High Sierra Topix

Does anyone have any information on the little Lakes valley area? I have plans for the end of august and want to know what to expect.

Did the loop hike from Tuolumne Meadows campground past Elizabeth Lake, on the use trail to camp at Nelson Lake August 9, then cross-country past Reymann Lake to camp near Tuolumne Pass August 10, then down the Rafferty Creek and JMT trails back to Tuolumne Meadows August 11. Conditions were cool in the day (mid to upper 50s) with constant breeze from 5 to 15 mph, then calm at night and freezing (about 1/4 inch ice on water left out in a basin). Probably due to the breeze and maybe helped by the freezing nights, we saw virtually no mosquitoes on the entire trip, with the exception of a few damp forest areas that were sheltered from the wind, where I got a couple of bites.

8/7-11: Did an out-and-back trip along the JMT from Mammoth to Thousand, with a day hike up to Davis Lakes.

8/7 - Red Cones area - 1/5
- Trinity Lakes - 3/5
8/8 - Shadow Lake - 2/5
- Garnet Lake - 0/5 due to wind
- Thousand Island Lake - 0/5 due to wind
8/9 - Davis Lakes - 2/5 - no wind in afternoon
- Island Pass: 0/5 but a breeze existed
- Thousand Island Lake - 0/5 due to wind
8/10 - Hike Thousand Island to Minaret Falls - 2/5
8/11 - Minaret falls to Reds Meadow Resort - 1/5

on 8/7 I heard reports that on 8/5, Thousand Island Lake was 4/ or 5/5. When I got there on the 8th, it was windy and no mosquitoes biting, but you could see hordes of them hunkering down in the whitebarks, waiting to for the wind to die before mounting an organized assault. Mosquitoes generally prefer shady areas, so cook and eat your freeze dried mac and cheese in the full sun, if you can stand it.

Etchilds wrote: ↑Sun Aug 11, 2019 10:55 pm Does anyone have any information on the little Lakes valley area? I have plans for the end of august and want to know what to expect.

End of Aug will be quite different from now. It seems that the mosquitos are finally on the wane so I'd expect things to be fine by end of Aug, but keep an eye on reports closer to when you are going.

Etchilds wrote: ↑Sun Aug 11, 2019 10:55 pm Does anyone have any information on the little Lakes valley area? I have plans for the end of august and want to know what to expect.

I was camped out at Treasure Lakes this weekend and the mosquitoes were not non-existent to mild up there. It was cool and breezy, which probably helped.

They were a little worse down below Treasure Lakes, but still not horrible.

Thank you!

Only 2 or 3 bites in Tuolumne area over the weekend. It was below freezing Friday and Saturday night.

Andy

Does anyone have any updates about mosquitoes at big pine creek south fork trail. We have permits for next weekend, but I’m concerned about getting eaten alive. We were up at tamarack lake new twin lakes in mid-July and the mosquitoes were horrendous even with long sleeves and deet! We had to take cover in the tent.

Kearsarge to Center Basin round trip 8/8-8/11
Kearsarge area=0
Vidette Meadow=2 going to 1
Center Basin=1 going to 0
Bugs definitely waned during the trip.

Aug 7 - Florence Lake to ~1 mi west of Piute Creek bridge - level 2
Aug 8 - To Western edge of Evolution Valley - level 2
Aug 9/10 - To Evolution Lake & layover at Evolution Lake - Level 3 in the Evolution Valley meadow, Level 2 everywhere else. We had planned to camp around McClure Meadow but heard horror stories of bad mosquitoes (we met people an hour away from the valley on the trail still wearing mosquito nets fleeing the blood suckers). As we transited the valley we found the mosquitoes to gather only when we stopped for several minutes. Nothing compared with the 2015 mosquitogeddon /level 5 of the Sabrina Basin.
Aug 11 - 0.5 mile East of Piute Cr bridge - level 2
Aug 12 - Florence Lake (southside) - level 1
Aug 13 - To Florence Lake trailhead - level 1