[pct-l] Mojitos

[CHUCK CHELIN]

Good morning, Melissa,



You can experience mosquitoes anywhere along the PCT.  They are most
prevalent in moist areas as the snowpack recedes in the Sierras, but I’ve
had to endure tons of them in mostly-dry central Oregon.



In my view, mosquitoes are not a problem: mosquitoes are an irritant. The
extent to which one is irritated is highly individual.  The irritation is
usually focused in three major areas:

*
*

*Biting* – Few of us like to be bitten.  It’s slightly painful, it results
in aggravating itches, and it’s potentially dangerous due to the remote
possibility of disease.  Bites can occur anywhere there is exposed and
unprotected skin.

*
*

*Noise* – For many hikers much of the irritation relates to the mindless and
incessant high-pitched buzzing.  I’m little troubled by the buzzing, because
I have significant high-frequency hearing loss, but many hikers let it
bother them.  I say, “let it bother them”, because it’s not difficult to
learn to just tune it out in much the same way we tune-out the “white noise”
so commonly used in stores and workplaces.  Tuning-out seems to more
difficult at night when it’s quiet, and there aren’t visual distractions to
take our minds off the obnoxious little critters.  The buzzing doesn’t cause
any real problem except the physiological effect of the resulting stress.  As
one hiker once told me, “… they chill my mellow.”

*
*

*Space Violation* – Almost as irritating as the noise is the incessant close
proximity to one’s face, and most of us don’t like anything buzzing that
close to our faces.  Elsewhere, we don’t care how close they hang as long as
they don’t bite.  In this regard those obnoxious gnats that hang endlessly
immediately in front of the face are an equal nuisance.  A practical risk of
this hovering by mosquitoes and gnats is the risk of ingesting one of one
with a breath.  Unfortunately, I’ve swallowed, and had to hork-up, hundreds
of them.  Other than being monumentally aggravating, there is risk of
bringing disease into one’s lungs.



So what’s to be done?  Someone alarmed by the biting, the noise, and the
proximity will probably be inclined to throw money and pounds at the
problem:  Big, screened tents, full-length sleeves and pant legs, a generous
head net, and lots to DEET to keep them at a distance.



I sleep under the stars, or under an unscreened tarp.  If the mosquitoes are
bad at night I sleep wearing my headnet – at least till 10:00-12:00 PM when
they get cold and go off-shift.  I walk with bare legs and arms.  While
walking, most of the mosquitoes are attracted to the chemical constituents
of our breath so I often use a light, open-mesh headnet with some DEET on my
arms and legs.



Enjoy your planning,

Steel-Eye

Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965

http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye

http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09


On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 9:03 AM, <ned at pacificcrestcustombuilders.com> wrote:

> Enjoy the pleasures of a real tent!
>
> Mtnned
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Melissa Amacher" <melissa.amacher at gmail.com>
> To: <pct-l at backcountry.net>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 12, 2010 8:30 AM
> Subject: [pct-l] Mojitos
>
>
> > Hey fellow PCT'ers
> >
> > I have been debating with my hiking buddy about mosquitos.
> >
> > I have the black diamond beta light shelter but after using it last June
> > around Desolation Wilderness and sleeping with 500+ tiny annoying
> > uninvited
> > guests in the shelter for a week, I am curious what others do with these
> > guys. Ignore them? Use Bivys?
> >
> > What are the mosquitos like all along the trail?  Where is the worst of
> > the
> > mosquitos?
> >
> >
> > Thank you mucho
> > Melissa
> >
> >
> > www.InspireOut.com
> > Inspiring Children to Explore the Outdoors
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