Thursday, May 16, 2013
And lo, the flow of bikers ended, leaving me alone again. The AZT descended through the forest from the Little Spring trail junction, joining a dirt road with good views of Humphreys Peak.
An open area reminded me of the Canelo Hills, except more spread out with long stretches of flat land between the rises.
I made camp in the most sheltered spot I could find. While I was unpacking, I saw a stink beetle approaching my gear.
Stink beetles gross me out. They didn’t at first, but a week or two ago I saw one doing what looked like feeding on the guts of a fellow stink beetle, and I question whether you can really like a creature after you’ve seen it engage in cannibalism. I kicked this one away with my boot and thought it was gone, but when I looked down a short while later, a stink beetle was lying prone on its back where I had been stepping. I guess I stepped on it? I couldn’t tell whether it was dead – it was lying there in perfect form like a plastic bug you would buy for Halloween. That made it creepier, so I placed a rock on it. Out of sight, out of mind…
