A very strange occurrence this morning, we woke up before the alarm went off. It looked promising for making our 8 o’clock departure until we discovered we both had to dig holes. The forest was very open and I accidentally dug my first hole where I had line of sight with the three remaining tents. The hole relocation and ensuing time delay almost led to disaster, but I was able to release my shot before the possession buzzer.
We left camp at 8:10 ahead of Hero, Someday, and Wea, but behind everyone else. It turned out to be a lonely morning on the trail for us. Only one nobo passed us going so fast that she barely said hi. We ran across a sobo breaking camp that we talked with for a bit. She had spent the night before last in Trout Lake with Alba and Jordie. It looks like they’re only 4 or 5 days ahead of us, but we won’t be able to put in the miles we have to in order to catch up with them.
Other than those two, we saw just one other unknown hiker. We figured he was a fugitive from justice because he was covered from head to toe. He was wearing a bandanna over his mouth and nose and a hat pulled all the way down to his eye brows. With his sun glasses on, we couldn’t even see his eyes. At the time, we were a little alarm and mystified. It wouldn’t take long for us to solve the mystery.
For the first time, we had blue sky in Washington with cool temperature and low humidity. It was a perfect day for hiking. We got clear views of Mt St Helen, Mt Adams, and Mt Hood. We are smack dab in the middle of a triangle of volcanoes. With the recent earthquakes down in California, I was a little on edge of any seismic activity. I almost came unglued when I heard a low rumble below me. It was so intense that I felt my stomach shake. The last place you want to be is in a triangle of volcanoes when the earth starts to move. I quickly calmed down when I realized it was probably just the stew and noodle concoction I made for supper last night revisiting us.
As we climbed, we began to understand the unknown hiker we had seen earlier. The flying insects were the thickest I have ever seen. New Jersey and New York are no longer on my no hike zone. Although they were terrible when we hiked through them on the AT last year, nothing compares to the torture we endured today. The snow melt has made for fertile larvae breeding grounds. The insects were so thick you could actually kill 5 with every swat on yourself—no need to wait for them to land.
Depending on our location, we had gnats, mosquitoes, or crane flies. I think I might have seasonal allergies which causes me to have a little sinus drip. The small snot stream provided a perfect crane fly strip. It was sticky enough to hold them, but not toxic enough to kill them. That came with the pick of death.
We tried permethrin spray. It didn’t work. We tried deet. It didn’t work. We had a 5 mph wind. It didn’t work. There’s only one tried and true method for repelling flying insects, but it also causes wives to yell. I resigned myself to walking behind Bunny so I wouldn’t get yelled at for farting. It didn’t work (meaning Bunny still yelled at me, but the bugs thinned out a bit).
Blue Lake is the biggest lake in the Indian Heaven Wilderness. I’m guessing the same people that name Congressional Bills also named this wilderness area. The Patriot Act—the most unpatriotic act ever passed by Congress to allow invasive spying on all US citizens without court supervision. The Right to Work Act—allowing companies to fire any employee without cause. Indian Heaven Wilderness—the closest to hell you will ever get on this earth (minus the brimstone). We got to Blue Lake with a strong wind blowing, but the second it stopped, we were swarmed by thousands of mosquitoes. We were going to wait for Someday and Wea because this is where they are stopping tonight. We just couldn’t take it and had to move on. (We did filter water from the lake, it had little red things swimming in it. Unfortunately, we didn’t notice until we had already drank a liter of it.)
For 8 hours today, we could not even stop to take a break. Every time we even started to slow up, we got swarmed. I had to walk with my mouth closed to keep from swallowing bugs (my sinus drip kept me from inhaling them). We ran into a couple more sobos and they said the bugs had been like this just for the last couple of weeks. I don’t know it I can mentally take this.
We tried to find a campsite away from the lakes, but it doesn’t matter. If you stand still for a couple of minutes, they find you. We had originally thought of stopping after 15 miles at Bear Lake—unbearable. Guthook has said there was another possible camping spot with water about 0.6 miles past the lake. Somehow, we missed this spot. Our phone is almost dead so we turned it off so we can possibly call for a ride into town. It took an argument to get Bunny to turn it on only to find out we were already a half mile past the water (which turned out to be another lake).
Bunny spotted a small trickle in a gully. I climbed down to it and found a nice clear pool filled with mosquitoes. We had no choice but use it. I scooped enough water for us to get 4 liters and then we decided to hike on until we found a flat spot. We ended up down in a meadow that we thought looked nice…until we stopped moving. I have never seen mosquitoes swarm so thick and crane flies land on the roof of our tent. We got a double whammy down here, but we are too tired to go on (plus there’s no hope of relief from what the sobos are telling us).
We set up the tent and threw everything in. Eventually, they left just about 1000 as a lookout around our tent to make sure we didn’t get out of the tent. I was able to stick my arm out long enough to boil some water for supper, but now we both are thinking we’ve got to go to the bathroom. Were pinned down in enemy territory and no one knows where we are. I know we’ll have to make a run for it like Butch Cassidy and Sundance. We’re going to wait until dark and hope they don’t have night vision goggles.
EFG