High Sierra Topix

When you get back from the hills, post the skeeter report here. Then people going to those same spots in the future can plan accordingly(not that the conditions will remain static).

Last night at Courtright, minor problem at the trailhead east of the dam. About 10PM the temperature dropped and a breeze came up and they went away.

Today, at the Cliff lake trailhead, minor in morning but a little nastier at Cliff lake. Still a bit of snow in the area.

I didn't get any bites but some poor girl I saw at Cliff Lake looked like she had measles and she had only been up there one night. She said the skeeters had attacked her even though she had applied a coating of 100% deet.

I put a spray or two of 100% on my legs and arms in the morning and that was it.

Mosquitos weren't bad at Buck Island Reservoir (Lake Tahoe area) elev. 6100'. Saturday night I had to slap quite a few so reading a book was tough. Around Rubicon Springs they were pretty bad Friday night going in on foot on the Rubicon Trail. Luckily a 4X4er left his can of Deep Woods Off on a boulder for me to spray my bod with and leave for the next poor soul. Coming out this morning, it wasn't nice, but I did without. So from 6100' to 7000' that I know of they are out in the Lake Tahoe area. The rocks were tougher on me. I used my mountain bike on part of the trip and I crashed this morning before I could dismount and now I have a very sore right thigh that feels like it got a charlie horse which it did, on a rock.

Hope your thigh is feeling better. Did you fish Buck Island? If so, was the fishing for the big browns and rainbows good as it usually is?

Bah! Humbug! I've never done any good there. Of course the first couple times I was there in the 70's, I camped on the west side which is shallow if I remember right. I was there on my first trip in the mid 70's doing a loop out of Eagle Falls or Bayview over to Loon Lake and by Lake#5. I saw one guy catch a small fish. I tried over by the ROARING inlet and on my first cast with a Super Duper I hooked someones old line, end of lure that I have packed for years. The word I heard there was the guy in a raft was fishing off the bottom, nightcrawler I think and he was the only one who caught anything. I tried an old black jig I have packed for years also and nothing with it. I was waiting for the wind to die down Saturday night so I could use a fly, by the time it calmed down nothing was rising, so I brushed my teeth and went to bed.

No, my leg is still stiff. If I move around it is better. Thanks.

hikerduane wrote:Bah! Humbug! I've never done any good there. Of course the first couple times I was there in the 70's, I camped on the west side which is shallow if I remember right.

We, as you and most non-jeepers do, camp on the west side. The fish in Buck Island have tended to hit in fairly shallow water (three visits, Oct. 1994, early June 1996, beginning of August, 1998). For us, this means lures fished along the bottom in shallow to medium depth water. There isn't much in terms of deep drop offs anywhere in the lake. It really isn't that attractive a place, especially in the fall when the browns are most active and the muddy bathtub ring is really prominent, but we always went for the fishing in spite the comparative lack of scenery.

Pretty thick in the Whitney area. The portal was inundated as was the North Fork up to about the slabs below Upper Boyscout. (I actually slapped a few on top of Thor on Thursday.) The water, the heat and the hikers will keep the cycle going for at least another month. (There were almost none three weeks ago.) I'll update the status on the Main Trail next week...pray for a cold snap.

Backpacked up to Red Mountain Basin in the John Muir Wilderness this last weekend (July 1-3). Encountered mosquitos just past the Maxson Meadow trailhead, but they thinned out until Long Meadow, where they became horrendous up until the climb away from Post Corral Creek. Above about 9000ft they were nearly non-existent so far, but the amount of standing water up there from the melting snow suggests they aren't too far away from emerging in clouds.

A friend and I July 2>3 backpacked crosscountry to a remote plateau with gnarly bristlecone pines just below 12k in the White Mountains. Snowfields were here and there along the road especially above the Patriarch Grove road junction. Each night a few mosquitoes would venture by so that we had to hide under netting as we were bivying without tents. Otherwise hardly any buzzed us during the day even though only minor breezes developed.

July 3 and 4 we hiked up McGee Creek from the roadend to the canyon flowery bend below Mount Baldwin. That is a very lush green area with lots of seeps coming down from the nearby slopes. There were a few mosquitoes about each time we got near the seep areas but they were not too aggressive. I wore my t-shirt the hours each day we spent there and had only 3 bites over that whole period without using any repellant.
...David

We just returned from Copper Creek, Grouse Lake, Granite Basin, and stayed an extra nite on the 4th @ the lodge in Kings Canyon. G' Basin, hardly none, Grouse Lake zippo..too cool, probably, 10.4k, too. Kings Canyon in the evening after a small thunder storm, priceless...unless u r outside w/no sqeeter protection, then u r the first and last in a multi course meal, but then again, 4.8K feet in July what would one expect.
My wife had only a few bites on legs after 4 days, w/no bug lotion, I had none, but they never did like my blood, and I never show bug bites either. Did swat a few, but nothing like in previous years or other areas.

We did a 4-day trek this weekend in the Golden Trout Wilderness from Horseshoe Meadow over Trail Pass to Golden Trout Creek and back (via Mulkey/Tunnel Meadows). The skeeters in Tunnel/Golden Trout Creek area were pretty bad, especially near the water and at those "special times" (dusk, dawn). Not worst ever, but pretty bad. Mulkey Meadow was relatively skeeter-light for some unknown reason.