Tiny Talk with Mike Downing

You’ve spent time in Alaska, thru-hiked the Appalachian trail, and now live in rural Maine (not far from the end of the AT). What’s the most inhospitable place you found yourself? Like, questioning life choices rough. Although we are most of the way through July, you initially sent me these questions on May 14th. If that wasn’t the exact day, it was pretty close to when the black flies started hatching in Northern Maine. I have lived my entire life in Maine, and would camp every summer up here in Baxter State Park (almost always late summer, probably for this exact reason). I thought I knew what black fly season was. Yeah, they’re annoying. And yeah, it doesn’t seem like any insect repellent works on them. But they’re not THAT bad. People just like to complain, or so I thought. I had never spent late spring and early summer deep in the woods of Northern Maine. My first official black fly season was in 2014 when I worked for the Appalachian Mountain Club outside of Greenville, ME. And…