Hike 17: McKee Beshers Wildlife Management Area

I should have known when I read the description of this hike to stay away...this is the kind of hike where my mom thinks I will get mauled by bears or something.  The book first describes the hike as former farmland managed as habitat for game species and other wildlife - cool, right?  I like deer and looking at wildlife.  How bad can farmland be?  Then the warnings start..."Follow my directions carefully because the WMA segments are unblazed and unsignposted."  Great.  I get lost easily enough as it is!  "The WMA is seasonally poular with both vicious insects and hunters."  Hm...  "Beware of periodic field trials when hunters are allowed to shoot birds for their dogs to retrieve."  Double hm...

Well, I'll try it anyway - it's right off River Road, easy to find.  I find a parking spot off River Road, but I don't see any trails and the path is blocked off by a yellow gate.  Not sure if I'm just supposed to just walk around it, so I keep driving onto an inner road along the trail.  This road is completely unpaved and very bumpy in a car...no big deal, if I'm walking it won't be bumpy.  Then it starts to get sketchy.  First of all, there is NO ONE around.  Second, there are signs on every other tree that say "Beware of active hunters."  Third, there's no path and the area right off the road is completely overgrown and flooded.  And this was the clincher...bugs were hitting my car as I drove past, but I wasn't real worried cuz I had bug spray and they might have been dragonflies, which are harmless.  Nope, not dragonflies.  GIGANTIC BEES.  And that was the fat lady singing on this hike!  Can you imagine?  I'd have been lying in the middle of the road, shot by a hunter or dying from hundreds of bee stings.  Sheesh.