So, finally, I have time to sit down and write this out. Hooray for Grandmas putting little boys to bed!

We had a great Canada Day long weekend up at Highwood group camp in Kananaskis country.

We went camping with The Mantracker (among others).

Wil learned how to keep cool.

Saw some flowers...

... and some wildlife.

Did some geocaching.

Wil slept in a tent for the first time (at least the first time we slept there all night).

Took time to smell the wild roses.

Also... we learned that there are raccoons in K-Country.

I was woken up one night and something was climbing on the tent. We were sleeping in my parents' 70's tent - heavy canvas walls, good floor, heavier screen on the windows than you'd see these days. Not a backpacking tent, for sure.

The initial thought, as previously mentioned, was monkey. Then I woke up some more and came to the conclusion it was definitely not a monkey, and started second-guessing myself as to whether something was there at all. I stared at the shadowy shape on the tent window, in the darkness, with no glasses on. When I finally woke up enough to decide there was indeed something there, I reached for my glasses and flashlight, which of course made a big clatter and scared it off. I wasn't quite coherent enough to realize there was no point in turning the flashlight on though, and did it anyway. That woke up Matt.

"What? What is it?" he said.

"There was something climbing on the window."

"You're imagining things. There's nothing there... go back to sleep."

"There was something there!"

"No, there wasn't."

*sigh*

I couldn't sleep at that point, as every animal it could possibly be was running through my head. I had gotten a good look, since my glasses weren't on, so I was going on a shadowy shape of some approximate size, which could climb and would be stupid and/or curious enough to climb a tent. Porcupines climb, but it seemed a little small for a porcupine. The canvas tent seemed pretty poor protection against a pissed-off porcupine though, so it kept me worried nonetheless. It was about the right size for a skunk... did skunks climb? I couldn't remember. At one point I thought I heard whatever it was trying to get into the cooler, and I had a fleeting thought - raccoon? That was quickly dismissed... we don't have raccoons around here.

At one point it jumped up against the tent right beside my head, and I gasped and let a few words fly. Matt taunted me for being jumpy and once again didn't believe there was anything there.

I laid awake until I heard other people moving around the campground, figuring whatever is was wouldn't bother us then. Got a little bit of sleep. Once Wil woke up I went to the trailer my parents were sleeping in to ask what it could have been.

My stepdad figured it was probably a pine marten, and that sounded less threatening or troublesome than a porcupine or a skunk, so I relaxed a bit.

A little while later, I was in the trailer brushing my teeth, and my mom called, "Tamara, come here!" in the light-hearted tone that usually signifies baby birds or my kiddo doing something cute.

Instead I got a heck of surprise when I tried to leave the trailer, only to find a raccoon waiting for me on the trailer steps.

It was indeed cute, but my first thought was, "That thing better not have rabies."

Unfortunately we never got a picture; we were mostly concerned with chasing it off so it would stop eating things from our coolers. Poor thing finally got pepper sprayed; I didn't see it again after that. (For those about to tell us we're cruel to animals, the options at that point, as it was into our camp at every opportunity, were: pepper spray, big stick to the head, or shotgun.)

It was kind of fun to watch the little guy (someone guessed he was probably a yearling); I'd never seen a real live raccoon before, except maybe in the zoo. And it sure made for some interesting conversations. And we got to learn something new. But the best part of the whole thing was Matt was finally forced to admit that maybe I might have better hearing than him (as we totally slept through the raccoon climbing right by his head, and I was about as far away in the tent as I could get).