My last post was a story of an encounter I had with some wildlife while camping. I thought I'd keep the trend going for now.
A few summers ago I was backpacking in central Oregon. This was a week long backpacking trip and my group wasn't planning on stopping to get food during the trip, so we had to carry all of our food for the week. We packed all sorts of food that you wouldn't ordinarily eat. One of my favorite meals that I had packed was flour tortillas and peanut butter. They were quick and easy to make, not to mention delicious! One problem was that I didn't want to bring a whole jar of peanut butter, so I filled a Ziploc plastic bag with peanut butter and threw it in my backpack.
As we started hiking, I was amazed at the beautiful nature and scenery around me, another thing that amazed me was how quickly I got hungry. The first day had passed and we made camp near a small lake so we could swim/bathe. Then finally came dinner! I happily pulled out my tortillas and peanut butter and made a meal fit for kings!
I went to sleep happy about our trip and my food selection.
The next day continued similarly to the previous one, except there were a lot more deer in the area that would look at us and dart off quickly. We made camp near another small lake and started our evening routine of taking a quick swim/bath. As our group swam out to the deeper part I turned back to look at our bags and realized in horror that a hungry looking deer was approaching my bag. I started to swim back to shoo away the deer, but as I was swimming, the deer had started going through my backpack.
"OI Get away!" I yelled. The deer lifted its head out of my pack with my bag of peanut butter in its mouth!! I ran out of the lake, more concerned about my precious peanut butter than my apparent nudity. But the deer was startled and took off at the sight of the sopping wet, naked, teenager running at, it yelling incoherently. Sadly, deer are faster than I am and I watched as my peanut butter was carried away by a thief with antlers.
For the rest of the trip I would eat plain tortillas with nothing to go on them, except my newfound distrust of deer.
To this day I do not trust deer, and I don't think I ever will.
-Wils Haffner
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