I need to tell you, fellow traveler, why you should avoid this place like the fucking plague until further notice.
At the least, mosquitoes are a minor nuisance in the memory of an otherwise great trip. At most, swarms of the disgusting creatures descend upon you the second you’ve come within striking distance, spreading pestilence and plague! …well maybe not, but they can easily ruin your time, and that’s what this was.
I’ve been on rough trips before. I’ve pushed my mountain bike up thousands of feet in a swarm of bugs and ended up with hundreds of tiny bites covering my neck, back, hands, legs and face. I’ve never gotten bug bites that swell up and look like a limpet is somehow under your skin. I’ve never camped in a place where the bugs swarm around your face thick enough that you can count on the inhaling one or two for every 10 minutes spent outside. I’ve never experienced mosquitoes that are so completely indifferent to deet-based repellent, even when it’s a 40% mixture.
We planned a three-day tour of the area, but noticed that all the good campsites at Squaw lake, Cathedral Rock, at Deep Lake and at Peggy’s Pond are by stagnant water in some form. So we settled down at Deep Lake for the first (and ultimately the only) night and we were thankful just to get the tent up so that we could hide inside. The vile creatures coated the outside of our tent until after dark, when we could finally venture out again. At least at night it was cold enough to wear long pants and a jacket, so you knew there were some areas that were 100% safe. We planned to eat breakfast and bolt in the morning, but once morning finally came, the decision to skip breakfast was made. It was unbearable. We thought the situation might be better elsewhere, so we packed up camp as fast as we ever have and made a break for it.
Notice that the above picture – the only picture I got of Deep Lake – is taken from the minimum safe distance.
Once we reached the Peggy’s Pond Trail, we decided we’d check it out. Sidenote – that trail is not for the faint of heart. It’s a mountain goat style rock-hop, and in many places, if you fall, you would be in a serious emergency situation. Anyways, we reached Peggy’s and were surprised to discover that the swarms seemed to be elsewhere. So we started to unpack and make camp, but right around the time we got the tent up, we were attacked again, and it was almost as bad as at Deep Lake. It just wasn’t worth it – we packed up as quickly as before and rushed back to the trail head in disgust.
You might think I’m being dramatic, and there’s no way you would bitch so much about a few bugs. To that I say: I dare you to do the hike to Deep Lake right now. The mosquitoes at Deep Lake must be some prehistoric strain bred to spread pestilence, to feed on nuclear waste, and to make sure you spend your entire trip cowering in your tent.
nocturnalJava 