High Sierra Topix

Aug 18 Echo Lake: 2 Skeeters bothersome at dusk but not severe.
Aug 19 Middle Sunrise Lake: 1 Skeeters present but just barely annoying.
Aug 20 Rain - no skeeters!

Awful. Level 5 up the trail to Big McGee Lake. Above Big McGee to Little McGee they dropped off significantly (partially due to wind). We met 6 dudes who were leaving after 2 days because of the severity of the mosquitoes.

Quick overnight trip to Young Lake departing 8/24 on the Dog Lake trail returning on 8/25 out of Glen Aulin return loop. Mosquitos were not as bad as expected especially reading previous posts.

Lembert Dome Trailhead - 0
Dog Lake Trail - 0-1
Lower Young Lake - 1-2 (Heard from others that more mosquitos at the middle and upper lakes)
Glen Aulin Return Trail - 0-1

Overall, not as bad as expected. Had 3 bites I think and my kids about the same. I was told by park rangers that the situation seemed to improve after the tropical storm and colder weather. Still lots of mosquitos around sunset and sunrise but not biting thankfully. We had permethrin treated clothes, DEET for exposed areas, and I even brought a thermacell portable repellant which seemed to work ok but not great. They advertised that they are "dependable lower the 7,000 ft" but it wasn't very windy so I thought it would be more effective.

Good luck to any of you backpacking in the fall! Hope this helps... Overall conditions seemed more like late June than late August.

0-2 in most areas.

South Lake trailhead (afternoon) - 1-2
Long Lake (dawn/dusk) - 2
Bishop Pass (afternoon) - 0
Upper Dusy Basin (late afternoon) - 0
Lower Dusy Basin (dawn/dusk) - 1.5
Upper Dusy Basin (dawn/dusk) - 1
Bishop Pass (late morning) - 0
Long Lake (afternoon) - 2
South Lake trailhead (afternoon) - 1.5

A lot of the conditions were btw 1 and 2. Swampy areas near Long Lake and lower Dusy Basin had swarms but were not always biting. For us, a party of 6 including 4 kids, the mosquitoes ended up being a very minor factor. At camp during dawn/dusk, the levels were between 1-2 and we generally forgot about the skeets during the day while hiking. Heading into the trip, we were concerned the mosquito levels due to the late melt this summer might force us to cut our trip short, but we were pleasantly surprised and found the mosquitoes to be quite manageable...it was the Hurricane Hilary forecast that caused us to end our trip several days early...not the mosquitoes.

We did not have any issue with mosquitoes the entire trip but they are active at Pika Lake (dawn/dusk) and at Lower Deer Lake. We applied Permethrin on our clothes/hats prior to the trip and deet on exposed skin while hiking and camping. We brought headnets but did not use them.

Duck lake - 1
Pika Lake - 1
Deer Lakes - 1 most places, 2 at lower Deer Lake

Met 2 groups of backpacker camping at Purple Lake. Both groups confirmed that mosquitoes are bad there.

I don't know if the rain from Hilary caused some new mosquito issues, but our experience in Dusy Basin was a bit worse than the 8/16-8/20 post on here. That being said, it never felt terrible, but they were fairly constantly a factor. In general, the mosquito levels were very wind dependent, and there were definitely small pockets of better or worse areas. We had sprayed permethrin on our tents, which really helped, but the permethrin on my clothes (pants and long-sleeved shirt) didn't seem to do a whole lot. I normally don't get too many bites, and I ended up with ~75 from our 3 day/2 night trip.

South Lake (late morning) - 1-2
Long Lake (mid-day) - 2
Bishop Lake (mid-day) - 1
Bishop Pass (mid-day & morning) - 0
Dusy Basin around 11,400' - 2-3 depending on wind

Not bad at all except for Buck Lake area which was pretty gnarly
Lily Lake - 1
Upper Buck - 4
Grouse Lake - 2

- Fri morning/afternoon: 3-4 from Sabrina up to Hungry Packer. Every time we stopped for a rest break they swarmed us. Worst from Dingleberry up to Sailor lake
- Fri evening: 2-3, mellowed out as it cooled down and the wind started up
- Sat: hiked from HP over to Moonlight, over to Midnight and down to Dingleberry: 1–2 except for the creek outlet to Dingleberry which was 4-5 (great fishing tho!)
- Sun: 1-2 on the hike back down to Sabrina

I had pretreated all my clothes and gear with Permethrin and it seemed to really help vs my buddy who hadn’t. Head nets were also clutch.

3-4 in most wet area morning/evening, but they are slow due to cooler weather. We killed tons of them while cooking. Windshell and bug nets kept us safe, still got a few bites through cloth here and there. I met a few backpackers retreating from lower Humphreys basin due to the bug situation... This is an extraordinary year of everything.