• Mosquitoes with such animosity that they happily bit me on the face. Literally the densest, most aggressive mosquitoes I have ever endured. I am ridiculously allergic to mosquitoes–each bit I get swells to a tumor the size and hardness of a quarter.
• Sunburn. Oh, hell ouch. Totally our own fault.

Look closely at this photo of the watch tower at the P-ranch and you’ll see two things. One, a very eerie number of turkey vultures sitting in that tower, like, dozens. Yikes. Two, backlit freaking mosquitoes.

Chemult, in Central Oregon, is where the mosquitoes started. I got four bites taking this photo.