Appalachian Trail (AT) Happiness: Bloody, Buggy & Fungi

View across the Berkshires

In Massachusetts and Vermont, there had been plenty of mosquitoes, but in New Hampshire, they had reinforcements ~ Jennifer Pharr Davis

So this was my last slack pack in Massachusetts before heading back on the trail full time.  I had started at the same spot a few days ago and went south and there had been a ton of mosquitoes.  Several folks on the trail had mentioned the bug level as well.  So I dosed up with bug dope and hit the trail, and the bugs won, quickly.  So I broke down and gave into the bug madness and put on a long sleeved shirt and for the first time ever, the highly fashionable whole head bug net.

Conveniently camouflage colored to hide you from pernicious but not so bright bugs.

The hike was nice, pretty forest, nice trails and good views as the picture above shows.  The only downside was that my right knee brace had cut my leg the hike before and my bandage job didn’t hold up on the hike.

This also was the day of the fungi, given the bug swarms only one of the photos below are mine, I went to the web to find similar photos of the fungi I found as well as a couple of the ever creep me out, rock tripe lichen.

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Rock tripe lichen

Rock tripe close up

I head back to the trail full time on Sunday and look forward to many more happy trail days my friends ~ Rev Kane