[pct-l] [John Muir Trail] Mozzies

[ned at mountaineducation.org]

“Mozzies,” what a riot!

When you spend a lot of time in the backcountry as we do at Mountain Education, you definitely share the love/hate relationship all summer hikers have with mosquitoes. “Love,” you say? 

When the little suckers are constantly trying to get something from/out of you, you appreciate their insistence and desperation, certainly hate the discomfort/pain and thought of what they are doing, but begin to mess with them a little bit, like casually playing with ants as they scurry on their constant quests. Let me tell you a story of one such moment of play...

It is well known that we enjoy our hot meals in the comfort of our tents and sleeping bags. Sometimes this is because we need to get out of the cold, wet storm or just because we are escaping the ever-present-in-the-summer Mosquitoes. I’ll never forget one evening in Oregon on my 1974 thru hike of the PCT where I was cooking inside the netted door of my tent as the fog rolled across the lake outside. It was growing dim and cool after sunset, but I was snug in my sleeping bag, gear and maps around me, and stove sending out its steam drifting through the door’s netting.

I suddenly realized that the constant drum beat, humming, of their wings flying around outside had settled down to a dull roar and that my door of netting was covered with them, especially directly in the stove’s steam! I really didn’t think much of it at first, so I thoughtlessly flicked them away with my finger to see what they’d do. They returned. I did it again. They returned into the steam and sat there. This got my attention.

Knowing that I was protected from their blood-sucking desire, I decided to play with them a bit while my food cooked, the fog swirled around outside, and the elk started bugling across the lake. I put my finger up to them to see if they would sense and probe for it. They did! So, what ensued could only be compared to messing around with iron filings on a piece of flat paper with a magnet from below. I was able to move them around on the vertical netting where I wanted them to go and they would stay there for awhile! 

So, my evening’s entertainment was fulfilled as I discovered that I could “draw” pictures of mountains and trees and other designs using their little, black bodies as my “ink” on the mosquito net door of my little tent! Across the rest of our 32 years of teaching wilderness safety skills, whenever these little “pricks” show up on my door, I love to play with them!


Ned Tibbits, Director
Mountain Education, Inc.
www.mountaineducation.org 
ned at mountaineducation.org 


Mission:
"To minimize wilderness accidents, injury, and illness in order to maximize wilderness enjoyment, safety, and personal growth, all through experiential education and risk awareness training."

From: mailto:johnmuirtrail at yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2014 7:29 PM
To: johnmuirtrail at yahoogroups.com 
Subject: [John Muir Trail] Mozzies

  
Maybe I've become an old grump but I'm a little offended at the term "Mozzies".  Mosquitoes are the top one or two killers of human beings on the planet.  600,000 dead people from malaria annually.  

Why do we have a cute fuzzy friendly sounding name for them. 

I say from now on we call them "Godzillas"






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Posted by: byron.nevins at gmail.com 
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