The Florida coast around Appalatcheecola has man-eating flies. The
Florida Keys has bugs called no-see-ums that can go right through
window screens. And central Florida has swarms of love bugs that
congregate in roadways during mating season and can blind you by
totally covering your windshield or glasses with bug guts in a metter
of seconds. Like mosquitos, they are attracted to CO2. I need to
wear a mask when I'm driving my tractor to keep from inhaling them.--
- In W650riders@..., "Gene Fitch" <cafeboy@...> wrote:
From: "Charles Graves"
Re your comment about the Appalachian Trail, I met an interesting
chap where I was over-nighting near the Maine/New Hampshire
border.
We chatted briefly the evening prior then had breakfast together
the
following morning. In his early forties, I think. Originally from
Australia and was somewhat familiar with older bikes (Triumphs and
BSAs). Turns out he was hiking the entire Appalachian Trail for
the
second time (apparently on average a 4 to 6 month proposition,
depending upon the skill of the hiker).
In 1979(?), my girlfriend and I decided to travel around the
states. We
visited her family in Lowell, Massachusetts for a while. <<Strange
factoid:
I met a priest at a church fair in Lowell who was a friend of Jack
Kerouac
and had done the service at his funeral.>>
We were really into backpacking so decided to "do" the Trail. We
started off
at Mount Moosilaukie and spent a couple of days going uphill, then
downhill.
It was beautiful and we were drinking water right out of a rushing
creek
full of snowmelt. We got caught in big thunderstorms and camped in
snow. But
when we hit the bottom, the mosquitoes hatched out and ate us
alive. That
was also my first experience with those tiny black flies.
When we called her sister to come rescue us, our eyes were swollen
shut, our
hands were swelled up and we could hardly flex our fingers. I'll
never
forget the high-pitched sound of millions of mosquitoes in the
forest. We
lasted a week.
Later, we found out you should start at the southern end and walk
north to
avoid snow and most bugs.
gene in OR
