6 of us are off to paddle and camp on Leigh Lake Wednesday. 2 nights on the west side and 2 nights on the east side. Fingers crossed for good weather (forecast looks good). Fingers also crossed that going mid week and after the holiday will lessen the crowds a bit at the String Lake put-in. Maybe we’ll see a bear again. I led two trips to Leigh Lake last summer and we spotted the bear both trips. I’ll report back and post some pics when we get home.
Looking forward to it. Would love to do an overnight there, I’ve only day tripped. Prettiest paddling spot I’ve been to. And if you ever get a chance, a moonlight paddle on String is really special!
Well, we came home early. The mosquitos were bad…like epic bad…biblical bad. The scoffed at spray and bit through fleece clothing. One couple said they had not seen Mozzies that bad since a Boundary waters trip, but there the biters were only bad in the early morning & evenings. These suckers were bad 24/7. The water level on Leigh Lake was higher than I’ve ever seen. Some of the hiking trails around String Lake were under water. Lots of standing water back in the woods according to the rangers. They said a lot of the overnight campers had bailed out early on recent trips. As long as we were away from shore at least 10 feet paddling we were ok. One couple hiked up to the base of the Falling Ice Glacier and said they weren’t bad up there. But they were unbearable in camp, so we bailed out. One good moose sighting, and a friendly doe deer in camp, but no bear.
Wet winter and the following summer in Yellowstone, ah, yes, brings back wonderful memories of ferociously persistent skeeters, About 12 years ago my husband and I shortened what was going to be a 9-day trip into 5 days! They were so thick that we wore netting bug suits ON THE WATER when leaving one campsite. They actually were around us to almost halfway across, at least half a mile away from shore. I had never, ever had skeeters around me on open water before that.
Moving into and out of the tent was always a futile race to zip up before the nasties flew in. They covered the mesh panels, humming literally all night long, waiting for us to emerge. I tried to count how many were on one window panel, got to somewhere above 50 and saw how many were still uncounted, and I quit right then.
We decided that from then on we would only camp in Yellowstone after the frosty nights had begun.
We used our remaining days doing day paddles instead. It was still a good vacation, as yours must have been, bugs or not. It is gloriously beautiful country.
Yep…getting in the tent & using the wag bag toilet were particularly difficult. The only thing that helped at all was a smokey fire. We burned up a big box full of wood. I was a beautiful trip, even though it was shortened. Here’s a few more pictures.
Skeeters… sounded like our last Everglades trip.
Was the water cold?
Yes, the water was cold. About like normal for a high elevation lake. Other than the hordes of mosquitos, the weather was great
Yup, one of my favorite places on this earth!