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Totally Bugged Out

Joined
Nov 14, 2018
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Location
Heart of the Shawnee Nation
Click image for larger version  Name:	8C4E0EBD-C507-48FB-B3E6-C772D45989B5.jpeg Views:	1 Size:	728.1 KB ID:	95164 An omen at the border bridge - a huge cloud of bugs obscured our vision through the windshield. Now, a week later, my head is covered in scabs. My left ear is almost normal size and no longer purple. My calves are still ringed at the sock line. The poor dogs' bellies and ears are healing after being nearly consumed by black flies. My new glamping tent looks like a mob massacre happened inside from the big blood smeared on the walls. We bailed for plan B - day trips and hotels on the upper peninsula. I don't remember a buggier July up North.
 
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I guess it's a contest here of for bloodstains on the inside of our tents. Five nights in Algonquin on the maiden voyage of my new Nemo tent and it looks like it was in the middle of a fight scene of the 'Walking Dead.
 
Hmmm....oddly enough the bugs were not bad the last time I was out. Of course we smelled like we had been in the gas hut when we got back from all the deet. I got bitten up really bad last October of all things.
 
I was able to find a couple of exposed sites with a good breeze that kept them at bay, but on the trail from Bonnechere to Cache my hands looked like they had hair 10 minutes after putting on dope. At times I had to wear gloves to keep them off.
 
I'm looking forward to an Algonquin trip report Sweeper. Glad to hear you made it back mostly in one piece.
 
I was up on the Missinaibi last year but was in late August. The bugs were not too bad except around the Brunswick lake area. That was,indeed one of my favorite trips ever ! Getting too old to do that one again. Guess I'll stick to the BWCAW and other tamer rivers in the U.P.
 
Bugs got off to a late start up here this year. They are still quite bad. I've never had a problem with blackflies in tents, they always just raft up in bunches on the ceiling and become uninterested in biting. However, burning a small piece of pic in your tent for a few minutes will kill everything.

Just got back from a weekend trip in the Steel river area. Bugs at the campsite were not terrible. Back on the bush road, they were atrocious. Blackflies will swarm a running vehicle. Same with horse flies.
 
Hey Memaquay, will be on Diablo Sat morning. Any advice on more open/breezier sites on the loop i should target if i can? Any I should avoid?

My plan right now is SC8,SC10,SC13,SC2,SC3,SC6,Sand Spit, and somewhere on Santoy

THX Shawn
 
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"burning a small piece of pic"?

and pretty sure Memaquay means Mosquito coils as in PIC brand mosquito coils.. would love to be corrected if I'm wrong..

mosquitosticks-product7-1024x1024.jpg
 
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Just recently came back from the Petewawa River in Algonquin, the bugs were definently out in force this year, we were all decked out in our big net suits also known as “Muskoka lingerie”


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I guess it's a contest here of for bloodstains on the inside of our tents. Five nights in Algonquin on the maiden voyage of my new Nemo tent and it looks like it was in the middle of a fight scene of the 'Walking Dead.

Which tent?


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To ShawnD...Pic River First Nation has cut three new ports into Diablo Lake. They start at the north end of Santoy. If you havent done Diablo Portage and you like suffering I highly recommend it just so you can say you have done it. I usually camp at the island just after the port. All other sites will depend on where you get too. I like the beach with the campsite up the hill on Cairngorm, others like the rocky vista at the south end. I usually stay at the beach on Steel. Have fun!
 
Bugged out before I got bugged

The missus wanted to spend some time on the beach, which is my idea of heck; no shade, hot sand, other people. That’s a nope.

But there are a lot of prime swamp and marsh rivers thereabouts. We would need to drive two cars anyway, one so she could go to the beach in the morning, one for me and my canoe. Some of those prime rivers are along her route to the beach, and she offered to set my shuttle. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.

A few days later I noticed my truck was being swarmed by greenhead flies every times I came down the driveway. In 25 years here we have never had enough of a greenhead population to be a problem. Must be the perfect hatch year.

The eastern shore swamp and marsh rivers are always thick with greenheads in summer. Greenheads swarm to movement, and the best solution is to graciously allow someone else to take the lead, but I would be a solo moving feast.

Nix that plan. I’ve done hundreds of trips in that area and can wait until fall.
 
Jeeze Louise, bugs are part of the deal. Good bug proof tent, bug jacket, tarp with a bug screen, bug dope, pic and a positive attitude, then just go enjoy yourself. If you can not stand the heat stay out of the kitchen, is one of the oldest sayings I can remember. Maybe canoe camping is not for you take up mini golf.
I think black flies trip was doomed from the get go.
I am pretty sure the "pilgrims" were pretty dang tough, when they got to North America, there were no five star hotels for a plan "B"'.
My girfriend/wife to be and I camped out seven summers starting in late May until mid September on sand bars in some of the bug infested places in Alaska doing salmon research. We think of those days as the best days of our lives. If you and your family can not enjoy nature at her worst take up a different activity would be a good idea.
 
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