Hot, Dry and Prickly

Long Beach

July 20, 2015 Comments (0) journal

Black Flies and Hot Afternoons

I read somewhere, and I do not remember where exactly, that the total biomass of all the ants on the planet is roughly equal to the total for humans. That there is, pound for pound, a rough equivalence between us and our insect brethren. Which may or may not be the case, I don’t know, but I know that somewhere in the mix there’s a whole lot of room for black flies.33

I hiked up to High Rock Lookout today, just to get a good look at the mountain and to spend a day in the alpine air. It was muggy and hot, and the sky was a fast-moving buzz of insects, mostly flies and skeeters, but with enough of the large, evil black flies to be a regular nuisance. In the places where the wind blew steady, they were kept at bay but the hike up through the still, wooded parts of the climb were fairly brutal.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Once up on the ridge, however, it was all about the view. The mountain looks close enough to touch from this perspective, and usually it seems like it might be cool to the fingertips, but not today. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it with this little white at this point of the year… next month’s Puyallup trip is starting to look even drier.