Ticks are Bad
Well … I had plans for a very cool epic hike this weekend, and it involved my favorite of favorite trails and my favorite of favorite series of waterfalls, not to mention my favorite of favorite rivers. And did I mention a brand new waterfall to see as well?
Unfortunately, something got in the way of my epic plans. More like hundreds of things. Little things. Little annoying things. Very bad things.
My plan was to hike down my favorite trail, the Canyon Creek Trail to the North Fork American River. Canyon Creek is a waterfaller’s paradise. There are at least seven significant waterfalls on this creek, all of them are fabulous, though some are difficult and dangerous to get to. When it is rainy, this trail can be very treacherous in places. But today, the trail was dry, not so treacherous, and the creek and waterfalls were still flowing very well.
I started out hiking before sunrise. Since it was a sunny day, I wanted to be down at the Big Waterfall as early as possible. Everything was going pretty good until I got down on the Canyon Creek trail proper. That is when I noticed little black things crawling up my leg. Bad things. Ticks! We’re not talking about 1 or 2 ticks, we’re talking about hundreds of them along the trail. I could see them on the grasses along the trail. But so many I could not see. At this time of year, the grasses are quite long, overgrowing onto the trail, and it is impossible to avoid brushing against them. In the two miles or so down to the first waterfall on Canyon Creek (pictured here), I literally had to pluck AT LEAST 50 ticks off my legs and pants. I am seriously not exaggerating. I was stopping about every 30 seconds or so to check my legs for new buggers. They all seem to know exactly where to go once they get onto your leg. Up. Up to certain “softer” areas that are “juicier”. How do they all know this? Some of these ticks were HUGE too. There were some that I would say were 10 times larger than the normal tick. Dang, I’m sure glad none of those ones bit into me. Actually, none of the ticks bit me. And I am very thankful for that. My constant checking every 30 seconds seemed to work, as they did not have enough time to crawl up under my shorts (though some came rather close).
But I found all this incredibly dis-heartening. They totally ruined my hike. My favorite of favorite hikes. Indeed, this might not be my favorite hike anymore because of all the ticks I had to brush off today. And it is really making me re-think all the other grand hikes I had planned for this spring as well. One or two ticks I can handle. But 50? No way. I decided to turn around before I got down to the Big Waterfall on Canyon Creek. I knew that the lower section of this trail and where I wanted to go would be more overgrown than the top part, and that meant the tick situation would be even far worse down there. I think I made the right decision but I was quite bummed about having to turn back. Well, at least I got to see one waterfall today.
One last thought for the day though: I am indeed very thankful that I did not get any tick bites, and I thank God for this. I did get a tick bite on my hike to Stevens Creek last week, the first one I’ve had in years, and tick bites can be really bad (not to mention, darn itchy!). And interestingly, I think God was protecting me last week. I actually had intended to go to Canyon Creek last weekend instead. It was a cold and rainy day, however, and I decided to stay home instead. If I had gone, I think I would have ended up with a ton of tick bites. I would have been wearing my black rain pants on that hike, and I would not have been able to see the ticks on my legs. I’m quite sure that I would have ended up with many bites. But today it was sunny, and I was wearing my light colored shorts. It was quite easy to see all the ticks on my bare legs and shorts, and I was able to pluck them off before they did any damage. Anyway, just my thought for the day … though I still wish I could have finished my intended hike.
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