High Sierra Topix

Rock Creek 9300 ft. - June 10th weekend. Very few mosquitoes in the shade in the evenings (1) none during the day. Hiked to 10,500 with considerable snow but no skeeters at all.

First mosquitoes of the season for me: a few in the forested areas from Horseshoe Meadow to about 10,500. Monday and today (a.m.) were warm, so they will probably explode soon. Nothing above 10,500 but snow.

quentinc wrote:First mosquitoes of the season for me: a few in the forested areas from Horseshoe Meadow to about 10,500. Monday and today (a.m.) were warm, so they will probably explode soon. Nothing above 10,500 but snow.

How was the snow ? Thick and icy ? soft ?

Night of June 10 along Mather Road (lots of spur roads for dispersed camping) at about 4k, squeets did not waste time zeroing in on me after I parked. Not alot but enough that after opening my doors about 10 minutes with lights off to move gear around, there were a half dozen inside I later had to squash. Ditto next morning at dawn before leaving. Rest of the morning in the Cherry Creek basin at 2k to 5.5k a day of high clouds and little breeze had very few visit. Most of the time was in a t-shirt. Then in the afternoon was in Yosemite about Foresta at 5k and saw none.

Finally at dusk drove out of the park down SR140 and stopped at Briceberg at 1400 feet one of my favorite spots for a stealthy day ending dip. Bear Creek from the Midpines area confluences under the bridge. There is a daytime rec spot at the BLM information station there, (often a rafting take out) but it is always empty late in the day. The water in Bear Creek is always less chilly than the main Merced and measured a cool 58F degrees which is much like summertime ocean temps down at our Santa Cruz beach. The area directly under the bridge is great because it is smooth bedrock, just knee deep, is hidden and cannot be seen from the highway or the rec area parking lot. I really needed it as all day I had been rolling all over the ground working wildflower closeups including several hundred feet of sweaty climbing. Well despite my sweetly ripe smell, not a single mosquito visited so I was able to air dry in peace as vehicles frequently passed over above unseen. Oh I did almost step on a small California king snake walking down the bank.

David

Thursday= (level 1) on Evergreen Road, Yosemite- 9PM
Fri-Sun= (level 1) North Rim traverse- Yosemite Valley up Snow Creek, down Yosemite Falls. Only a few at stream crossings. None on dry sandy ridges. A few more in the Valley at Sentinal beach. Windy conditions AM and mild breeze PM may have helped.

Hmmm, here goes...

This past Friday night (late), Evergreen Road, Yosemite ... a skeeter or two but hardly anything
Saturday during the day ... Tioga Rd, various spots ... none whatsoever
Saturday, mid day thru nightfall, eastern Sierra between Mono Lake & Grant Lake, elevations from ~6500 to ~8500 ft ... zero
Sunday, mid day thru mid afternoon, June Lake Loop, none at Grant Lake, moderate at Silver Lake & June Lake ... small clouds of them as I opened the vehicle door.
Late Sunday and into the evening ... Mono Lake, Virginia Lakes (TH), and up thru Sonora Pass ... none at all.

Sorry, I saw the post about people posting skeeter reports and no TRs ... but this was an overnight trip but just day-trip activities during the day, no backpacking, not the stuff HST TRs are made of. But I figured the skeeter reports might be helpful anyway ...

Oh be assured, the skeeters are going to come in full force now that the weather is heating up. When the shooting stars are in full bloom, those buggers will bloom too.

I am literally covered with skeeter bites. They bit through my shirt and head rag. I have many bites on the top of my head. I forgot to take my bug dope so I was totally at their mercey. I was in Yosemite fly fishing and the lady bug hatch is swarming during mid-day and the skeeters only bit me at dusk, but boy did they ever chow. This was a small fishable stream at about the 5K elevation.

June 22-23 Kibbie Lake: Mosquitoes a 1.

There were a few, but none bit.

kpeter wrote:June 22-23 Kibbie Lake: Mosquitoes a 1. There were a few, but none bit.

Hey, I think I met you on the trail with my novice backpacker bud! I was up to 7000 feet at Kibbie Ridge and at Kibbie Lake just before Kpeter, and yeah, really no mosquitoes to speak of. My bud (who just hates and attracts mosquitoes like a magnet) got two bites or so, but me: nothing. Just a few snow mosquitoes. All that should change soon. It was hot out there. Wasn't it Kpeter?