it was weird with this crackly thing buzzing around my head and my thinking well any minute now he's going to start stinging the bejeezus out of me and then i felt these warm sharp needly pinpoints one on my right shoulder then two on my left and i took off running thinking maybe i could run faster than he could fly and that seemed to work but then i went to see if he left a stinger and he did and somehow i managed to sting my own neck with it and then i felt a sting under my arm and one at my waist. so i don't know if they were ganging up on me or what but boy it sure put me in a bad mood for awhile.
but then i got over it and enjoyed the rest of my hike even while fantasizing about what would have happened if i had been swarmed by the killer bees that they say are advancing inexorably from the south. i imagined one of the laboring mountain bikers i met coming up the trail happening upon my body covered with angry bees and i wondered if they could have gotten me to the hospital in time.
well they weren't killer bees. i lived to tell the tale.