Bugs and Rain

[lhhorton]

I am a noob thru hiker planning a thru in 2014. As a gut check hike I did three days on the Ozarks Highlands Trail in Arkansas. The first day I spent the entire day swatting gnats from my face and the second day it rained on me all day with tempratures dropping into the 40s in the afternoon. This made the trip a pretty miserable trip overall and I am concerned if this is what each day will be like on the trail.

Can anyone tell me how often you experience days like this on a thru hike? I know experiences vary but I would still like anyone's perspective.
Thanks

[The Gambler]

no disrespect intended....if gnats and a day of rain bothered you enough to make your trip miserable you should probably pass on a htru

[Hill Ape]

embrace the suck

[Don H]

Hot, cold, rain, wind, snow, ice, gnats, black flies (far worse than gnats), mosquitoes.... It's something almost every day and when you're thru-hiking you don't get to pick the days you hike.

Welcome to the AT, enjoy your hike!

[lhhorton]

I think you misunderstand. I expect these days, but if they are every other day I have a problem. If they are once a week, that is a different story. I just have no idea how often you are hiking completely wet or with bugs so dense you can't even look at the trail. If they are every other day, then yes it probably isn't for me.

[Don H]

Then you have a problem.

Really, its the great outdoors, this is all part of it.

[WingedMonkey]

A thru hike is 50% heaven and 50% hell.

And 2000 miles of pleasure.

You learn to laugh it off.

[ChinMusic]

A thru hike is 50% heaven and 50% hell.

And 2000 miles of pleasure.

You learn to laugh it off.

Kinda like this. Now that I am home I am constantly asked by folks, "was it fun?". I now say, "Fun is easy, it was better than fun"

There is a saying: "No rain, no pain, no Maine". I avoided as much rain and as much pain as possible and managed to make it to Maine. That said there are plenty of sucky days, and those are to.........better than fun.

[lhhorton]

Ok so let me refine this a little. The bugs were bad, yes. But after that day I realized what I could have done to be much more comfortable (i.e. headnet.) The walking all day wet is what got me. How often in your experience did you spend your thru hike soaked? Is that also a very common day?

[Sarcasm the elf]

Ok so let me refine this a little. The bugs were bad, yes. But after that day I realized what I could have done to be much more comfortable (i.e. headnet.) The walking all day wet is what got me. How often in your experience did you spend your thru hike soaked? Is that also a very common day?

The number that ive see thrown around is that statistically it rains one out of every three days when hiking the A.T. I dont know the source if that nunber, but my experience would say it's about accurate. Of course that usually means (for example) four or five days of rain followed by four of five days of sun. The learning curve for dealing with rain is pretty steep, but you actually get used to it pretty quick.

[ChinMusic]

Ok so let me refine this a little. The bugs were bad, yes. But after that day I realized what I could have done to be much more comfortable (i.e. headnet.) The walking all day wet is what got me. How often in your experience did you spend your thru hike soaked? Is that also a very common day?

IMO, the combination of bugs and heat was the worst variable conditions on the trail. Being wet got to be no big deal. I actually wished for thunderstorms to knock the bugs and heat down.

Unless you are strapped for cash and time you can play the weather a bit on a thru. I rarely left a warm bed to hike in the rain. I zeroed. Knowing I had a warm bed waiting for me at the end of the day (motel) I couldn't care less how wet I got. But, there WILL be plenty of times you are soaked by the end of your hiking day and just have to deal with it. I would say I was soaked prior to tenting maybe 15 times on my entire thru of 6+ months. It's not an every-day thing.

Thousands have done it before you, you can do it too.

[evyck da fleet]

Wet from rain or wet from sweat? They both will happen and I would bet most people who have done a thru wouldn't be able to answer your question because they embraced the suck and accepted it as part of the hike. Plan your zeros around rain if you can and dry out in town if necessary.

[johnnybgood]

Worse than those pesky gnats and potentially more harmful are those tiny deer ticks that carry Lyme disease . I have seen hikers pick them off by the handful during peak season.

Do a few more shakedown hikes between now and your start date .

Try a doing hikes in all seasons, this will be the sampling of what types of weather encompasses a thru- hike attempt.

[ChinMusic]

I would like to add, the chances of you being soaked from your own sweat is greater than being soaked from rain.

[lhhorton]

Thanks I appreciate all of the quick advice its all very helpful.

[aficion]

You will get wet more than you like. If you have a dry tent, bag, and clothes at the end of a wet day, it will be heavenly to get into them. If you don't... well hypothermia can be far worse than not fun.

[ChinMusic]

You will get wet more than you like. If you have a dry tent, bag, and clothes at the end of a wet day, it will be heavenly to get into them. If you don't... well hypothermia can be far worse than not fun.

Dry clothes are a necessity for the colder months. I didn't find dry clothes worth it for the summer in the lower elevations.

[aficion]

Dry clothes are a necessity for the colder months. I didn't find dry clothes worth it for the summer in the lower elevations.

Agree, shoulder seasons and or higher elevations require more careful packing.

[WingedMonkey]

My longest "always wet" was 10 days and nights of rain (in Virginia).

Hung up the wet clothes at night, put on dry ones to eat and sleep, put the wet ones back on in the morning.

It was a blast. Water was shooting out of the rocks.

[Odd Man Out]

When I was in college I took an ecology class that involved lots of field trips. On our Beech-Maple Forest trip, the mosquitoes were terrible. Our professor (a chiseled, 60-somthing field biologist) was standing on a stump lecturing about the features of this type of habitat. Us students were swatting, running around, doing anything to stop from getting eaten alive. After a few minutes, the prof notices that no one was listening to his lecture. He asked "What's wrong?" We all complained about the mosquitoes. He said "Mosquitoes? I hadn't noticed". I'm sure he was getting bitten as much as the rest of us. It's just that he didn't care. He really embraced the suck!

I now look at it this way. You are unhappy when you don't have what you want. The secret to happiness is to have everything you want by only wanting what you have. The nice thing about backpacking is that it very clearly defines what you have. If it isn't in your pack - you don't have it and thus you don't want it. If it is cold wet and buggy, then you will be cold, wet and buggy. If you don't care about being cold wet and buggy, then it doesn't matter (assuming you don't die of hypothermia).