The night of the mice

I was living in a Sheepherders tent on the plot where I was cutting timber for mine props in Price, UT. The weather was cold, but there wasn’t any snow yet.

I had cooked a nice meal in my Dutch oven and cleaned up all the dishes and just settled by the campfire to relax. Everything seemed normal and quiet.

I went to bed ready to wake up at 4:30 A.M., like every other day. I fell asleep warm and comfortable in my sleeping bag. I had no sooner fallen to sleep when I was awakened by this strange noise and then something ran across my face.

I sat straight up in my bag and this noise got louder and louder. The noise seemed to be all around me. I groped around in the dark for a flashlight. I turned it on and there were hundreds if not thousands of box eared mice in the tent. They covered everything, It looked like the whole inside of the tent was alive and fury. Needless to say, I was a bit startled and I jumped out of my bag and lifted up the sides of the tent and there seemed to be as many or more of them on the ground around me. It reminded me of lemmings when they gather and all run together.

This lasted for about 30 minutes and as fast as they had come, they were all gone. The only ones left were the ones that got caught in my sleeping bag. I shook them out and then they were gone.

In that little time they had chewed holes in everything. I had a 4” foam pad that I slept on. It looked like Swiss cheese. My down filled bag was full of holes and there were feathers everywhere. They had even squeezed in between the cracks of my cooler and chewed on anything that wasn’t hard plastic or glass.

As you know mice poop wherever they go and the inside of my tent was covered with it. I had to wash everything out the next day. For several days I was finding stuff they had gotten into and ruined. It never happened again, but it was a night I will never forget.

Ray