We woke way before dawn, it was probably about 3:00 AM.
We were climbing Little Tahoma.
Little Tahoma is a rock stack that is on the East side of Mt. Rainier. It is about 11,000 ft. high.
On the first day we hiked up to Summerland and camped.
The plan was to rope up and climb up the Frying Pan Glacier and then unrope and scramble up Little Tahoma.
I got up, had some coffee and oatmeal and had to use the bathroom.
There was actually an outhouse there and I made my way over to it in the dark.
I opened the door , switched my headlamp on and saw in this very small room a porcupine fully expanded,
filling the entire corner.
I was scared shitless and so was he or she.
I’d only really seen a porcupine one other time.
I was fishing in the Adirondacks in upstate New York and walking down an isolated country road with Dave Woodell and he pointed toward a farmhouse and said, “Look at that porky, he’s a biggun.”
Sure enough this guy looked as big as a pony and was loping along at a pretty good pace.
They don’t really shoot their quills.