After a pretty decent night of sleep, I was feeling surprisingly refreshed. The memory of my embarrassing and hectic day in Smithers was finally in my rear view mirror, and I was determined to have a better day today. It finally stopped raining, as I was able to have a nice cup of coffee while pouring over maps of where to stay that night. I decided to just drive, and stay at whatever place speaks to me. Sometimes this works, and sometimes this is an awful idea. Anyway, he’s how the next 24 hrs went…
As I began driving north, I was excited to see my first black bear on the side of the road. Today is definitely looking up! From a distance I thought it was a donkey… These animals are much larger than the bears I’ve seen in Florida.
After a 3 hour leisure drive full of pit stops and sight seeing, I see a sign for Meziadin Lake Provincial Park. Heck I got nothing to do, let’s at least check it out. As I pull in and make my rounds to the day use area, I can’t help but gawk at the beautiful camp sites right on the lake edge. Man, It’s absolutely gorgeous here! This site is definitely speaking to me, and I made the executive decision to find the prettiest open spot, and set up for the evening. Well, it was only 3PM, but you know what I mean.
After I park, I get out and walk around a bit, surveying the campgrounds, figuring out how to register, and seeing if any hiking trails exist nearby (the answer was no). When walking, I had no issues, but as soon as I got back to the truck and dawdled a bit outside, I was mobbed by a herd of mosquitoes. Flock of mosquitoes? Gaggle of mosquitoes? Hm, whatever you call a shit load of mosquitoes. Man, this is bad. Maybe a breeze will quick up later and keep these guys grounded? I take out the bug net that worked so well at the last provincial park and drape it over the truck camper. So glad I have this figured out already! I am one with mosquito avoidance, dodging from their hungry craze with a thin veil of webbing from Amazon.
Actually, it didn’t work like that at all.
Here’s how it went. I put on the veil, and climb into the camper to read a bit and potentially write a blog. I have what I shall call massacre #1. Need to get the population down in here, as about 50 insects hopped into the back with me as I climbed in. No problem. Me and a touristy magazine went to work smashing and smushing all the mosquitoes I could find.
Everything was cool for about 5 minutes, then a handful more mosquitoes showed up. Hm. Maybe these guys were hiding in the curtains? I smash them too, trying to pile up their bodies as I don’t want to sleep in a bed of dead mosquitoes. Those are now dead, and 10 more show up. Where in god’s green earth did y’all come from?? There could not be that many insects hiding. There is a breach. And I need to find it ASAP.
I get outside, back into the school of mosquito, and survey the truck. Tiny air holes are under both sets of windows, and there is some open space where the tailgate meets the lights of the truck. The bug net is doing absolutely nothing. There are more insects inside the net at this point than outside. Mocking me…. I rip off the net, and start gorilla taping every hole I can find. Which ended up being about 10. There. We should have a solid seal now! Time for take 2…
I climb back in, along with 45 mosquitoes closely following me. Start scene, massacre #2. I kill what feels like whole lineages of mosquitoes, again piling their bodies. Maybe they’ll see the bodies as they fly towards me, and give blood leeching another thought? Something like the 300 movie…
After killing many, many individuals, it’s finally quiet in the cab. For the first time, I think I have won the battle. Then, a slow and steady stream of mosquitoes trickles in. Not 10 at a time like before, but still… A single file line into the truck exists somewhere. And I cannot find it. It’s like a faucet that has been ratcheted down, but not fully turned off. I try for almost an hour to visually see where they are entering. But I have no luck. The only positive note is that I have deduced that they are coming in from the tailgate area.
By this point, it’s 11:30PM, still light out unfortunately, and I’ve completely lost my mind. My entire day has been full of slaughter. I’m tired, frustrated, and my hands have bits of leg and wing all over them. I give up. I pull out the computer and do the most mundane thing I can think of to preoccupy myself as wing beats swarm me. I play Candy Crush. Stupid, yet comforting. Mindless work to keep me from yelling at the world. I cover everything I can with my sleeping bag, and just play until I’m too tired to stay awake any longer.
It was a long uncomfortable night, but eventually the insect population in the truck diminished. By sealing up everything trying to avoid bugs, I have made my condensation issue much, much worse. I wake up early, moist, and determined to find where the bugs are entering from.
Besides the insects, my camp spot was beautiful in the morning light. The swarm (I finally figured it out) of mosquitoes was somehow manageable this AM. As I surveyed my truck’s rear, I finally found the secret mosquito entrance. A chute to divert water off the glass (both inside and outside) in the lower corner was acting like a wildlife culvert. Open on both sides, but hidden from view, this seemingly useful water diverter was now the enemy. Fuck water diversion. I pulled out some sealant and shut that hole. Then taped over it just to be safe. Tomorrow will be the true test…
While I was enduring this mosquito shit show, I tried to think if this was the worst I had been exposed to, bug wise. The answer was definitely no. When I used to work at mosquito lagoon within Canaveral National Seashore, we would regularly have days that were worse. One time, it was so thick at our research house that you couldn’t open your mouth while outside, as a handful of mosquitoes were filling every square inch of space. Nostrils and mouths were choked by the massive amount of insects, getting caught in your teeth, and biting every square inch of your body. I cried that day. While working. My advisor rolled up to the site during lunch and was appalled at how hilariously sad we all appeared. She stepped outside for only 3 minutes after making fun of us, to quickly apologize. It had never been that bad, nor would it ever be that bad again.
I remember calling my dad and asking if I was in danger of losing too much blood due to bites. I counted over 100 individual bites that night. he laughed, and said no, but if you start getting flu symptoms, call me back… He then offered to buy me a bug shirt, which I never did. Because of that day, no other shitty bug day ever compared to it. Yesterday came preeeeettttyyy close.
I’m finally leaving Meziadin Lake, and will head north. I’m hoping today can be slightly better than yesterday, but my expectations are pretty damn low. I’m starting to understand why no one actually lives in these amazingly beautiful areas…
