Black Flys

My 10th day on the road was a fun one, and all down hill.  After climbing the Adirondacks for a day it was nice to do some fast downhills.  It was a great temperature, not too hot, not too cold.  It was somewhere around 73*F  The visuals were stunning.  I could see more than I could the previous few days because of the downhills allowed me to look around more. I could see the various mountains in the back ground, the memorizing blue hue of the trees reflecting the clear sky, and the many glacier lakes that envelopes the range.  The Adirondacks have definitely been the most beautiful riding of my trip so far.

Half way through the day I met up with a few more cyclists.  They were doing Portland, ME to Portland, OR.  We were traveling in opposite directions so we exchanged some advice for what lies ahead.  As we were talking these little black flys kept landing on us.  They had been landing on me all day, but they weren't bothering me so I just let it go.  I figured that because I am in the mountains, and on a bike I need to be more tolerant of insects and where they are.  Obviously there are going to be a lot of them, I thought, so I might as well get used to them.

A few hours and a couple rest stops later to stretch my legs to prevent them from seizing up, I rubbed the back of my neck.  It felt like powder. It was as if the suntan lotion had dried up and had stuck to my neck in clumps.  Curious I began scratching off the clumps.  As I brought my hand back in front of me I noticed it wasn't sun tan lotion at all.  What it was, was my blood.  It was everywhere.  Behind my ears, on my neck, on my lower back, under my chin, everywhere.  I began to freak out a little bit, but then I remembered those little black flys.  "Nooooo" I thought.  "I watched them land on me, there's no way they did this."  As I was trying to figure out what happened I scratched the back of my ear and felt something more solid than dried blood.  When i looked at what it was, it was one of those black flys!  You can't even feel the little things bite you, they just latch on with their tiny sharp teeth and suck your blood.  Hands down they are worse than mosquitoes.  At least you can feel them when they land on you and bite you.  You can't feel these little black flys land or bite.

Not soon after another swarm attacked me.  Because I was rising along lakes and rivers the entire day I was like their personal traveling buffet.  They travel in packs of about 30 or so, so you really have to hurry up when ever you stop.  I had about 10 seconds each stop to recover before I was swarmed.  It was aweful.

I eventually made it to my camp ground which was only $5.  I am loving these deals for cyclists.  It is really helping out my financial situation. I made some calls and everything was going fine until I decided to walk to the edge of the camp site.  There, a group of black flys attacked me and I had no where to run.  I got my bug net on my head, put on pants and a long sleeve.  I then made a massive fire (much bigger than my fire pit) to smoke the bugs away from me.  I constantly added living foliage to create smoke so drive them off.  My neck is riddled with bites it looks like I had a bad reaction to an allergy test.  You know, the ones with the block of 50 needles or so.  It's bad.  The night wasn't a total failure tho.  I did ride 85 miles today: about 30 uphill and then the rest flat or downhill, and my campsite is overlooking a water fall.  I am truly loving this experience.  Even if I am being eaten alive by these things.  Best part about it is, when you are lying in your tent and they struggle to get in, you can just relax and sleep well.  You're safe.