Battle of the Deer Flies!

   Hiking the trail in 1980 was a wonderful experience. I realize that I have written a lot about the towns I visited and the special events that occurred in those towns. But honestly, most of the trip was putting one foot in front of the other up and down mountains in the woods. I had a "Data Book" that listed the distances between certain landmarks. So many miles to the next road crossing, so many miles to the next shelter, stream, bridge, summit, etc. I would usually plan out my day looking at the Data Book, trying to end the day at a shelter (if possible) or at least near a water source (which happened most of the time). The shelters almost always had a water source, although sometimes it was 1/4 mile straight down a side trail (glad I didn't have to carry my pack down and back on those trips!). I needed lots of water. I used water to cook all my meals. And I drank lots of water because it was summer and it was hot!
   Sweating up the side of a mountain in the summertime is difficult. But one of the things that annoyed me the most were deer flies. Wikipeda says: "Deer flies (also known as yellow flies) are flies in the genus Chrysops of the family Tabanidae" It also says that the female flies feed off of blood!  I believe it! (The males just collect pollen.) When a deer fly would find me it was sure that I would make a good meal. I was determined to keep all my blood for myself! 
   The deer fly would circle round, and round, and round, and round my head looking for an opportunity to strike. Since I was hiking, I was a moving target. I would swat at the fly and try to shoo it away (which almost never worked). I would often have one circling my head for 20 or 30 minutes. I finally developed a strategy for killing them. I would wait until they were circling just over my head, then I would slap my hands together and hope to crush my enemy. I'm sure you would laugh if you saw me sweating and mumbling at the deer flies and slapping my hands together. No, I wasn't ready for the insane asylum (yet)! After a lot of patience and slapping I would either kill the fly or she would give up and look for other prey. Fortunately this didn't happen every day of the hike, only during the hottest part of the summer and in areas where livestock were kept nearby. I survived the deer flies and kept on moving toward my goal of climbing Mt Katahdin in Maine!


   2011 update:  This morning I weighed in at 173.4 pounds. I did a lot of yard work yesterday (trimmed a bunch of hedges that had gotten WAY out of control!) I'm still trying to eat good food (right now I have a big salad in front of me for supper). I plan on jogging in the morning, there is another 5K run coming up in August and I need to get ready for it! Having goals to shoot for really helps to keep me motivated!