A Mouse Tale

This photo is of a place called Peachtree Hole. Back when I was a teenager this was one of my favorite fishing spots. The first real camping trip I ever went on without supervision was right here. I was probably around 12 at the time. It was only about a mile from where I grew up but at that young age it may as well had been on another planet.

I remember my friend Ronnie and I would come here and fish to early in the morning. It seemed like when we were that young we were on a mission to stay up all night when out camping by ourselves. We never took a tent or anything like that and always got here in time to gather plenty of firewood to last through the night.

The area all around the hole of water was very secluded. There was only one house nearby and it was a little hike through the woods and up the mountain to the right of the river. In that house lived an old trader. His name was Cuby and he would absolutely trade for anything. To give you an idea - I traded him a basketball for a fishing pole. When Ronnie and I would come here fishing we would always stop by Cuby’s house just to see what he had to trade.

Cuby would tell us stories of a huge bear that lived in the woods by his house. His stories were especially believable simply because he lived in such a secluded area. I think he got a kick out of trying to scare us knowing we were going to be camping at the river. At that age, it worked to.

Our camping spot was right beside the big rock in about the center of the photo and there was a path right behind it that went up the mountain. It seemed like no matter how big of a fire we built we could never see very far up the path and after listening to Cuby tell his stories all of the monsters and bears we encountered was just outside of our light shuffling around on the path. I know it had my heart beating fast quite a few times.

On one night in particular we heard something moving around and it seemed like it took all of the fun out of fishing. Usually when we went camping like that we just took a few sandwiches and something to snack on to get us through till morning. On this night we had decided to roast hot dogs over the fire and make chili dogs. We sat there eating our hot dogs, fishing, and listening to some unseen monster moving around on the path for the biggest part of the night. By the time we did lay down to get a little sleep we were both as nervous as a couple of long tailed cats in a room full of rocking chairs. We had a small flashlight but neither one of us was willing to go investigate the restless prowler so we went to sleep not knowing what was on the hillside.

We couldn’t have been asleep very long when a new noise wakes me up. It sounded like something playing with a tin can. Normally that wouldn’t have bothered me too much except this time it was right where we were sleeping. I thought whatever was on the hillside had decided to join us on the river bank. I couldn’t fathom what it could be doing to make that weird noise.

As I said, usually we just brought sandwiches with us but since our late night snack this time was chili dogs, Ronnie had brought a can of chili. Taking all the nerve I could muster I turn the flashlight on and start scanning the area. What I found was so funny and at the same time such a huge relief. I had forgotten about the can of chili when I was lying there listening to the noise but when the beam of the flashlight landed on it all I could see was the hind end of a mouse sticking up out of the can. That little rascal was going to town on the left over chili and rocking the can back and forth as he ate.

The mouse cured the scary nights because afterwards anytime I heard something moving around I pictured that little mouse tail sticking up out of the chili can. We never did encounter the bear Cuby was always telling us about. But we did catch some monster catfish and even one huge mud turtle. That was an adventure in and of itself. I’ll have to tell you about it sometime.