It's official: my hiking season is closed until the first summer heat wave.
Why, you ask? Particularly since nature daily beckons with all her springly wiles, "Come closer!"??
Well, The Best Husband Ever - who does not traipse about in nature - found a tick on his person.
If that doesn't give you the heebie-jeebies, you've a stronger constitution than I, my friend. Or you've never had this brand of sneaky little creature tickle your neck a couple of days after you were last in their terrain. (Shudder!) And you haven't seen the giant tick at the Ravalli County Museum's historical display of Rocky Mountain Tick Fever research.
On the bright side, I suppose this qualifies as is a sure sign of spring. Which I will happily enjoy from the safe distance of concreted city streets, and a few select treeless, grassless hilltop trails. After I vacuum the house (and husband) one more time.
Rainbows graced the skies over Missoula, Montana, courtesy of a thunderstorm which capped a hot, hot day. We’re finally getting weather up into the 90’s F . To entonophobics (people with a tick phobia) like me, this signifies that ticks will head higher up the mountains, and fear-free hiking season begins. Call me a wuss, but if you’ve ever found one of those little bugs crawling on you - hours after you thoroughly checked! - you may understand the creepy factor.
The “M” on Mount Sentinel is a good spring hiking trail because there are no overhanging trees wherein ticks can hide to launch their attack on unsuspecting victims. Well, that, and the great exercise, and the spectacular views. (Not that I have a tick phobia or any such.)
