Annie, who doesn't hike, suggested for out last day together that we go for a hike. I'm game, you know me, a regular hiking fool.
I carry the 10 essentials (thanks for asking-whistle, compass, space blanket, waterproof matches, extra clothes, sunscreen and sunglasses, map, firestarter and first aid kit) in my hiking backpack. Extra water is important too. I'd add to that, protection from bugs-stay tuned. Of course, I'm 3000 miles away from my trusty backpack.
We drive to east Jesus, way up in the North country, almost Canada, passing beautiful lakes and creeks and occasional fishermen/women. Arriving at the trailhead, there were quite a few flies and I turned to Annie and said, 'bug spray' and she said, 'nope.'
Ahhh so we started out gayly enough but these bastards:
began tormenting us by swarming and landing on our faces, necks, hands and anywhere else they could bite us. We were sweating and swatting and at one point I felt something warm on my face and it was blood. And no 10 essentials. We prevailed and ended up coming back down the trail on our butts because it was so slippery and wet. No matter. The insects were merciless. At the trailhead we lost our minds and COULDN'T LOCATE THE EFFING CAR. We went down road after road, becoming more and more disoriented. When I had one bar on my phone I called 911 and got a ranger. Thanks to the lawd for GPS tracking. He got us out of biting insect hell but I gotta say, I have the worst bites on my hands and the back of my neck. I couldn't sleep that night because every time I closed my eyes, I saw swarms of horrible flies.
My sister doesn't hike so she doesn't know about flies between May and July when everyone sits around on their screened-in porches and watches the sunset.
I'm still scratching.
As a Buddhist, I revere life. Most of the time. But I'll certainly squash a black fly in a heart beat. They are tiny dicks.
7 comments:
Yikes!!!! Black fly bites are the worst. Sending love to you and Annie.
Oh my god, Beth! As bad an evening as I had the other night with bugs and heat I think that your experience was much, much worse.
I'm just glad you survived.
Don't do that again!
We call them horse flies and they are awful. They're huge and sound like a wasp and will follow you and make your life hell. Glad that you were able to make it out of there.
urg, after Mary moon's story and now yours I am loading up on deet! Also tucking everything into my boots, wearing a hat with a mosquito screen and taking your advice on traveling with back pack of emergency at all times!
I got all itchy reading this. I hope you have recovered!
Seriously.
We lived in a tropical country close to the equator for a couple of years and at first I tried to live side by side with the insects, nets and burning coils was the most I was going to do. That didn't last long. It was the ants everywhere, especially the nests that did it for me, but I can live with cockroaches or rather, I persuade them to move, at a push.
Sounds like a nightmare. I'm glad you're home safe and hope you're itch-free soon!
a screened porch watching the sunset is just my speed. sorry about the flies. oy.
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