Oh Deer....

My cute friend, Talese, was sweet to offer to drive up the canyon as my friends and I were going for a hike just past Alta. All unaware of the speed limit in that area, Talese was going faster than she thought and was pulled over. She got a ticket which really put a damper on the fun of our upcoming hike, but she was not going to let that ruin our fun adventure ahead. We hiked up to a lake where we met the hugest army of blood thirsty mosquitos I've ever seen. Anyone for some west niles virus? Anyone? We didn't want it either. So between swatting, fanning, and slapping mosquitos we tried to take in some of the beauties of the mountains-but not for long. We were done and headed back down the trail. We were driving back and saw all these cars stopped on the side of the road with their cameras in hand. Of course that sparked our interest, so we pulled over. There was a huge male moose grazing on the side of the road. I took some pictures, but we were losing light quickly. I'm posting one anyway. Terrible picture-looks even worse on the computer than on my camera, but that dark unsymmetrical thing in the field is a moose. Trust me on this one. Anyway, we continued down the mountain. Talese was driving...Camie was in the front seat, I was middle back and had Steve and Brandon on either side of me. Talese and Camie were in a bit of a conversation up front and for a moment Talese looked at Camie to say something. I was the only one looking out the front windshield to see a deer ready to pounce from the side of the road. I couldn't react fast enough and screamed to get Taleses attention. Well I did, but not fast enough for her to react. We just pegged that deer in mid-air. I swear I saw some limbs come off, but it really went flying...then skidded on the ground and off the side of the little cliff. Talese hit the breaks and we all just sat there for a minute. It was the most surreal thing that has happened for a long time. I felt like we were in a movie and had just hit a stuffed or plastic deer. As shocking as the experience was we all just burst out laughing. Now I know what you're thinking- how insensitive! And you're right, but what else do you do in a situation like that. Unless it's as bad as the one Kris got into. Kris I would totally have cried for you. ;) Luckily no one was hurt and the car wasn't totalled or anything. Count our blessings. We were all afraid to get out of the car and look at the deer, but it needed to be done. We couldn't find it anywhere. It was dark so we couldn't see very well, but we figured it survived or was dead because we couldn't hear it. All that remained was deer fur stuck in the grill of Taleses' car and spread acrossed the road. Oops. Moments after the accident happened a cop showed up. Yes, the same cop that pulled Talese over for speeding only a couple hours earlier. He felt really bad for Talese. I asked if he could reverse the ticket for her out of pity for what had transpired. He said he wished he could. So sad. All in all, a funny and memorable evening for the group of us. Sorry Talese.