Why are we in Greenville in black fly season?

 Greenville, ME, is not quite as isolated as Jackman, ME, but the AAA Tour Book doesn’t list another town that is north or west of Greenville (except Jackman) and only eight that are either north or east of here. And seven of those are on the Canadian border. It is a pretty area, however, and the weather has been more or less cooperating. And I have now seen three moose and a mooselet.

What are NOT cooperating are the mosquitoes—have I mentioned that I hate mosquitoes and the feeling seems to be mutual? Randy and I went on the Hike From Hell yesterday. It should be listed that way but they sucker you in with the innocuous description, “Little Wilson Falls (Moderate, 2 miles round trip).”

A rare moment without mosquitoes

The Hike From Hell trail

What they didn’t tell us (me, really, because Randy and the mosquitoes have a mutual aversion for each other) is that mosquitoes have home field advantage. AND it has been raining for weeks so they have had plenty of time to procreate and call in their buddies for reinforcement. Given the numbers of mosquitoes I wonder how they have time to do anything other than make more mosquitoes.

The other thing they didn’t tell us is that the trail is actually 14 miles long, all uphill. Well not really, but when the trail is strewn with roots and mud holes and rocks and goes up and down, up and down, up and down the whole way it absolutely seems like 14 miles. And that’s just to the junction with the AT (as one must call the Appalachian Trail or be thought a doofus). Then it’s another 10 miles (OK, OK, a tenth of a mile) to the aptly named (the only thing about this trail that IS aptly named) Little Wilson Falls. The falls are truly beautiful! But the mosquitoes have not only taken over the trail, they have a battalion camped at the falls along with a regiment of the infamous Maine Black Flies. My daughter said that one of her co-workers, who is from Maine, asked, “WHY on earth are they in Maine in Black Fly Season?”

Therefore we only stopped for about 5 seconds to take a few pictures. Randy would have to warn me just before pressing the shutter so I could smile (if I left my mouth open in a smile for longer than a nanosecond, a mosquito would fly in) and stop doing the Australian salute (waving your hand in front of your face to shoo away the insects).

How come they never mention “Black Fly Season” and “Mosquitoes” in the tourist brochures?

Some vacation homes on Moosehead Lake

One way to get away from the mosquitoes and the Black Flies is to take a flight. We hired Jack, of Jack’s Air Service, and his C182 float plane to give us a one hour flight around the area. Jack is a retired Delta pilot and has been flying in this area of Maine for over 40 years. He and Randy immediately hit it off, natch. But not enough to give us an airline discount (yes, Randy actually asked for an airline discount).

What a steep turn in an airplane looks like

He flew us over Moosehead Lake—remember, there are three times as many moose as there are people up here—and over Mt. Katahdin where we could see the trail to the top, the end of the AT; Elephant Mountain, where the B52 crashed; another mountain (possibly Big Spencer, it was so noisy in the C182 that I couldn’t understand what he said, nor could Randy, even though he was jammed in the seat right next to Jack) where there are the remains of a B17 that crashed; then back over Moosehead Lake by Rockwood (where we drove yesterday).

It’s kind of depressing to see the miles and miles of clear-cut forest. And interesting to see the Deliverance vs Beverly Hills of the various homes on the lake. There are lots of expensive homes, especially on islands in the lake, but lots of shacks, too. But all in all, it was a outstanding flight, although it may take me several days to get my hearing back! And a spectacularly good landing; it was hard to know that we were back on the lake.

B17 tail on the side of the mountain

It was interesting talking to a float plane pilot, they are a different breed! He told us about the FAA and how they come to inspect every year (as they should and as he expects them to). A while back he apparently had a relatively new inspector who asked him why he didn’t have any scales to weigh baggage so as to be able to load the plane properly (to keep balance of the plane in the right place). The pilot doesn’t want the plane tail-heavy. So Jack just told him to step on the back of the plane’s float. The new FAA guy did that and of course the floats went way down with his weight and he almost fell in the water. His companion inspector was laughing so hard he could hardly stand. “See,” Jack said, “I don’t need a scale, if I load her too far back, she sinks.”

Sir Galahad

He wasn't real pleased!

On the way back, Randy rescued a turtle trying to cross the road.

And we watched a couple of moose (meese?) even though we weren't supposed to!