“Here I Am” by the Scorpions was our theme music for the weekend. Who thought a song would combine the winds we hit and the invasion of scorpions?
We camped on the Humboldt River. On September 25, 1846, the Donner Party camped near our campsite. They were following the Hastings Cutoff of the California emigrant route. Hastings never traveled his cutoff, which added miles to the trip, contributing to the Donner party’s delayed trip over the Sierra.
We saw a scorpion the first night and knew they were at our campsite. Day three started beautifully, and we visited my #1 wish, Metropolis.
As the day went on, the clouds built. We experienced only a little rain, but we could see a cloud burst in the distance… right over our camp. I was afraid everything would be soaked when we got back to camp, like last year on Labor Day. As we got closer, it became apparent that the rain wasn’t bad where we camped. Then we turned the corner and saw camp. Nevada Expeditions side of the camp was fine. Mine? Not so much.
It looked like a hurricane had hit my half. Cooking gear was all over, and the tent blew over. The only thing that kept it from the river was the weight of my cot. I had it staked down, but the wind was so strong it tore the reinforced corners of the tarp and tent. Amazingly, everything inside was where I left it.
When I went to pick up the tent, a scorpion ran under. I decided I needed a glass of wine before dealing with my new roommate.
That night, we found at least a dozen scorpions—large ones and lots of tiny ones, which people say are worse (I’m not sure if this is true). I have never seen scorpions before July. I’m unsure if we are more aware or this is a bad scorpion year.
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