I've written here before of a great little overnight backpack not far from my home. It's a state park called Ha Ha Tonka, and there's a seven-mile loop trail that's got some great scenery and crazy rock formations. Well, my dad and I went and hiked said trail on Fathers' Day weekend. It was a great time with my dad, and I was really glad we did it. That said, it was also ritickulous! I've never seen so many ticks in my life! I had some DEET repellent cream that I was smearing on myself, but when we were hiking I would look down every few minutes and there would be upwards of 20 or 30 ticks on EACH pant leg. I'd brush them off, only to be retickulated a few steps further on. I think it's intickative of the move away from widespread DDT spraying in America. (Not that I'm convinced DDT was a good thing, mind you - it apparently almost wiped out some predatory birds. Don't tell me that's a bunch of bosh, either, because according to the best research I can come up with that issue is far from settled.)
Anyway, the ticks. I read somewhere that a pair of guinea fowl will clear two acres of ticks almost completely within one year. I'm considering buying some. The ticks were so bad on this trip that I don't have any enlightening photos to accompany this post - I was too busy brushing off ticks to take pics. (Oy - this post is really overdoing the lame wordplay.) I still have lots of itchy bites on my legs, too.
But I was glad my dad did that hike with me. It was fun despite the crazy ticks, and we had a good talk on lots of issues.
Right now my dad and mom are in Yosemite, so recently vacated by Dwain, and before that, by Pastor Joe and family. My mom and dad rode an Amtrak train to California and rented a car for the drive up to Yosemite. They like this Amtrak traveling stuff - I'm pretty jealous myself.
