[pct-l] bug question

[Sean 'Miner' Nordeen]

Timing is indeed the issue and it changes each year depending on snow melt.  There is some advantage in being in the back of the herd like I was (after I got injured early on) rather then in the front.  I saw a handful of mosquitos in SoCal, but they always left after dark.  You really only need protection when you get to the Sierra and north.  For me, Rae Lakes (just north of Glen Pass) and Northern Yosemite were bad as they were very damp from the snow melt off.  Northern California can be bad if you are a front runner.  Even if its not bad, there will always be some in places.  Oregon can be really bad, but its the timing once again.  Hikers 2 weeks in front of me complained about them for most of the state, while I only had 2 bad days in the Sisters Wilderness.  Coming through Washington after Labor Day meant I didn't see any.

What I used... Well I am a tarp user.  I always carried a UL bivy sack with a mesh face opening and a head net.  Many nights that I noticed some mosquitos, I went to bed with just the headnet over a baseball cap since the rest of my body was under my quilt; if I sleep on my side, I turn the cap sideways.  Most nights the bugs left soon after it got dark and the temps started to drop (but I also tended to camp in higher elevations rather then low) and I often could remove the net soon after.  They would come back at dawn and the lone one that would buzz my ear in the predawn often acted as an alarm clock and motivated me to get up before his friends joined in.  There were some nights where I hid in my bivy sack due to how bad they were (ie. Yosemite), but it wasn't that often.  But many hikers have encountered far more mosquitos then I saw.

-Miner

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