Barre Falls dam

Barre Falls dam
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

This weekend, I took my first backpacking trip of the season.

I hiked the Midstate Trail from Rt 62, at mile 29.26^*, down to the shelter at mile 45.05, and back. In addition, I hiked from the shelter to the spring at 45.31 miles, minus my gear. Total miles: 31.5. Total hours: 12.5. Pace: 2.5 mph. Pack weight: about 22 lbs.

The first few miles of the trip were very easy, along flat, packed dirt roads, and I felt lighthearted despite my pack. After about six miles of hiking, though, I began to have trouble with mosquitoes. They were swarming, and alas I had neglected to bring bug spray. I would wipe five of them off my left arm, wipe another five off my right, and there'd be another five on my left again. Not to mention my poor legs.

I think I spent about half the trip fending off ravenous mosquito swarms. This kind of thing really takes the joy out of a hike!

To counter the attack, I kept as fast a pace as I could (which is not fast at all). At some point, I took to wearing my rain jacket. This kept them off my arms, so that they were free to focus on my face and legs instead. The best defense was waving my hat back and forth rapidly in front of my face. However, I'm still completely covered in bites.

The pests backed off when I hit the Barre Falls dam. Apparently, being vampirish in nature, they were afraid to enter sunlit areas and confined themselves to the depths of the woods. So I took a nice long break there, admiring the sunny blue sky and the big fluffy white clouds.

* If you plan to park overnight along Rt 62 as I did, be sure to notify the town police. It seems they have a thing about cars, or should I say "suspicious vehicles," parked for any length of time along the road. I don't know if this is true for all parking areas along the Midstate Trail.