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<p>So I woke up on the gravel in my <a href="/glossary#bivy">bivy</a>, well rested. I was bitter that I had no
coffee and no prospects for finding coffee.</p>
<p>Then this guy who had said "hi" last night came over to talk to me and see what I was up to. I told him,
and he invited me into his RV for coffee and toast. Seeing as I was eager to be murdered, I happily
followed.</p>
<p>Not really. He was very kind and I had a nice morning with him and his wife, drinking coffee and eating
cinnamon-sugar and butter white bread. They wished me well and warned me about the <em>Mormon
Crickets</em> on the other side of the pass. As if they were a dangerous hill people in the area.</p>
<p>Now, how do you respond to a vague warning about Mormon Crickets? There is no good response, I think, and I
just said, "Oh, yeah ok. Thanks."</p>
<p>But then I got to the top of the pass and on the descent, I learned what a Mormon Cricket was.</p>
<p>As I descended, I started to see some bugs on the road, straight chillin. They were in packs of a few to a
dozen and I thought, "Ah, the famous Mormon Cricket."</p>
<p>They were big, fat, juicy bugs and I had no problem avoiding them, weaving in and out. Then I'd go a
quarter mile or so before seeing another patch of them. And so I continued, but the patches got denser and
thicker as I went on. To the point were I could no longer avoid them--they were teeming by the hundreds,
thousands! and the surface of the road was out of sight, covered by a thick blanket of these obese bugs. I had
no choice but to plow over them, feeling them squish as I crunched each one. And they JUMP! As I got close,
they would JUMP! But they would jump whichever way they were facing, as often towards me as away. And they
would SMACK into my exposed legs, up onto my arms, even into my face, thousands of these fat nasty bugs at a
time.</p>
<p>I closed my eyes, screwed up my face and raised up my legs as far away from these Mormon Crickets as I
could get, flying down the steep decline, feeling my tires slip back and forth over the bugs.<p>
<p>I am just grateful that I was going quickly downhill and not slowly uphill in the company of these bugs.
Apparently they pose a traffic danger. They gather by the thousands on roads during their swarming season and
trucks smush them into a slick goo that can cause cars to lose control.</p>
<p>I felt like I was in the midst of Exodus.</p>
<p>A really lovely <a href=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_cricket#Swarming>fact</a> about Mormon
Crickets: they swarm to seek nutrients, protein and salt, but also to avoid the cannibalistic crickets behind
them in the swarm. If the leaders of the pack do not march forward towards food, they will be eaten by the
pack behind them.</p>
<p>Poison is an effective defense because it will kill the bugs and then kill the other bugs that eat the
poisoned dead.</p>
<p>Another <a href=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB124052112850249691#mod=rss_whats_news_us>tactic</a> to keep
the bugs away: Some farmers play Loud Rock 'n' Roll to deter these infernal creatures.</p>
<p>In Elco City, NV, they have brought in snow plows to clear the residue of squished Mormon Crickets from the
road.</p>
<p>A really lovely bug that I was happy to be acquainted with.</p>