Day 67: Thousand Island Lake & Mosquito Madness

Date: Sat 6/23

PCT Start Mile: 906.7

PCT End Mile: 926.1

PCT Mileage for Day: 19.4

Total PCT Mileage: 926.1

The Highlights: Island Pass, Thousand Island Lake, and mosquito hell

After eating the hotel breakfast one last time, Shawn, Squishy, and I made our way back to the trail … this time only a trolley and one shuttle. We were hiking out of Reds Meadow by 9am.

The day was already warm and after a very short descent, we began what would be an all day gradual climb to Island Pass, climbing from 7,480 to 10,226 ft over the course of approximately 19 miles of a roller coaster of ups and downs… but mostly up.

Getting started, I felt sluggish. I forgot how to do this hiking thing. My legs weren’t into it, my head wasn’t into it. Gradually as I warmed up I started getting into a better rhythm.

All morning we climbed mostly through forest, entering the Ansel Adams Wilderness, and crossing streams and rivers. We lasted an hour before having to get our feet wet, wading through a stream with no rock hop or log options.

All day we were never far from water, which meant one thing: lots and lots of mosquitos. There were some areas throughout the day where we went mostly unbothered, but more often we were slapping the little buggers off our legs and faces.

The afternoon brought some gorgeous mountain views and by evening we were passing by the gorgeous Thousand Island Lake en route to Island Pass. I’m not sure that there were 1000 islands out there, but it was certainly a beautiful lake.

Thousand Island Lake.

Unfortunately, in addition to the lake, there was water everywhere. Streams and rivers. Swampy and marshy grass. Mud and water in the trail – standing water, flowing water, muddy water. Just water everywhere.

And swarms and swarms of mosquitos. We practically ran down the descent from Island Pass, swatting at our legs and slapping ourselves in the face as mosquitos landed everywhere.

Finally reaching a tentsite, it was swarmed with mosquitos, but everywhere was. We weren’t going to find anything better. We covered our skin, quickly set up our tent, and threw everything inside.

While Shawn braved the mosquitos and cooked outside, I threw all my stuff in the tent, as well as myself, and just decided to cold soak my food – hydrating it with cold water rather than cooking so I could eat in the tent. Once finished, I did have to leave the tent again briefly to stash my bear canister and pee quickly (pretty sure I got some mosquito bites on my ass during this – the joys of the outdoors), but then it was back in the tent for the night.

I watched with a sort of disgusted fascination as the swarm of mosquitos enveloped our tent. Mosquitos everywhere. It was nuts. We had killed the few that had snuck inside when we entered the tent and luckily could now just watch them through the mesh without being eaten alive.

The mosquitos can definitely turn the experience miserable in a hurry, and unfortunately I think mosquitos are going to be the norm for awhile. Hopefully not always as bad as they were tonight.

Laying here in the tent, in my sleeping bag, my legs are warm and the bites itch like crazy and I’m scratching them like an madman. The way I scratch, I’ll be lucky if I get out of California with any skin on my legs.