While hiking at Red Rock today, with Ivan, on the Oak Creek trail, I was viciously attacked by a yucca plant. While chasing a lizard, I hopped up onto a boulder. The boulder proved to be a less-than-ideal platform for spying on scurrying reptiles, as I had to quickly jump back down from it's steeply sloped side, and directly onto the razor-sharp spiny leaves of a yucca. I immediately realized I had been stabbed by the yucca, but did not notice that it had broken the skin until a few moments later when I felt the warm trickle of blood making it's way down my leg. Then I looked at where I had felt the prick on my wrist, and saw that it, too, was dripping blood. Around the puncture wound, an area the size of a half-dollar coin was swollen.

A little bit of pressure held on my wrist staunched the flow. I let the two holes on my leg stop on their own. I wanted to continue hiking, but Ivan decided it'd be best if we called it a day. Ah well. I survived.