With nice weather and beautiful summer season upon us here in North America, my training for the Appalachian Trail thru hike in 2021 has now shifted from boring footpaths and dreaded treadmill in a dark basement to the hiking trails in Michigan mountains. We love our mountains. Some of them are as tall as 10 ft. But jokes apart, lack in mountains, on these trails are more than compensated with spectacular lakes and dense, lush forests with hundreds of shades of green.
That is all fine and dandy. But here is a challenge I faced this week.
Monday: I did 0.7 miles (1 km) on the trail in Pinckney Recreation Area. My legs, hands and most importantly, my bald head swelled within a couple of minutes on the trail. No, enlargement of my esteemed head was not because of my ego. It was because of crazy mosquitoes. I forgot to carry a repellent.
Tuesday: I did 5.0 miles (8 km) on Crooked Lake trail. My repellent was an extremely light weight Fabric Roll-On (12 gm) used by parents on the children in Dombivali and Badalapur. These towns near Mumbai, India are well known for scourge and scourge of mosquitoes. But this high-performance repellent completely failed in Michigan. Since Michigander little devils get only 2-3 months in the entire year to suck human blood, these mosquitoes have a certain level of desperation and the attitude of hara-kiri. So, my bald head continued to swell with a feast for these bloodsuckers.
Wednesday: I did two rounds of Crooked Lake Trail (10 miles, 16 km) with 20 lb. on back. Covered myself with hand gloves, a rain jacket (with hoodie) (95 gm) and rain pants (66 gm). (I do not plan to carry any other hoodie or full pants on the trail, so I had to use what I have in my Appalachian gear). Despite usual crazy sweating, I did not feel any suffocation whatsoever in this breathable rain gear. That was a great respite and I was ready to rock on.
Thursday: I did 12.5 miles (20 km) Potowatomi half loop trail. Yesterday, while I was merrily hiking on the trail, mosquitoes called a meeting to strategize. Today, they were ready for me and attacked my bearded face. Now my face is also swollen along with the head. That’s it. I gave up in four days. I am now going to bite the dust and carry the traditional mosquito repellent Repel 100 DEET on the trail (48 gm).
Other day, I had to include diaper cream (15 gm) in my inventory list for the Appalachian Trail (after serious chafing at “you-know-where”).
Fricking back-pack weight keeps going up. Damn …
Nitin (Dadhi) Anturkar (June 27, 2020)
