Not long ago, I watched the scintillating cinematic feature Ice Spiders for the horror movie guide I'm writing. Helmed by one of my favorite directors, Tibor Takacs, this film terrified the viewer with a cautionary tale of experimental spiders gone wrong in the snowy forests near a ski lodge. After seeing the film, I brushed it off as a work of fiction. Hah! How naive I am. While snowshoeing near Crane Flat, I came across dozens of ice spiders, crawling across the snowy surface in search of prey. Okay, so maybe they were only a centimeter long instead of eight feet, but still...they were ice spiders!
Also in residence on the snowy meadow that day were predatory leeches. Streams ran through the meadow and on an unusually warm day, the leeches were out, hunting for prey in the icy expanse of the flat. How ever did I survive this hike, you ask? By being prepared by the fine film of Tibor Takacs, and knowing not to get worried until next winter, after the spiders and leeches have been experimented on by a team of mad scientists.