Your Mosquito's From Hell Trip

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oldranger
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Re: Your Mosquito's From Hell Trip

Post by oldranger »

Crosscountry,

That isn't upper Mattie! Upper Mattie is much smaller and more wooded.

Mike
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kpeter
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Re: Your Mosquito's From Hell Trip

Post by kpeter »

I have previously posted on my two worst mosquito trips.

The worst in the Sierra was the second week in July at Blue Lake, 2009. Stupidly, I picked the wrong week to try to introduce my two children to backpacking, and they spent almost the whole time cowering in the tent. The worst of it was that the mosquitoes never let up. Hiding out in the tent for an evening is one thing, but when they follow you down the trail, landing and biting as you move--in full sunlight at mid day--then the fun can go out of the trip.

My worst trip ever was in the St. Joe wilderness in Idaho in 1974--and it made Blue lake look like nothing worse that purgatory compared with the 9th circle of hell. The St. Joe is lush, green, swampy, and low enough in elevation (under 6000 feet) to support a lot of game, which in turn supports a lot of mosquitoes. As we dropped into one lake basin (Bacon Lake) we saw a grey mist rising above the lake. But as we got closer, we realized to our horror that it was not water vapor but clouds of insects reflecting in the sunlight.

Soon we had voluminous, billowing swarms of them pursuing us down the trail. They got in our eyes, flew up our noses, flew in our mouths, and would land and bite as we moved. We had no nets but did have deet. Deet helped us avoid some of the bites but did nothing to ease the kamikaze mosquitoes or lessen the increasing irritation that began to turn into an irrational panic. At one point we began jogging (with our packs on) in the hope that moving faster would somehow allow us to leave the mosquitoes behind. But of course it just meant we were moving more quickly into new populations of skeeters.

When we set up camp we got in our tents as soon as we could, and spent hours killing the bugs that came in with us. The doorway netting turned so black that we could not see through it. If I moved my hand near to the netting, thousands of little mosquito probosci (proboscuses?) would forlornly poke through in the direction of my warmth. In fact, I could "pet" their probosci by moving my finger along very near the net. Looking out the side windows I could just see that my formerly white guylines had turned black with roosting mosquitoes.

By the time we got out of the basin, my eyes were partially swollen from the bites, and people probably thought I had been attacked by some kind of disfiguring skin disease.

I will say this about that trip--we eventually found the best huckleberry patch ever, and picked more than a quart of those intense blueberry relatives, baked hot bisquick biscuits over a fire, and had ourselves fresh huckleberry shortcake. By that part of the trip the mosquitoes were tolerable, and the desert was exquisite.
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fourputt
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Re: Your Mosquito's From Hell Trip

Post by fourputt »

Met a young Russian emigre couple at Hetch Hetchy once who were heading out and wanted to know about conditions. I said the bugs were pretty bad and advised headnets. They had neither nets nor DEET. They were originally from Siberia and said wimpy Sierra mosquitos didn't bother them.
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Troutdog 59
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Re: Your Mosquito's From Hell Trip

Post by Troutdog 59 »

Being a backpacking fisherman (as compared to a fishing backpacker) I have gone in "early" numerous times trying to get at hungry fish right after ice out. While I've been through hoards of mosquitos numerous times (You know, the trips where you eat more than you swat off your arm. The trips where they just swarm up out of the rocks in clouds and you just cant help but suck them in), two trips really stick out. Both in the 70's and both with an old girl friend who hated bugs (hmmmn, wonder why things didnt work out???? ;) ).

In 1978 (right after the drought), we headed up bear Creek in mid June. Only made it to a bit above Twin Falls and got turned back by snow. Camped at twin falls and the buggers were thick. We had headnets and good old Cutter with us, but without them it would have been hell (well at least in my estimation, in hers she was already there). We had palnned a 4 day trip, but as it turned out, she was really sensitive to such bites and was already a "tad puffy" :nod:" by day 1. After giving it a go while fishing, she then retired to the tent and only came out for lifes necessities. We hiked out the next day :confused: :wink:

The next year (79), I talked her into coming with me to the Ruby Mtns in NE Nevada. I had been there in late August of 76 and had seen nary a bug and told her bugs shouldnt be an issue :retard: . July of 79 was a tad wetter than 76 I guess and I will admit, to this day I have never encountered the masses of winged demons including hoards of Deer Flies. We hiked over Liberty pass to Liberty Lake. We were fine as we hiked as there was a breeze and Cutter kept them off of us just fine. However the lake was protected from the wind and from the time we set up camp until dusk, the mosquitoes and deer flies just seemed to increase in numbers until there were simply clouds of them. She got bit by a deer fly about 5 minutes after our arrival. She got in the tent after that and came out only as a necessity. I fished with long sleeves and a head net, but the Cutter didnt really deter the Deer Flies so I retreated to the tent after about an hour and a half of fishing. Again, we had planned a few days, but retreated after one night. She came out of the tent 3 times after I set it up. Twice for natures call and once to leave.

In all fairness, I should note that the young lady did numerous challenging hikes with me after that, but she never again went in before mid August.
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Re: Your Mosquito's From Hell Trip

Post by SSSdave »

balzaccom >>>"...And last year, Nelson and Reymann lakes in Yosemite were unbelievable"

Yeah the Lyle Fork areas and Cathedral Range can be rather bad as lots of wet meadows and level granite slabs where snowmelt pools.

I'm surprised none of you have mentioned Emigrant Wilderness or northwest Yosemite because that is where there is more standing water many years than anywhere else due to the excessively heavy granitoid glaciation. During worst glacial periods that region had large deep icecaps at crest areas that ground granite areas so dramatically in the Cherry Creek basin. Consider all the small ponds in this topo link about Letora Lake. What it does not show is for every pond on the map are several more smaller ones during mid June to mid July during peak squeet season.

http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=38.13557,-119.72699&z=15&t=T" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

My worst experiences have been there in Emigrant Basin early 70s and a group trip we did in 1978 into Falls Creek. There is one mosquito phenomenon I use to separate the level of mosquitoes in an area and that is swirling mosquito clouds. Such swirling whining clouds are common in interior Alaska and northern Canada where there are vast numbers of lakes and swamps. The clouds mainly occur late afternoon unless breezes are strong. On these two trips in peak mosquito season there were swirling clouds during all times of day. In fact wherever one walks about there is a low level high pitch whine in an othewise quiet landscape. I was a twentysomething backpacker and had not figured out how to deal with them beyond bringing DEET. However the fishing in those areas was also some of the best in the Sierra. Those were the days before I got serious about photography, as my main activity was tossing out dry flies fishing. Thus I quickly figured out a number of ways to reduce issues with mosquitoes.

Additionally for my photography it is more towards the end of peak mosquito season when greenery and wildflowers peak while snow still graces the higher peaks that I have tended to orient my trips during. Thus have continued to hone how to keep their nuisance level low. In any case once they get to the swirling clouds level, it is a bit too much because they will not only get in front of one's lens when taking pics but with a view camera, anytime I remove a lens or the groundglass, some may get inside. Having a bug inside in the optical path can make unuable every sheet of film exposed especially if the squeet has set down on the film or lens.
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rlown
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Re: Your Mosquito's From Hell Trip

Post by rlown »

Cross Country wrote:Speaking of Upper Mattie -- and yes that's me catching some nice fish out of there.
CC, that is not upper Mattie.. your lake in the picture is too big and upper M is much, much smaller and in a small deep valley.

This is, err, was Upper Mattie:
HPIM1538.JPG
And what used to be there. Credit to Steve for the fish..
IM000382.JPG
and SSSDave, Emigrant in '83 August was my worst skeeter experience ever.. It was hot and they were huge and we decided to sleep "under the stars".. both our foreheads looked like a skeeter landing zone the next morning. We had a tent, but we didn't use it.. Too tired to set it up at that point. A really bad mistake.

Russ
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sparky
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Re: Your Mosquito's From Hell Trip

Post by sparky »

I experienced mosquito swarms in Washington in I think 1998? or 1999? that seemed as bad as the Sierra. You know....once it gets to a certain point its hard to say what is the worst ever. Multiple times I have ran for miles caught in swarms without my headnet.

Merced canyon june 2010 was the worst I can remember in recent years. But with a headnet and deet it just is what it is.....it doesnt put me in a foul mood.

If I had a tarp or bivy they might be able to foul my mood lol but with an enclosed tent...no worries!
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maverick
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Re: Your Mosquito's From Hell Trip

Post by maverick »

Back in the late 80's while in route to Arrow Lakes Basin via Paradise Valley and
encountering heavy thunderstorms which had my hunker down in Upper Paradise
the vampires were pretty bad, but nothing could prepare me for what was going
to happen later on in ALB.
While heading up into the basin the swarms got progressively worse.
In the basin later on in the day I saw that there was 2 other parties in ALB, but all
4 people were inside there tents with no intentions of coming out.
Both parties were pretty new to backpacking and did not have the necessary
clothing or chemicals to combat these viscous insects. With there experience levels
I was surprise they had chosen to come visit such an isolated area, but a friend of
theirs had raved about AHB, but the things is that there friend had also recommended
September to them, not June!
Later on in the evening after spending all afternoon in the tents nature called, and
two of the guys came out running towards the trees, about 2 min's later I saw one of
them running from behind the trees literally smearing mosquito's onto his whole
arm (short sleeve shirts) so one could barely see the skin on his arm from the smashed
mosquito's, and the other guy following a few seconds later doing the same thing
except this time there was a lot of blood mixed in with the smeared mosquito's.
I have never witness anything like this before or since, and hopefully never will.
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Have a safer backcountry experience by using the HST ReConn Form 2.0, named after Larry Conn, a HST member: http://reconn.org
Cross Country
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Re: Your Mosquito's From Hell Trip

Post by Cross Country »

I've got a pic of me fishing upper Mattie. I've been informed the pic I submited is not it. Oh well. I'll try to find the one of upper Mattie.
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Re: Your Mosquito's From Hell Trip

Post by lambertiana »

I have had a number of experiences with really thick mosquitoes in the Sierras, but the worst was probably on Bear Creek near Hilgard Creek in July 2004. We were base camping there with some scouts, and the mosquitoes were relentless all day long. I would spray 100% DEET on my arm and they would land on it immediately afterward.

The worst I have ever seen was on a canoeing trip in the Adirondacks in NY back in the '70s. One particularly bad stretch was on the meandering creek through the swampy area between Brown's Tract Ponds and Raquette Lake.
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