High Sierra Topix

June 6 - Matlock Lake from Onion Valley 0 or .5

We saw a couple of little bugs but no bites.

South Fork of the Kaweah - Garfield Grove

Day hiked this today. This morning the skeeters mobbed us at the trailhead. As we climbed from 3600 feet to 4600 and on to 5000-6000, the skeeters quickly diminished, but the Gnats of Insanity That Laugh At DEET swarmed everywhere greenery grew, and there was plenty of green above 4000. They get worse in the afternoon. When they land, if you are sweating (it was nearly 80F in the afternoon) they get stuck on your skin. I had to keep spitting them out. A headnet would have made it twice as hot. Back at the trailhead, there were no mosquitos at 2 pm. I swatted one lone skeeter at Snowslide Camp eating lunch.

My inaugural post. Wife and I day hiked several areas in or near Yosemite between May 29-June 2.

May 29- Ostrander Lake round trip from Glacier Point parking lot. Zeros mosquitoes, a handful of gnats, a load of ladybugs.
May 31- Nelder Grove, around campground and bushwacking off trail into several forest areas. Maybe 2 mosquitoes the full day. Again a TON of ladybugs.
June 2- Mariposa Grove, to upper grove then out and back to Biledo Meadow. Zero mosquitoes, few of any other bugs.

Short trip up Bishop Pass to Dusy Basin.

6/2 Willow Campground: 1, no mosquitos

6/3 Spearhead lake: 1, no mosquitos

6/4- 6/7 Dusy Basin: 1, some mosquitos not biting yet

Sabrina Basin 6th - 8th between 1 and 2.

Desolation
June 6, Bayview to Velma Lks , none until Velma- then 1 at Velma.
June 7, Velma to Rubicon to 4Q Lks to Leland Lake, 0 - light breeze otherwise likely would have been 1
June 8, Schimdell Lk-Doris Lake, upper Rubicon-Clyde Lk- 1-2 only down on Rubicon at river crossings, 0 at Clyde
June 9, Aloha (2), Suzie, Half Moon, Dicks, out to Bayview - 0-1.

Hatched baby mosquitoes, very small, few biting, but tend to swarm your face. A light breeze easily mitigates any problems.

Only real problem was crossing the Rubicon (4 crossings that require wading) which are located in meadows and little breeze due to surrounding deep forests. Several to a dozen would land on your bare feet, but did not bite; swarmed face.

Other than the Bayview trail which was very dry, snowmelt is at peak and trails are very soggy, yet streamflows are low for this time of year. Lots of snowmelt puddles. The hatch seems to be just started. Only will get worse. Night temperatures very warm.

6/2 -6/4 at Cottonwood Lakes: 0, No repellent used and no bites.

Hi Jmiller72,

Welcome to HST! Thank you for contributing that report! Hope to read your TR soon.
When you get the time, please write up an intro: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=9329

Interesting - at Tuolumne BP 5 days ago, no mosquitoes seen - slept out cowboy style, (until it hailed later).

Next day, hiked up to Voglesang - the plan was one night each at Hanging Basket, Upper Townsley, and Evelyn ...BTW, Ice out must have just happened in the last few days above 10,000 - hungry fish...
Discovered that the damn mosquitoes Upper Rafferty area/Fletcher are now out in droves - a solid 5...rained every day around sunset, more hail storms too...not one other person seen up high until today, when coming back down, when getting closer to the Meadows. The reason I had to come down was that my stove (MSR Windpro) gave up the ghost last night - tried to buy another at the TM Gear Store, but bleak news on the re-stocking up there - see below.

Next plan is to try backside Saddlebag area after 2 days of art classes in the Valley starting Monday.

BTW, there is a new Yosemite FREE bus this year, route goes Valley (Curry, Wilderness Center, Lodge) - to Tuolumne...Except in TM, it only goes as far as the Wilderness Center - just 1 1/2 miles short of the TM store. (Why not all the way to the store? Who knows.) The small local Free Hiker bus handles the rest of the journey. Took the 1:30 PM bus from in front of Valley Wilderness Center - there are three free buses running daily schedules in addition to the $ morning YARTS...right now YARTS only runs weekends till July when it resumes the usual daily routes.
Expect road delays daily on 120, except weekends (30 min) around White Wolf (all buses still stop there, even though the HSC is seasonally closed), the delays for road re-surfacing on 120, but the free bus ride still got to TM around 4:00 PM. FYI, Currently, the TM store opens 9:00 - 5:00 PM...hours will extend a few hours longer, starting next month.
One other note, the TM Chevron is closing down (small Gear store there closing too - a parking lot proposed) after this, its last year open...all due to the implementation of Tuolumne River plan.

4 day trip to Humphreys Basin.
June 8 - Loch Leven - 1
June 9 - Upper Golden Trout Lake - range of 0-2 (depending on wind/rain)
June 10 - Piute Lake - 0 (windy/rainy)
June 11 - hike out - 1