Don't bug me

March 27, 2025

The Homestead

Total Miles: none yet

Dean Martin on my phone

So I'm here at my parents' house in these final days before I begin hiking on the AT. They're celebrating their 50th anniversary this year, and my siblings and I will gather here at the homestead and take them out to dinner before my brother and I head for the trail. (He'll be hiking with me for the first day or so, which is cool.)

Among the final tasks on tap is treating all my gear and clothes with permethrin. Ticks are plentiful on the trail, tick-borne illnesses like Lyme Disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever are no joke, and cases have been on the rise over the last several years. A lot of the articles I've read name ticks as the biggest safety risk on the trail.

I'll be doing a tick-check every night in camp as a matter of course, but treating my clothes and my tent is an added layer of protection. Permethrin will last about 6 weeks, or 6 washes, before it wears off, so I'll need to re-apply mid-hike if I want to keep it going. Tick season is generally in high summer, so this may be overkill right now, but I wanted the experience of it before I had to do it on the fly, as it were.

There seem to be two basic ways to treat your clothes: spraying and soaking. I bought what I thought was an ample amount of spray and had it sent to the homestead, but when I arrived and read the instructions, it became clear that I was going to need a lot more. Concentrate for a soaking solution was more readily available--and much less expensive. This has led to more of a last-minute situation than expected, in which I've ended up using both methods indiscriminately, and writing this post while I wait for stuff to soak--and then dry out--on the driveway.

You’re soaking in it

Not pictured: El chasing after all this stuff as it blows into the neighbors' yard

Predictably, permethrin smells really bad in both forms. I'm told it will be odorless once it dries. I sure hope that's true.

Edit/Addendum: It's not true. >_<