Sierra mosquitos
Oh, and Selden Pass
Another beautiful day in the Sierras. Last night was noticeably warmer sleeping than the previous, mostly due to being about 3000 feet lower in elevation.
A good portion of today's trail was in pine forest, which was great because the trail surface was often smooth and even, in contrast to the chunky rock surface that seems to be common in the mountains, when everything is rock.
However, in a couple of the wooded areas there were swarms of mosquitos that followed behind and would descend if I stopped or slowed a bit too much. I was hiking with Share Bear and Mighty Mouse, and each of us seemed to have fifty to a hundred mosquitos hovering around, waiting to land and suck our blood.
We had three stream crossings that required wading. One named creek, Bear Creek, and two other creeks that were as deep but didn't have names on my map. Of course, stopping to change footwear for the crossings let the mosquitos land, so everything was done in a hurry.
When we set up camp, dinner was uncomfortable, with clouds of hungry mosquitos held at bay by DEET (better living through chemistry) and my rain jacket worn with the hood up.
Our camp site tonight does have a lovely view of a wooded valley. Somewhere below us is Bear Creek, the stream we crossed earlier today. And just a few yards away is another stream. After having come through the dry areas in Southern California, the abundance of water is amazing.
Oh yeah, we climbed up and crossed Selden Pass.
A good portion of today's trail was in pine forest, which was great because the trail surface was often smooth and even, in contrast to the chunky rock surface that seems to be common in the mountains, when everything is rock.
However, in a couple of the wooded areas there were swarms of mosquitos that followed behind and would descend if I stopped or slowed a bit too much. I was hiking with Share Bear and Mighty Mouse, and each of us seemed to have fifty to a hundred mosquitos hovering around, waiting to land and suck our blood.
We had three stream crossings that required wading. One named creek, Bear Creek, and two other creeks that were as deep but didn't have names on my map. Of course, stopping to change footwear for the crossings let the mosquitos land, so everything was done in a hurry.
When we set up camp, dinner was uncomfortable, with clouds of hungry mosquitos held at bay by DEET (better living through chemistry) and my rain jacket worn with the hood up.
Our camp site tonight does have a lovely view of a wooded valley. Somewhere below us is Bear Creek, the stream we crossed earlier today. And just a few yards away is another stream. After having come through the dry areas in Southern California, the abundance of water is amazing.
Oh yeah, we climbed up and crossed Selden Pass.
Photos from today: https://www.b-photo.com/Travel/PCT-2016-Day-by-Day/July/July-6/
Mighty Mouse's blog for today: http://www.timandgerri.com/blog---2016/day-78-6-july-mile-85588-87318
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