The trail is dry; the air is oppressive; the bugs are (mostly) non-existent; the wildflowers are beautiful; and some of your fellow hikers are disgusting.
This is Mailbox in summer.
I am not used to seeing the Old Trail without mud. The bogs at the beginning of the rough stuff have hardened to something like brick. I half expected to see paleontologists hovering over them taking plaster of Paris molds of dinosaur tracks. And by "dinosaur tracks" I don't mean "the bootprints of geezer hikers." I never make it through this section with clean boots, but I did today:
The air was completely still this morning - not a hint of wind. It made for really warm hiking. The smoke didn't help. I hope we get our west winds back soon!
I heard some people talking about past trip reports at the summit and complaining that they said the bugs weren't too bad, when the bugs were "horrible - we're getting eaten alive." No, you weren't. There were bugs at the summit - in a repeat of a strange phenomenon I saw last weekend on the summit of Baring but have never observed before this year, there was a swarm of small wasps. They're a harmless kind of wasp I see in the lowlands all the time - never been stung by them, but they were so numerous on the summit that they were annoying - a crazy cloud of insects. Otherwise, there were no biting insects. Maybe a horse fly or two, but really it was the first respite I've had from bugs in weeks.
The wildflowers were out in force on the summit ridge. Here's a small sample:
I did some trash cleanup as I went, and there was no shortage to clean up (and I'm not even counting the things people leave on the summit as tributes, even though it will still all eventually become trash). This was my haul:
I draw the line at bio-waste, and sadly, there was a lot of that...right on the trail. C'mon, people! I know no one who needs to hear this message checks this site, but I'll say it anyway. Pack it in, pack it out applies double to toilet paper and wet naps. If you don't know this already, just don't hike. This montage is a fraction of the number of violations along the trail. So gross.
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