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Thread: Yosemite hike update

  1. #1

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    Dec 2007
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    Yosemite hike update

    I recently ask if anyone had done the Cathedral lakes hike in Yosemite.Well I have since returned and I am proud to say I did do the Cathedral lakes hike. The hike for me was a little bit hard since I have 25-30lbs of camera gear on my back.The one thing that was unreal though were those DAMN mosquitoes. Wow when I reached the upper lake I got to a large granite shelf and thought that the mosquitoes would not bother me.WRONG!!! They were so bad I could not open up my camera bag or even set up my tripod.I took a hand held picture. I was so pissed,I walked 4 miles with a heavy camera bag only to have some mosquitoes ruin it. I have never been swarmed like that before by any animal or pest before.

  2. #2

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    Re: Yosemite hike update

    Tuolumne Meadows is the worst place I ever saw for mosquitos. It was early June and the Tioga Pass had just opened. Ground was squishy from the snow melt and the mosquitos were like a fog! Still love that part of the world though!

  3. #3

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    Re: Yosemite hike update

    I have never been swarmed by mosquitoes like that EVER. I did like that area of the park

  4. #4

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    Re: Yosemite hike update

    Try the Keene bog in Stillwater ME in June. The clouds of mosquitos and black flies are so thick around your head they alter the spot meter readings and get trapped inside the camera bellows where they leave tracks on the film during long exposures. On second thought, don't try the ME bogs in June unless you have a headnet and gloves or are saturated with DEET.

    Nate Potter. Austin TX.

  5. #5
    Vaughn's Avatar
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    Re: Yosemite hike update

    Not a single mosquito when I went -- but then it was all snow. My other trips into the Sierra high country tended to be much later in the summer.

    Sorry your hike was so bug-infested. I just got back from Lava Beds Nat Monument in NE CA. A few mosquitoes, but only a few -- no open water in that country. I might head into the darkroom tonight and develop the 8x10's (not many) from that trip. The trip was mostly to explore the lava tubes with my boys -- not a place for LF, but I did take 3 or 4 different images. Since it was the middle of the week, we had most of the tubes to ourselves and there were empty campsites. Temperatures were getting into the mid-80's, but as low as 33F in the some of the lava tubes. Came home to rain -- good old Humboldt County!

    Vaughn

  6. #6
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Yosemite hike update

    They're more appropriately called wildlife, not mosquitos, and are a legitimate part of the
    ecosystem, just as you an inherent component of the food chain! In my catalog there
    are two sane parts of Sierra summers - pre-mosquito and post-mosquito. If you want the
    most wildflowers and most solitude, choose the time inbetween.

  7. #7
    ROL's Avatar
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    Re: Yosemite hike update

    Quote Originally Posted by ignatiusjk View Post
    The one thing that was unreal though were those DAMN mosquitoes. Wow when I reached the upper lake I got to a large granite shelf and thought that the mosquitoes would not bother me.WRONG!!! They were so bad I could not open up my camera bag or even set up my tripod.I took a hand held picture. I was so pissed,I walked 4 miles with a heavy camera bag only to have some mosquitoes ruin it. I have never been swarmed like that before by any animal or pest before.
    Whiner. You obviously didn't go out last year – EPIC. I have negatives from 2002 at Lake Ediza with skeeter legs dangling into the margins. The Sierra is so dry right now it looks lake late August – September in a normal snow year. Try returning after the middle of July, when I'm fairly certain they will no longer be a problem. FWIW, they were only (?!?) a problem in the evening and morning (best shooting) south of Mt. Whitney, Army Pass to Miter Basin, last week(end).

    Sky Blue Lake (11,600') 6/22/12

  8. #8

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    Re: Yosemite hike update

    I've only been in mosquitoes like that once, on a whitewater rafting trip on the Colorado river. As soon as you pulled ashore, swarms were all over you. Bug spray didn't do much, and we couldn't even stand around the fire or eat our food. Everyone covered our arms and head with T-shirts and ran for the tents. I think sometimes there is a "hatch" or something and they are a problem, but other times there are none. By the way, in the desert everything bites, stings, or is poisonous. But thankfully there are usually no mosquitoes, I never even carry spray when I'm hiking in the desert. Mountains and streams, yes.

  9. #9
    ROL's Avatar
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    Re: Yosemite hike update

    Quote Originally Posted by goamules View Post
    I've only been in mosquitoes like that once, on a whitewater rafting trip on the Colorado river.
    What time of year was that?

  10. #10
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Yosemite hike update

    Gosh ROL, it's been a long time since I've been to Sky Blue. I trucked my Sinar over the
    top there to Mitre Basin, then clear up the Kern headwaters. My nephew was along, complaining all the time about how heavy his pack was scrambling over those 13000 ft sections. When we got to Wright Lks he was digging into the bottom of his pack and
    found the Duraflame log I had put in there, and wasn't amused. That night I arrived back in camp long after dark, having carried the Sinar up one of those surrounding peaks, and
    tried to climb in my sleeping bag. It was full of pitchy pine cones.

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