High Sierra Topix

At the Wrights Lake trailhead at 8AM, the mosquitoes were pretty voracious. Once we got to the exposed granite areas about a mile or two from the trailhead the wind kept the skeeters grounded. They were also around in the afternoon when we returned to our vehicles at 5PM, but much less prevalent.

0 at the Cottonwood Lakes Trailhead Campground on Friday
0 on the trail until the Muir Lake turnoff, where it became 1/2
0/1 at Muir Lake on Sunday (I was only there during the day - there were a ton of dragonflies though!)
2 at Lake Three, heavier by the lake, but much lighter at our camp a couple hundred feet farther from the lake.
4 at Lakes Four and Five on Sunday

I was pleasantly surprised, as I was prepared for levels 4/5 everywhere!

0 at Sunrise trailhead
2 along flats and switchbacks to the lake
3-4 depending on what section of Sunrise Lake One (wether it be meadow or granite)
2 about halfway between lake 1 and 2, where we camped
5 at Sunrise Lake Three without any wind, 4 with it. "Mosquito Bomb" is the closest way to describe it. I struggled to see out of my net,
and every time I bent down to pick up a fish, I'd get immediate painful bites on my exposed back.
4 at long meadow above high Sierra camp
1-2 along Cathedral Pass
3 at Upper Cathedral Lake after sunset, 2-4 during the day depending on wind
0-2 descending the climber's trail down to the Tenaya creek basin

With headsets, ample DEET, and two mosquito nets, I still netted between 75 and 150 bites.

PS: I counted and I have 121 bites on my left leg alone! The right is identical, and I am bit up elsewhere too.

Mosquitoes weren't too bad for me, worse at lower elevations.

2 at Tamarack Lake

I have a feeling around 7000 ft that they're more like a 3 currently.

Agnew Meadows: 3.5
Olaine Lake: 3
Shadow Lake: 2
Ediza Lake: 2
Iceberg Lake: 0
Garnet Lake: 1.5
Ruby Lake: 1
Thousand Island Lake: 1
Badger Lakes: 2.5
High Trail: 2 at creeks/wetlands, otherwise minimal

East of Cottonwood Pass 1-2
West of Cottonwood Pass trail 1
Lower Soldier Lake/Lower Miter Basin 3-4
Upper Miter Basin 0-1

Young Lakes Trail Loop - Yosemite
Weekend of 7/29 - 7/30

lower Young Lake - 4.9 (we did get a little break from them in the AM before the sun hit)

Tried camping a 1/4 mile from the lake, but they still found us.
Otherwise, on trail and moving was more of a 3

Elevations 6000 to 7600 feet. Trails and forest areas dry. Meadows still wet.
0 - hiking during the day. A breeze helped
2 - Around subset they came out and started biting when camped by lakes, even though up on open granite. Got a few bites.
1 - Early morning at these same camps. A few buzzed you but I don’t think I got any bites.

High Trail- 2/3 many bp wearing head nets
1000 Island 2
River Trail 3

Tamarack Lake - 3-4: On the hike in from Echo Lake trail head we got bit in the forested areas quite a bit if we stopped walking at all. Once at Tamarck Lake it was evening and they were flying and hitting me in the face I could not even set up my tent without a bunch (5-10) landing on me and just unzipping to get in my tent like 5 would get in, even after dark. I can deal with like a 2 but these were relentless I got bit on my nether regions when I went out to pee after dark. We decided to end out trip early because it was not pleasant at all. In the morning If we sat in a full sun, un-forested area in full sleeves and pants they were more moderate and bearable after like 7am maybe. We left around 8:30am and they seemed less swarmy at that time in the sun.

Aloha Lake - 2-3: We decided to end our trip early because of the mosquitos but did a day hike up to Aloha lake to not make the trip not a total loss. I'd say they very light/non-existent in the sunny parts, tho I did get bit once in the forested area even while continuously moving. Once at Aloha we sat near the lake in the sun with a breeze and I swatted maybe one during the hour we were there. We asked around if they were bad up there as well and others seemed to think there were pockets where they could get pretty bad up there too, but we didn't stay around to find out what the evening/night would be like. We hiked out, exiting around 5, and they still seemed fairly prevalent in some of the forested areas even tho it was quite warm.