By the time we got up North on Friday (noon) all of are regular camp sites were taken, But we knew of an undeveloped site off the trail a ways and decided to camp there. We did some exploring and found a shady spot a little further in and up hill from a nice creek, Heavily wooded and we could hear the rushing water from the creek but couldn't see it, Sharon wanted to find it so I grabbed the machete and we made our way down the hillside. Huge boulders and downed trees made some rapids and pools of water, The temperature was quite a bit cooler down there and it was a welcome relief from the heat up on top of the hill. We decided that we would start clearing the area and use it for future camping. The ticks were still very bad but I had been psyching myself up for them for the last 2 weeks hopeing they would be gone for the season or be prepared to deal with them just so I could camp. I stopped counting them (ticks) after about 10 and was making the best of it :-) We had a nice fire going and darkness had fallen I had the lantern going and hung from the ridge line sitting there having a cup of tea when all of a sudden something big swooped down and landed on my neck I brushed it off feeling the leathery wings when I did and heard him as he flew away, A Bat!!! of all things WHEW! I was doing good with the tick thing and then got attacked by a Bat...All in all is was great though cause camping is never boring for me.