They came by night....

Chicot State Park.

We went to our tents expecting a good night in a beautiful state park. Little did we know at that time

we were being watched and later we would be attacked.

It was a complex, multi-pronged attack, synchronized at different camp sites but flawlessly co-ordinated none the less. A plan worthy of study at military institutes.  They wore masks and showed no fear when confronted by the one bicyclist that rose to challenge the marauders.

They were raccoons.

If you had food outside of the tent, they got it. Amazing.

The little varmints opened packs, unrolled panniers, turned over bikes to get to pouches. I was not affected, not by cleanliness or thoughts of preparation to anticipate this, I had simply cleared the extra snacks out of my pack earlier that evening because I was hungry. (It seems that I had left my extra supply of chocolate chip cookies at the second doughnut stop of the day, so I had to raid my emergency supply of junk food out of the bike pack. Thus, I was saved.)

It was amazing as to how thorough they hit us and we were spread out over 4 sites. They didn't chew holes or tear anything up, they just manipulated whatever they had to in order to get to what they wanted, food.

The little buggars were confronted by John Beaver, our retired fireman/paramedic from CA, he threw  rocks but they just waited him out. John retired back to his tent.

They got all of this energy food, no telling what else these amped up creatures went on to do after they finished with us, bug what worried us the most?  They had pulled out one of our maps!  They knew where we were going next!

Pictures are

of one of the campsites and the general peaceful nature of dinner before the nigt's activity began. Somehow I managed to sleep through it all.