contemplated putting an end to the blog, but when looking back through the old entries I was energized to start writing again. (Just not at that moment).

So now I return and I bring with me pictures and tales of my first backpacking trip in the wilderness. Last weekend, Jamie and I went to Shenandoah National Park.
It was incredible. We sort of impulsively decided to make our camping trip a backpacking one, and so we scrambled Friday night to get our things together. By Saturday morning we were climbing down the mountain and enjoying some pretty photogenic waterfalls.
This somewhat dulled the pain that followed when we had to make our way UP the mountain. Seriously? I felt like a Barbie doll who's legs were being pulled off at their little anatomically-incorrect joints. Meanwhile Jamie is ready to run up the mountain with his 40lb backpack. I'm so lame.

We followed the death hike with another leisurely stroll down the mountain through some wilderness where we saw not one, but two bears. Real, living, breathing, black bears. Black bears that were, like, 15 feet away. (Note: this is not an actual picture of the black bear we saw. I was too busy peeing my pants out of fright to actually reach for my camera. All other pictures on this post are mine -- promise.) Luckily, both black bears were more scared of us and took off further into the wilderness. Still, it was enough for me to assume that any noise outside of our tent that night was a bear coming to smoosh my head like a grape.

Luckily, we were not eaten. Nor were any heads smooshed. We were rained on -- but it was actually perfect. Just as Jamie was sticking the bear bag in a tree, there was a great, big, clap of thunder and it did not stop raining until we were getting up in the morning. The reports of rain kept away the other campers. The actual rain kept away the mosquitoes.

Day two was pretty great too. Nice and cool. No other people...and we saw some beautiful deer up close.

Going up the mountain again was not death-inducing and we actually made it up pretty quickly. All in all, first backpacking trip was a success. Except for one thing.

While the rain kept away the mosquitoes, it did not keep away the ticks. Jamie supposedly "checked me" before going to bed and whatnot, and somehow I still managed to extract not one, but two ticks from my body. The first tick (which I took out of my head) was the largest tick ever. I have a picture of it -- because I wanted Jamie to feel really bad when he got home from work -- but I don't feel right uploading it to my blog. I'm doing this out of my love for you, the reader. I will inform you that this picture shows this tick in all of its HUGE glory with a sizable chunk of my head in its mouth. Absolute horror. (The picture on the above-right is not a tick, but rather an awesome-looking millipede we saw on the trail).

The second tick I found a couple days after returning. Yes, days. Not as big as the first, but more horrifying because it had clearly burrowed its way into my skin. I may or may not have Lyme disease now. Blood work will be done to be certain.

Despite the tick incident(s), I cannot wait to go backpacking again. Armed with a good set of tweezers, a good flashlight, and a competent camping buddy who will check me thoroughly.

Alright. Time for bed. I will try to post more often -- although, I think it's just you and me now, Jess.