Building Memories....crazy crazy memories

We made it back from the big Assateague weekend, and even though we were covered in ticks, mosquito bites, blisters, and sun burns, we were feeling happy. Mainly, we were happy that we didn't take the dogs and especially happy that the baby was not along for this trip because it was intense!

The first night was quite mellow, with only a few people who needed a class in campground etiquette. There were wild horses all over the place. Wild isn't really the word, they weren't domesticated, but they were quite accustomed to people and were pretty docile. They still scared me because I was sure that they would go crazy and kick and bite me the second I was within reach! I just stayed out of reach. :)

The second day is when things got a little crazy. If any of you are planning to go back country camping in Assateague, you need to know that there is NO trail, there is only walking on the sand of the beach. It doesn't initially seem so bad, but after about 4 miles with heavy packs, the sand gets REALLY old. We finally made it to the cut in for our campground. We were seriously tired and sore, and only had about a mile left to go. As we hiked that last mile off the beach and into the marsh and pine trees to our campsite things got crazy. The mosquitoes caught our scent and swarmed! When I say swarmed, I don't mean that 20 or 30 mosquitoes, I mean literal clouds of mosquitoes surrounded each of us and any and all bare skin immediately turned black or grey because of the insane number of mosquitoes that had landed and began to feed! We were wearing bug repellent, but I think the darn things thought it was just a seasoning on our skin! I have NEVER seen anything like it, neither has the Husband, or our friend M, and we have hiked, camped, and traveled quite a bit between us. We hiked as fast as we could to our campsite and immediately started a smokey fire to get rid of some of the bugs, put on long sleeve clothes and long pants, and some of us (M) jumped into the bay to get the evil mosquitoes off. After a bit of work, we got camp put up and were voluntarily sitting in the smoke. Bedtime came pretty early since there wasn't much to do.


The next morning was rough. There was no smoke to keep the bugs under control. We struck camp faster than I ever knew possible! We took down the tents, packed our packs, and hiked that mile out of the marsh at a record pace. We waited until we got to the beach before we ate our cold breakfast. The hike back was tough as we (not the husband, he was happy as a clam) were pretty sore from the previous day, and now had 15 million mosquito bites per every square inch, not to mention the tick hijackers that we were carrying with us.

We finally made it back to the ranger station and I mentioned that they should probably warn other campers that our campsite was almost dangerous in regards to the mosquitoes. The man's response was that he was surprised the other rangers had not said anything. He went on to describe a few rangers who won't even give a permit for that campsite during this season because of the mosquito issue. Would have been good to know!

All in all, we did have a good trip. It was rough, but those trips always make for the best memories and the funniest stories later!