Bug-free hikes

[Philip]

Last week I did a Monashka Mtn to Monashka Reservoir loop with Maya. There was no wind and it got pretty buggy on top of Monashka Mtn, and then all along the ridge leading to the reservoir. Not fun. I have been up the north side of the North Sister twice now with zero bugs. The south side of the N Sister seems a lot worse from an insect perspective. Also, I went up Pyramid recently and that was also 100% bug free. None of these days had much of a breeze, so I doubt the weather was a direct factor.

Have fun out there.

[Philip]

July 4th.

Happy Independence Day, everyone! I crossed Sargent Creek at Little Kosovo and hiked up the 4-wheeler trail in front of Cope this morning. About 4 whitesocks followed me up the trail from the river to about brush line, and those were the only ones I saw all day, so basically no bugs to speak of. Super nice. Sargent Cr is about shin deep (over Xtratufs, anyway), so bring some sports sandals and a small towel for the crossing. There are still snow patches up in the bowls, but walking is super easy and nice up there, and the flowers are out big time. I climbed some random peak behind Bells Flats and then returned the way I came. A lovely area to wander around for a few hours.

Alpine flowers:



Walking up a creek in the high country:



Goats grazing above Elbow Creek:



On top of an unnamed peak looking NE. Cope is the farthest ridge on the upper right:



The roses are blooming along Sargent Cr:

[Philip]

Pyramid is just beautiful these days. Nice dry trail, no bugs, vaulting green everywhere, and decent flowers. Rather than going straight up to the upper summit, I have been hiking down the north bowl a distance and then traversing around the north side of the mountain until I get to the SE ridge (that leads down to the golf course), climb up that, and then return via the summit. It makes the upper mountain into a nice loop, and side-hilling across the north side is really quite easy in low grass and carpets of crowberry.