When Animals Attack
Steamboat Springs is generally a wonderful, welcoming place with a great community of warm inviting people. Some of the locals, however, are not as well behaved.
The story begins two nights ago. I awoke in the wee hours of the morning to a strange sound, and as I peered out of my tent into the darkness, I caught a glimpse of a porcupine directly under me, doing what I assumed was licking water out of my shower apparatus. Porky shoved off not long after I started shining a flashlight in his face, so I didn't think much of it until I investigated in the morning and found my beloved shower mat, guardian of clean feet in dusty environments, chewed up around the edges. The nerve! Apparently porcupines enjoy dining on twigs and bark, and the formerly-pristine cuts of reclaimed redwood in the shower mat must have been a tempting snack.
Somewhat dismayed that the aesthetics of my mat were tarnished, I hoised the mat a little higher up this time and more out of the way, over the shower apparatus that I hoped would deter further access to the mat. Unfortunately, the porcupine was more tenacious than I, and I awoke again around 2:30 this morning to find not only the familiar porcupine, but its child beside it, teaming up to attack both my mat and the tubes of the shower apparatus. They were a bit more persistent this time as well, continuing their assault until I climbed out of my tent to chase them off with a water spray bottle. I stowed the mat more safely out of the way of hungry ground-beast, and went back to sleep with a bit less material to protect my delicate burly woodsman toes from the forest floor.
Elsewhere
