Alex pokes at the shadow of her hundredth bug and watches as it promptly disappears. We’re inside our tent at Guyot Campsite, more than seven miles from a road and deep within the heart of the White Mountain National Forest. We’ve spent the day climbing three of the New Hampshire Forty-eight’s most remote mountains, 4,540-foot West Bond, 4,698-foot Mount Bond, and 4,265-foot Bondcliff, and now we’re playing our favorite camping game, bop the bug. We’re not literally bopping bugs, of course. To do so would run contrary to Alex’s good nature. Instead, we wait for a bug to land on the top of our tent, then we poke at it from underneath. We take great delight in watching the dark form disappear and then reappear somewhere else, at which point we promptly poke it again. There are usually multiple insects to harass at any given moment, so the game is often quick paced and frenetic. Giggles fill our tent as she and I collide elbows in our effort to outdo each other. It’s a lovely ending to a beautiful, but curious, day.
