early season snow/mosquito timing

[frozenintime]

is there ever a magical week sometime in may or june when 6k-9k feet (emigrant, desolation, NW yosemite, etc) is melted out enough to hike without additional traction devices but BEFORE the mosquito apocalypse?

of course the timing of such a thing would be totally dependent on that year's snow pack and how hot or cold it was in the interim. but i'm curious if this brief window tends to exist and, if so, how one goes about predicting it.

i know these west side areas tend to be especially wet and have especially intense mosquito apocalypses. but a boy can dream.

[maverick]

June 1st, between 1:50:25 pm and 1:50:35 pm, small window.

[rlown]

June 1st, between 1:50:25 pm and 1:50:35 pm, small window.

I think June 2nd, from 2:30:45 to 2:31:00 is more appropriate.

Wait until the last week/day and look at the CDEC gauges (if any in the area) to tell you what to do. Which trailheads are you considering?
I don't think Emigrant is that hard to get into and the snow melt varies depending on the micro climate.

[frozenintime]

cool, i'll get my 6/1 permit (or is it 6/2?)...

i'm not considering a specific trailhead or trip -- yet. if i were, it'd probably be at usual suspects: crabtree or gianelli in emigrant, bay view or echo lake at tahoe... but i'm totally open to other thoughts based on variables of local terrain that i'm not taking into account.

really i'm just trying to get a sense if there is generally a point in lower lying areas where trail is mostly dry, but mosquitos haven't gone insane yet. perhaps that's far too broad a question.

[rlown]

I'd check with the ranger station before logging the permit. Sometimes, Gianelli and Crabtree can be snowed in beyond what you think.

[Wandering Daisy]

If it freezes solidly at night, there are not likely to be many mosquitoes. Also, windy places are best. I am thinking of wide open spaces downwind from a big Lake, like Lake Alhoah or along the shores of Emigrant Lake. Stay away from very wet meadows. Stay on the dry sides of drainages. Check the weather forecast and aim for very windy days.

I would rather go earlier and put up with the snow. I have rarely had mosquito problems in the first half of June.

[kpeter]

My experience in Emigrant in June is to go as early as it is possible to get across the streams, then climb in elevation until you get to snowline and camp close to snow line. You WILL have to hike through clouds of mosquitoes at lower elevations but it is possible to get above them by getting to an elevation band in which they have not hatched. It takes about 10 days after the snow melts for the mosquito larvae to hatch, fly, and get hungry, and so you want to camp in a zone which has melted out within 10 days.

The best way to control this is to hike uphill with a flexible plan. Keep going higher until you find a mosquito free zone to camp in. But don't expect you can avoid mosquitoes entirely in June.

Here is an example. In 2013 I started hiking in Emigrant from Crabtree Meadows trailhead on May 31. I took the high route via Camp Lake (7600), Piute Lake (7880), Gem Lake (8240), and finally to Deer Lake (8465). The trailhead had quite a few mosquitoes, and coming into Piute lake there was a mosquito storm of epic proportions. Bug net, deet, and try-to-stay-calm-and-not-turn-around proportions. Then I reached a certainly elevation past Piute Lake and they just vanished. There were snowbanks all along the south shore (north facing) of Deer lake, and there was not a mosquito to be seen.

After two days at Deer Lake the mosquitoes were beginning to come out there. But when I day hiked up to Long Lake (8704) there were no mosquitoes. If I had wanted to say, I could just have kept moving camp higher. Of course, there comes a certain point in June when there is no where higher to go, and the mosquitoes are present at ALL elevations bands. Then you might want to wait until August.

[frozenintime]

thanks WD and kpeter. good ideas in both.

i found the (amazing) CDEC map (http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecstation2/), which will be a proper way to waste some time as well.

[balzaccom]

Kpeter has it right. We've done a couple if different trips in different years, and used the same tactic. If swarmed by bugs, head uphill until it's too cold for them. And yes, a windy ridge is better than a meadow, or lake, or creek, or...

[SSSdave]

Below freezing temperatures seem to kill snow mosquitoes during spring. A respite from lots of mosquitoes may occur if warm spells during late spring are followed by an unseasonably cold storm that are less common but do happen. During such warm weather mosquitoes will move up to the abundant water draining onto landscapes at the snow line. For instance last year went on this trip just after a storm with snow down to about 6k elevation that was when the snow line was about 7k. Killed all of them above 6k so enjoyed a week with no mosquitoes. At the end of the trip they only appeared as I dropped below 6k.

http://www.davidsenesac.com/2017_Trip_C ... 17-12.html