wow said:
Good to see you guys got along. I'm not close at all, but if either of you ever get to Minnesnowta...
wow, I was not a part of that conversation, but i have a few stories in the file (my head) about the two trips thru parts of your state. One going west and one coming back in the easterly direction. We were on our way home from a trip to the west coast. I had my pickup truck and a couple of motorcycles on the back. A buddy was with me. We had sleeping bags and ground tarps so we could sleep along the way without having to waste time looking for motels or such. Somewhere along in Wyoming, on the way west, my buddy saw a scorpion going across the road (that was his story and i don't argue). From that point on, he slept in the front seat of the truck, but I continued to roll out the sleeping bag for my night's relaxation.
We had been thru Hibbing earlier in the day. We were now into evening darkness and looking for a reasonable place to pull off road for a few hours of sleep. i spotted a sign that directed us to a campground. we had not stopped anywhere other than the most deserted fields or wood lots for the entire trip. Peter, my friend thought it would be great to stop at a place where we could meet other travelers. This was in the central lakes area of the state and late July or early August. wow, if you have been to that area in summer time, you might be anticipating some of this tale.
As we pulled down into the campgrounds, there were dozen or so campers of all sizes from a dual axle monster down to some homemade trailer campers. Every one of those vehicles had the mosquito nettings secured tight and doors and windows secured with netting. There was a moving "
fog" of ferocious little monsters flying everywhere. I have never seen so many mosquitos in one place, before or since. We made a very hasty turnaround.
I remembered, as we were coming down the hill towards the lake that we had passed a pick nick area and there was even a hand type water pump close by one of the camp tables. AND, there had been no mosquitos. I pulled off when we got to the spot. I, as usual, rolled out my sleeping bag on the ground, while Pete stayed in the refuge of the truck cab. In the hour or so before daybreak, i was coming out of my sleep and i heard what i thought was a waterfall. I had studied the map before heading south from Hibbing and could not recall seeing any area hilly enough to produce a waterfall high enough to create such a roar. As I was coming out of the haze of my deep sleep, the roar seemed to come and go. I was thinking maybe there was a dam and they were opening and closing, but finally realized the roar was really more of a whine. A
very, no, it was extremely high pitched. It was those billions, quadrillions, or however many, mosquitos flying a quarter or half mile away along the water's edge.
We had not had the luxury of clean water too often, but i took advantage of that hand pump and cleaned myself up before rolling up sleeping bag and getting dressed for the trip home. As i loaded the bag and tarp into a side box on the tuck, Pete stirred. I suggested he make use of the pump and get cleaned up. We might not have such an opportunity again before getting back to Connecticut. Pete's comment was, "I am going down to the lake and take a good soaking bath." He grabbed a towel and headed at almost a run towards the portion of lake so close below.
"Pete, I don't think that is a good idea."
"Nonsense. This is the first lake water we could dive into since we left Connecticut."
"But, Pete........." He was out of sight in darkness.
A few seconds later, I heard the unmistakable splashing of somebody running full speed into the shallow water. All of a sudden, "yeeeeooooowwww!" There was an even more violent thrashing as i heard my friend charging back out of the water a good deal faster than he had run into. I won't go into the one-sided conversation filled with expletives that ensued as my friend came into view out of the darkness. Those bites did not disappear until we had been back in Wilton, CT for maybe a week. [scared]
If I ever go back to Minesnowta, it will not be to the "Lakes" in the summertime. I'll take snow and fifty below.
Tinker
