Day 12 (26 Miles)

Today I was able to increase my mileage, but mother nature had a big surprise in store for me. I departed Shelter Cove Resort at about 8am. I pushed hard the entire day, happy to have a trail that was snow-free and fairly level. I resolved to go as far as I could by 5pm, take a break, and then make a final push for the evening.

After my break at Lake Charlton, I met another hiker named Jordan, who is a student at BYU in Utah. He and I resolved to hike six miles together, putting us at Irish Lake for the night. We passed through a big burn area in our walk, and it was good to get a break from the mosquitoes.
As night began to fall, we approached Irish Lake. All of the sudden, the mosquitoes began to swarm in unprecedented numbers. During the time it took me to fill my water bottles and set-up my tent, I was bitten countless times by mosquitoes, and mind you I was wearing full clothing, a head net, and plenty of 100% DEET repellent.

I took a deep breath, resolving that by getting in the tent, everything would be okay. I counted to three, opened the door, threw all of my belongings inside, quickly jumped in, and zipped the door shut. All in all the door could not have been open more that ten seconds.

When I turned on my headlamp, I couldn't believe my eyes. Many, many mosquitoes had managed to get in the tent in that short window of time. I spent 30 minutes trying to kill them all but it was no use. These were young, fast mosquitoes capable of changing direction at any time, very tough to get.

After I awhile I became too tired to keep up the fight and had a miserable night's sleep. For the first time in the trip, I was happy that no family and friends were with me, as I would never want them to experience that same hell.