End of May Long Trail

[Drewby25]

Hey Guys,

I've been looking into doing an end to end starting right the last week of May after memorial day or the first week in June. I'm wondering how much Snow will be left North of Killington?

Haha I've also heard the black flies and mud are terrible

What do you guys think?

[Cookerhiker]

Hey Guys,

I've been looking into doing an end to end starting right the last week of May after memorial day or the first week in June. I'm wondering how much Snow will be left North of Killington?

Haha I've also heard the black flies and mud are terrible

What do you guys think?

I hiked most of the LT over a series of Memorial Dy weekends. While a long time ago i.e. 30 years, I don't think conditions have changed that much. You will have mud, you will have black flies, and you are likely not to have snow anywhere except perhaps some deep crevices. Weatherwise, I generally had very nice conditions except for one year (1979) where we had 4 straight days of rain.

Any way you can put it off until mid-August? No black flies and the mosquitos are also gone by then.

[Hiker8261]

in 1987 I did an end to end starting in Cheshire MA on the 30th and into VT on the 1st.
There was no snow anywhere, I don't recall what kind of a winter 86-87 was though.
The bugs were bothersome at times but not horrible. I was in a tent almost every night so the bugs didn't bother me at night.

I am repeating the LT trip in late August into September as I enjoyed the September hiking on my AT thru last year

chris

[Slo-go'en]

Snow will all be gone, that won't be a problem. Its mostly gone now. Mud and black flys can't predict, all depend on what happens in the next 6 weeks. Though, you can pretty much count on mud and flies, but how bad, who knows? To be on the safe side, I'd strongly recommend tall gaiters for the mud and head net/bug bivy for the flies. Those two things can save your sanity if the black flies are bad. I know they saved my sanity when I did an E2E in June, many years ago. Without them the black flies would have sent me right home.

[corialice81]

so a may start is doable? I plan to start an e2e in august but i might have to shift it to may/june depending on work schedule..

[Cookerhiker]

In my May LT hiking experience, the best deterrent to black flies is to keep moving. They hit you the hardest when you're stationary. So choose your breaks & lunch spot on top of a mountain with a breeze. Don't take long breaks.

The worst time I had was when I stopped for the day at a shelter when it was still warm i.e. around 5 PM. They attacked like suicide bombers; one time I ended up pitching my tent and staying in it for 2 hours until they subsided.

And that's the one redeeming thing about black flies; they're only active in the daytime, in contrast to mosquitos which are more of an annoyance at night. So black flies are an incentive to get up early in the morning and get going before they're aroused.

[twosticks]

I know it's not a very popular way, but a cigarette seems to keep the black flies away. It worked wonders while canoeing up in Canada. I wouldn't even smoke them, just light it up and put it off to the side.

[ki0eh]

Would a cigar work better?

[warraghiyagey]

DEET cures any bug situation. . . end of may should be great for the LT... but plan your gear according to the possibilites of wet/muddy trail. . . just in case. . . have a great hike. . . .

[Slo-go'en]

DEET cures any bug situation. . . . . . .

I'm not sure any chemical will intimidate Black Flies!

There's nothing like having a couple crawling into each ear, up each nose nostral, in your mouth, a few bouncing between your eyes and eye glasses and a zillion others buzzing around your head - all at the same time! You can slap yourself silly when that happens!

Bright colors seem to attact them, wearing white or tan clothes help.

On my June E2E trip, we would start a small, smokey fire as soon as we got to a camp. That helped - some. At least it helped clear out most the 1000's of black flies which followed us into camp.

The Black Flies breed in shallow running water and hang out around Spurce trees. There is one shelter on the LT with that exact combination right next to it. The flies there were really bad.

[Cookerhiker]

....There's nothing like having a couple crawling into each ear, up each nose nostral, in your mouth, a few bouncing between your eyes and eye glasses and a zillion others buzzing around your head - all at the same time! You can slap yourself silly when that happens! ...

Also getting into your hairline, finding their way in your hair roots and then biting away.

[Snowleopard]

Interesting info at Sawyer, for what it's worth:

Q. Does DEET protect against flies?
A. Some yes, but mostly no. The best repellent for flies, gnats, no-see-ums and similar insects is Di-n-propyl Isocinchomeronate which is sometimes called R-326. There are some 3,000 species of flies in North America and DEET is effective against some of them. Because of this, the EPA allows formulas with any level of DEET to make the broad claim of effectiveness against flies on their label. In reality, DEET is not very effective against most species of flies, but R-326 is. Rule of thumb, if flies are an issue use Sawyer Deet Plus Insect Repellent.

http://www.sawyerproducts.com/faqtopical.htm#002

I got some repellent with R-326 at REI to test this out last year, but the blackflies here were not bad enough to really test it out. The stuff is not on REI's website this year [yet?].

Something that helped a lotwas a caped hat with buzzoff (permethrin), like this:http://www.rei.com/product/708136 The bugs mostly didn't seem to want to go at my face with it. Again, the bugs weren't as awful as usual, so not the best test.

Definitely consider using permethrin on your clothes and carry a headnet just in case it gets bad.

[Monkeywrench]

The CT Section does a maintenance trip on the section between the summit of Glastenbury Mtn and the road south of Stratton every year on the weekend before Memorial Day. There is often remnants of snow on the summit of Glastenbury, but nothing that would impede hiking.

Black flies can be anything from a minor annoyance to an insanity-inducing torment.

[Drewby25]

Yeah I definitely agree with all the points you guys are saying. I would hike the LT in Mid-June but that work thing really gets in the way

I've been putting together my gear list for bug protection and I want to hear your guys inputs

1. 3M Ultrathon insect lotion- http://www.rei.com/product/686229

2. Permethrin on all clothes, Bug screens, and tarps

3. And a Tarp, Bivy, Bug net combination with this bug Screen

http://www.campingsurvival.com/eqmamonet.html

I would go for a Tarptent Contrail but those College bills really add up!

Tell me what you guys think!

[Slo-go'en]

There won't be a whole lot of hikers on the trail in June, so shelter space is not going to be a problem - except maybe on Memorial weekend. Therefore, all you really need is a simple bug net to string up in the shelter to crowl into for refuge. I Belive Campmore has something like that for not much money.

Some people are really allergic to Black Fly bites and get welts of epic proportions. For most of us, the first few bites swell up a little and after that we build up an immunity. After that thier just a major annoyance.

[Askus3]

I did my southbound section hike Memorial Day week southbound in 2007 from the Canadian border to Johnson-VT 15. Here it is May 25 and it was a sweltering uncomfortable muggy upper 70s on the thermometer on the summit of Jay Peak and yet on the northside of the mountain there were a couple of patches of snow on the trail that you had to follow the footprints of previous hikers that sunk in deep (maybe 1-1.5 feet). But other than those two stretches of about 30 yards each, there were only occasional spots of snow and nothing south of Belvidere Mt. Laraway was dry. There was alot of mud north of Shooting Star.

[Drewby25]

I would rather a full bodied netting for comfort and I cannot find a cheap noseeum large shelter. I was wondering if a Permethrin treated Mosquito net would repel Noseeums, Blackflies, and Mosquitos?

Does anyone have any experience with this?

[twosticks]

Would a cigar work better?

Sure would. Tastes better too. Though it seems to piss people off more.

[NorthCountryWoods]

Just when you thought mud season was done......close to 70 yesterday and snowing like crazy today. Supposed to continue thru the night and into tomorrow. We're at 1000 feet in Waterville and we had 4 inches of heavy wet stuff by 8am.

The peaks are supposed to get over a foot.

http://www.firsttracksonline.com/New...cast-for-Snow/

[Jeff]

Don't you just love Vermont !!!!