The Real Path Bike Trip

My Oh My Oh My, Mosquitoes!

I unpacked the car and piled it all on my bike and stood at the dock waiting for the ferry to take me across the St. John’s River to Hontoon Island State Park. The old guy that I had met before was steering and as the ferry pulled closer, I could see the look of incredulity on his face.
“Ever see anybody do this before?” I asked proudly
“No” he replied “and I’ve seen a lot”

I needed his help getting the bike trailer off the ferry and signed up for a campsite. Another guy, Richard saw me with all my stuff on the bike and said, “You know, we’ll take you back there”
At Hontoon, the campsites are about a mile interior. Since it’s an island, you don’t bring your car to the campsite, but they will give you 2 rides; one there with all your stuff and one back. The rest of the time you’re walking.

There was some discussion about which site I wanted and Richard offered to take me back so I could look. We piled into the van and he kept up this steady, good-natured teasing towards me. I said I wanted to have a place to hang my hammock and he said they didn’t really care what I did so long as I didn’t take a shovel, dig a hole and sink the island. I asked, “Is that possible?” and he looked at me and told me I sure was gullible!
I asked him if the mosquitoes were bad and now that I think about it, the tone of his voice was somewhat evasive when he answered “Not in the daytime. “ He kept asking me if I wanted firewood because he’d bring it to me if I did. I said I usually don’t camp with fires and he said that it helps with the mosquitoes. I set my camp up, including the hammock and a mosquito net over it, just in case, and the day went on. I set up my new backpacker stove for the first time and made dinner. It took about 20 minutes longer than it needed to because I was afraid to turn it up. As dusk fell, I heard Richard in his campsite (he is the campground host) and his stove was raging loud and that was when I turned mine up and finished dinner.
Good thing too because THE MOMENT the sun went below the trees, the mosquitoes came out. I have never experienced mosquitoes like this before and I’ve camped in many places. I scurried into my solo tent for approximately the first time, (I’d set it up in the grass at home to prepare but didn’t practice getting in and out. Not an easy task when the tent is that small.) and heard what can only be described as a cacophony of mosquitoes outside my tent. It was at least as loud as the air conditioner is when you’re standing next to it. I didn’t have time to grab a flashlight on my way into the tent so I never saw how many there were but there must have been clouds of them.
The ranger told me the next day that really the only places on the island that weren’t under standing water most of the year were the campground and the entrance near the ferry. Everywhere else was a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

I remember reading somewhere that there are 27 different mosquito species in Florida and I’m sure they were all represented outside my tent that night. I could hear them whining at different pitches and I think they were talking to each other because one would start on one side of the tent and then go silent and a different one would answer. The one time that I got up to go pee during the night, I was covered in bites before I got back to the tent. It turns out though that it was very easy to sleep to the sound of millions of mosquitoes buzzing.

The next day was clear and hot and I was really looking forward to riding the bike trails on the island. First I went to the front of the island, where all the picnic tables are and I found a very tame flock of turkeys. That was fun!

I can’t imagine how the Native Americans survived this place before the advent of air conditioning and mosquito repellent but they were here.

I did ride the trails and found out that the different trails all go out to nowhere. The was one trail called The Bear Tree Trail. It takes you out to a tree. A nice tree but it’s just a tree. Anyway, that’s what I love to do, ride my bike through the woods so it was fun.

I can imagine doing this again with a group of bikers. Hontoon Island is a great place to start a trip. The people were all very friendly and helpful and I was very grateful they let me keep my car there while I traveled to Alexander Springs the next day.

Tags: , biking, camping, Orlando area