Interlude

I was planning on talking about how Saturday night included one of my most ridiculous mosquito encounters ever, but I went out hiking this morning and that no longer holds true. Until today I had been relatively peaceful towards the mosquitoes, even though they were growing in number and their incessant buzzing has been keeping me up at night. As long as they didn't land on me and start sucking, they could live. And the mosquitoes in my room have been good about that, generally.

Today I left in the early morning hours to hike the Two Ocean and Emma Matilda lake paths. Around each lake is about 6 miles, and combined they're about 10 or so. It was supposed to be a good area for animal sightings, including bears, so I had this can of bear spray with me that looked something like a miniature fire extinguisher.

The good news was I didn't get attacked by a bear. The bad news was I didn't even see a bear, or anything else for that matter, beyond a few grouse, which were pretty cool.What I did end up running into were mosquitoes. The entire hike was so utterly infested with them I don't doubt that was why there were no animals in sight. They had all be driven away by these blood suckers, and I was the only stupid mammal that didn't turn right around and leave when I noticed there were so many of them.

The scenery around the hike was nice, there was some cloud cover keeping things from getting too hot, and the hike was very docile, with only some mild inclines. Thank God, because I shot through it all as fast as my legs could carry me. I was too stubborn to turn back until there was no point in not just finishing the loop, but I couldn't stop without getting engulfed by insects. Even as it was I was almost eaten alive. If I hadn't had my sweater things would have been much, much worse. As it was, the only parts of me that were exposed were my face, my throat, and my knuckles, all of which were attacked so consistently my hands were bloody and black from retaliation by the time I made it out. In the beginning I kept feeling them coming down on the top of my head, so I had to put my hood up. I made the mistake of checking my shoulders a few times, only to get a little creeped out by the sheer number of mosquitoes trying vainly to get through my sleeves. I learned pretty fast to not worry about it and just charge through. Even the sound of the many streams feeding into the lake were drowned out by the insane buzzing. It all reminded me of those stupid swarms in Diablo II, only instead of zapping my stamina these mosquitoes actually enhanced it by driving me forward.

I had brought lunch with me, which I had sealed tight to prevent the smell from attracting bears, but I couldn't stop to eat it without being thoroughly eaten in turn, so I was starving by the time I got back to the car. Instead of looping around both lakes as I had intended, I ended up cutting my losses and marching down the middle of them.

All in all, it was a real disappointment. The first of the summer, to be honest. I would have loved to have taken my time and enjoyed the solitude of the place, but it just wasn't going to happen.

So after I got home, took a nice long shower, and finally had my lunch, I decided I was done playing nice with the mosquitoes, and whatever foolish insect crossed my sight or caught my ears was going to die. I've been hunting them almost four hours straight now. The floor of my cabin is littered with corpses, and still they keep coming. I had thought there were only a couple in here, but apparently I was wrong. Either that or for every bug that falls, three more take its place. No wonder the buzzing was keeping me up at night. I had brought some nice earphones with me, and keeping them on and the volume up is the only thing keeping me sane right now, to be honest. If I hear one more stupid whizzing noise behind my head I might just snap.

So I think I'm done with hiking, or at least next time I run into so many mosquitoes in one place, I am going to turn around and find a nice place to hang around.

There are no photos of any of this because getting the camera out and holding it still was too much of an invitation to the swarm.