June 9th. Wow. Day 50. Where has the time gone?
Everywhere I stop, people are talking about the black flies and mosquitoes. “Worst crop I’ve seen in two decades”, I heard one guy say. The four guys sitting at the table at Dunkn Donuts were talking about the bugs, and the four guys that replaced them were talking about the bugs. When I stopped at a lodge for supper, the first thing the proprietor said was, “The bugs are pretty bad.” Uh, yeah. Got that right, brother.
So far, I think I’ve been lucky, especially because of the bug net. But last night, the black flies were the worst ever, even attacking my arms and legs. I put insect repellent on, but that only deterred them for ten minutes. Reapply, and then after another ten minutes, they were back. There was just no escaping them. I even started feeling phantom bites inside my bug screen until I realized I had a hole in it and was actually being bitten. I patched the hole along the seam with a piece of tape for now. I hope it holds until I can replace it in Thunder Bay.
I spent my high school years in Northern Ontario, and I remember having fun times in the summer without bugs. So, there should be an end to this eventually. Right now, there’s no fun to be had anywhere outdoors. You can’t have a picnic; you can’t sit on the beach and enjoy the view; you can’t even get out of your vehicle at a view point for more than thirty seconds before you are inundated by these bugs. Everywhere I look at these rest stops, people are waving their hands in front of their faces. Same with the highway workers.
Last night, I found a camping spot and had a rough time getting the tent up because of the attack of the bugs. And I had just applied mosquito repellent prior to setting up the tent. These bugs are ferocious. Yes, FEROCIOUS. When I got inside the tent and prepared the air mattress, I just collapsed on it. Then I started killing the dozen or so black flies that managed to come inside with me. Darn flies. I probably won’t be able to donate blood for another two months now after last night’s attack.
I’m in Nipigon now. A billboard says it’s home to the smallest Canadian Tire in Canada. Its motto: We may be small, but we can get it all. I thought I would buy another couple of bug nets there, but I can’t find it. Perhaps it’s very, very small indeed.
