The Hitchhiker

[jawilson]

We had an interesting hitchhiker on the way home this weekend.

We were at Mongaup Pond in the Catskill's (a NY SP) from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning. There's a 3 mile entrance road to get to/from the park itself, and then it's another 6 or so miles to get back onto route 17. We drove about 5 miles on route 17 and stopped at a gas station. We were there approximately 20 minutes. After we filled up I got back onto route 17 and drove to route 209, which is another 25-30 miles away.

About 20 miles down route 209 I noticed something moving by my wiper blades. I didn't think much of it, seeing as how I was just in the woods for 2 days (for all I knew it was a leaf or something). A few seconds later I saw the movement again, only this time I paid closer attention. And to my surprise it turned out to be a mouse!

It appears that some time during the weekend the little guy figured that my engine compartment would be a nice place to hang out (the truck wasn't started the entire time). Guess he never expected it move on him though. When he finally decided to poke his head out I was doing about 50 MPH, towing the trailer, about 1.5 hours -- and over 60 miles! -- into our trip home. I guess the engine heat finally drove him out.

It was actually kind of fun watching him navigate the space between the bottom of the windshield wipers and the hood, especially at that speed, but it was getting pretty obvious that the wind buffeting was about to make him take flight (and it was becoming distracting, not a good idea when driving). I was able to find a school around Port Jervis that had a parking lot big enough for me to maneuver in. I pulled around back, shut off the truck and opened the hood. That's when the fun started...

Seems like the mouse didn't want to be caught, because for the next 15 minutes Jeanette and I looked like the Keystone Cops trying to snare this elusive little SOB. We tried bribing him with Doritoes -- hey, it's all we had -- we tried trapping him in a little plastic tub, we tried having one of us chase him to the other, we tried to corner him. Nothing; every time we thought we had him he skurried under some piece of molding and slipped away.

After a while, we did notice that he liked to disappear into the area between the fenders and the front door. So we opened both of those, which meant now the hood AND the front doors were opened. We looked like a bunch of idiots chasing this thing around from one spot to another. But we both noticed a possible solution.

When he went into the fender area he liked to sit on the top door hinge. Since the doors were both open we could easily see him, but unfortunately our hands were a bit too large to reach in and grab him. I donned a set of gloves and tried putting my hand right by the hinge, hoping he'd think it was a platform and jump on while Jeanette chased him toward me. No luck; he'd sniff the glove, turn around and then run back into the engine compartment. Darn!

However, I did notice that when he turned to run his tail would stick out just far enough to grab a hold (if I was REALLY quick). On about the 4th or 5th attempt he finally made a mistake and stuck his tail out just long enough for me to grab it. Finally, success! I pulled him out, cupped both hands over him and walked to a field behind the school to set him free. At this very moment, there's a country mouse (from the Catskills) living in the city (Port Jervis). Almost sounds like a movie, doesn't it?

When I took my gloves off to toss them back into the truck I noticed he left me a little "present" on them. Swell, mouse dookie on my gloves. But that got me to thinking; I wonder what else he left me? If he spent 2 days in my engine compartment I can imagine that there's not only droppings but perhaps chewed wires or hoses. Guess I know what I'll be doing tonight...

[Shawsee]

Thats funny! thanks for the laugh today.

[flyfisherman]

We had our annual get together the last week in June at a NFS C/G (Standing Indian C/G, Nantahala Nat'l Forest, western North Carolina) and after the group get-together ended, I decided to stay on a couple of extra days. For whatever reasons our group stays seem to be from a Sunday to a Saturday. So who wants to drive home on a Saturday, if you don't have to ... right? Since our stays at S.I. are at a large group site, what I did this year was move over to an individual site and planned on heading back maybe the following Monday or Tuesday. Besides, had a score to settle with some real smart, elusive trout that had been outwitting all week.

Anyway, moved the popup from the group site to the indiviual one, maybe a quarter mile away, but up to higher ground, in fact, about the highest point in the C/G. Nice little remote site with a little, cold mountain stream running right behind it where you can you can stash a mellon and some drinks to keep at just the right "using" temp. Since it takes me half a day to pack up and move, and that's just down the road apiece or 500 miles, by the time I got moved and set-up at the new site, I was too worn out to hit the river and do some late afternoon fishing. Instead, gathered some firewood and made a late supper that I enjoyed by the fireside and then off to bed ... worn out like I had driven 500 miles!

Next morning up and fishing the river bright & early, but with about the same luck as I was having with the group. By afternoon, however, it was clouding up and soon started to rain. Now, if your going to fish the upper reaches of the Nantahala River, the best I've ever done is in a light rain and fishing with a streamer (a "Black Nosed Dace" will work fine) which is exactly what I did and began to have some serious luck. But then that light rain drizzle gave way to a serious thunder storm with some brilliant lightning and large booms (close by). And this ended my fishing for the day - as these newer graphite fly rods seem to conduct lightning real good! But I did have a couple of nice trout for dinner, pepared and eaten under a  canopy over the C/G picnic table ... (That'll show'em!)

It rained for the rest of the night, off and on for the next day and night and finally quit raining Tuesday and the sun came out. But everything was wet and needed a day just to dry out. Things still a little damp Wednesday so I just cleaned up and put away gear, plus the river went back to lousy fishing. So Thursday morn began breaking camp. I always light the interior cookstove and then turn off the valve on the propane tank and let all the L/P burn out of the line. The propane tank has a vinyl cover with a little slot for the hose to go through that connects the tank to the regulator on the camper. Unzipped the cover and was about to reach for the valve when mama mouse and her three young'uns sprang out of there and scattered in all directions! Really took me by surprise as this is a first for me. Ended up taking the cover off and shaking out the nest mama mouse had made inside. The nest was made from some interesting material ... some of the weed leaves that were around the camp site but also some yellow fiberglass looking strands. Don't have any insulation that resembles that in the camper, plus the noise reduction/insullation pad under the hood of the truck is totally different. The big puzzle right now is, where (and from what) did mama mouse get that insulation looking material ...?

In all my years of camping, that was the first time I ever had a mouse set-up house keeping in any part of the camper. And I seem to remember a post sometime ago, right here on this board, where someone said they never used an L/P tank cover as that was a perfect place for mice!  Anyone else remember that post ...?


Fly

[tlhdoc]

A few years ago camping at Hickory Run SP, PA I went to get something out of the van and when I moved stuff around a mouse popped out.  I got the kids to stand by the open side doors while I shook things up so that the mouse would get out of the van.  After a few minutes he decided to leave.  He didn't do any damage and I guess he was in there for just a short while and the van doors are usually closed.

[mike4947]

Never brought any critters home, but one vacation we spend a lot of time hand feeding  5 pounds of sunflower seeds to tame chimpunks. On the way home the car started to smell. To make a long story short the intake manifold was covered with about the whole 5 pounds of sunflower seeds.

[jawilson]

Sounds yummy!

[DoubleD]

Jawilson,

PETA may have a canniption fit, but I would have let the hitchhiker turn into a flying rodent.  Country mouse you saved probably had no idea of how to read traffic signals and became roadkill in the city anyway.  Who knows, maybe he even suffered on the street before dying a slow painful death instead of a quick painless death from taking flight at 50mph.

[jawilson]

Doesn't PETA stand for People Eating Tasty Animals? Sorry...  

I think the little guy might fair quiet well. We let him go behind the school, which is probably about 200 feet from the road. And it was a pretty decent sized wooded area, certainly big enough to support a mouse.

[flyfisherman]

And it was a pretty decent sized wooded area, certainly big enough to support a mouse.

Not to worry ... hawks just lubs them liitle mices (and squirrels and morning doves). I'm sure it will be a welcomed addition to the wood side! LOL


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