- Jul 20, 2001
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I climbed a desert peak today. We are in our monsoon season now and are also catching the remnants of hurricane Emily so it is very humid today. The peak I'm climbed isn't very tall (~1000 ft vertical) but it is a knife edge on top with a 2-3 feet wide ridge of crumbling rock sandwiched between 200-300 ft of straight down. As I approached the summit I notice a few flying ants swarming about, no big deal though. As I reached the summit the whole mountain top takes to the air and I am covered head to toe in flying ants, thousands of them. I can't see the white shirt I'm wearing and I can feel them completely covering my neck and face. I'm glad I was wearing glasses as the ants stayed out of my eyes but I kept getting mouthfuls of them. I decided it might be best to work my way back off the summit instead of resting for photos. If I had had my bee mask with me I would have taken time to get pictures as it was facinating to be covered in so many ants. As I climbed off the summit I felt the ants crawling down the inside of the back of my shirt. This is where it gets gross. I was wearing a backpack so everytime I took a step the pack would shift and crush the ants. More flying ants would then move in, just to be crushed. By the time I got to a place wear it was safe enough to stop I had handfuls of ant parts in my shirt.
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