Bugs and Rain

[greentick]

WETSU! (mandatory 10 character addition)

[Des]

I'm different from most about getting wet. My feet tend to get torn up and bloody real quick from eczema if I hike with them soaked for too long (more than a day or two). So I will say if its a big enough deal, it can be dealt with. You are still going to get wet (at least from sweat), but I was able to avoid getting soaked for the most part and my boots got soaked through maybe 4 times on the AT.

I found it helps as Chin said to take zeros when its raining. For me, I would avoid taking days off until it rained which could mean long periods of no zeros and it also meant some nastier hours of hiking to make the most of dry periods. More important I found is just to avoid the rain when it is pouring hard either by popping into a shelter or standing under a nice conifer if you can find one (easier up north). Rain is usually variable (although not always, as Vermont loves to demonstrate) so if you hang out for 15-20 minutes during the true downpour, you are only out in the rain when its more piddling and easy to deal with. Its a lot of work to stay drier, so weigh all that against the unpleasantness of being wet.

Oh as a tip, if its real buggy and you forgot your headnet but happen to have earphones, throw them on. Stops the bugs from flying into your ears, although it does cause people look at you funny when they realize they're not connected to anything.

[Slo-go'en]

You can expect it to be cold and wet in the spring. How cold and how wet is impossible to tell until it happens. Some years are worse then others. This spring was maybe a little on the wet side. 2, 3 or 4 days of on-off drizzle with a nice day or two in between is not uncommon. This will last well in May or even June some years. Once you get into PA and centeral Atlantic states with the melt the soles off your shoes heat and humidity, you start to really miss those nice cool, misty days you had early on. Learning to deal with rain and damp gear is just one of the challenges of an AT thru hike.

Once it warms up, there will be bugs. The no-see-ums are pretty annoying. Worst are the chiggers. The wanta-be-black flies down south are aren't nearly as bad as thier blood thursty cousins up north here, but those are long gone for NOBO hikers. Only an issue for early SOBO's. The trick here is not to smell or look like a flower. Don't use any scented products like soaps or perfumes and don't wear bright colors.

You got to pay your dues to enjoy the views.

[Wise Old Owl]

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).

I met guys who work all day outside and don't drink a lot of water... after a few days on the trail they are passing out all their deet to others. They are not getting bites. Tough as old leather.

[MuddyWaters]

Its often said, the days will be 1/4 cold, 1/4 hot, 1/4 wet, and 1/4 nice

[grateful 2]

You can expect it to be cold and wet in the spring. How cold and how wet is impossible to tell until it happens. Some years are worse then others. This spring was maybe a little on the wet side. 2, 3 or 4 days of on-off drizzle with a nice day or two in between is not uncommon. This will last well in May or even June some years. Once you get into PA and centeral Atlantic states with the melt the soles off your shoes heat and humidity, you start to really miss those nice cool, misty days you had early on. Learning to deal with rain and damp gear is just one of the challenges of an AT thru hike.

Once it warms up, there will be bugs. The no-see-ums are pretty annoying. Worst are the chiggers. The wanta-be-black flies down south are aren't nearly as bad as thier blood thursty cousins up north here, but those are long gone for NOBO hikers. Only an issue for early SOBO's. The trick here is not to smell or look like a flower. Don't use any scented products like soaps or perfumes and don't wear bright colors.

You got to pay your dues to enjoy the views.

"Got to pay your dues if you want to sing the blues, And you know it don't come easy." George Harrison

[CarlZ993]

The further along I went, the less tolerate I became of the bad weather. 2013 was a wetter than normal year from what I can gather. I often would tell myself (& my hiking buddy), 'If we go another 3 miles (or whatever it was) past our planned stop, we can stay in a real bed.' We'd hammer the extra miles, clean our clothes, eat town food, & move on the next day.

The mosquitoes were really bad this year. I had towners tell me in CT, MA, & VT about how bad they were this year. I had to take them at their word. It reminded me of my trip experiences in Boundary Waters in Canada. On the AT, I had to wear a mosquito net and use the Deet. When I ran low on Deet, I had to wear my long-sleeve hiking shirt & pants. In the heat & humidity, that really sucked. And I didn't embrace it, either.

[Chain Saw]

My montra... This sucks and I love it! Live it and if you can't leave it


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[Deacon]

As other have said, this was an especially wet year. June and the first half of July on the Long Trail saw rain every day. Starting at the Canadian border, it rain 14 days straight. I crossed a marsh somewhere in the northern section (can't remember exactly where) in water up to my knees. It was great!

I think you get to a point of just not caring if you get wet or not. The hike becomes really enjoyable if you can just let go of the fear of getting wet.

[Malto]

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?

Im going to try not been too direct or harsh...... If you are looking for someone to tell you it will Ok and you will be able to "embrace the suck" well, they can't. You are the only one that MAY be able to do that. And you are only focusing on two suck factors. What about heat, rocks, dirt, homesickness, nagging foot pain, exhaustion, mud etc etc. You will have to deal with all of this and much more. IS it worth it? It depends on how much you value a connection with nature, the simple lifestyle, the relationships you form on the trail and a whole host of other experiences that can't be ordered with a credit card while sitting in an easy chair.

[rickb]

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

All the time.

Big difference when you are not walking in a circle in a familiar place, though. On the AT you get to live with that crap in the company of other suffering the same as you, all the while moving foward to a goal.

You accomplish something each day on the AT. The difference between the suck you felt and that you feel on the AT is like difference between muscle aches gotten from building stone wall in you yard, vs aching from washing dishes at a restaurant. Even if the level of discomfort is the same, it feels way different.

You also probably had a pretty good idea what was around the bend on your walk. The AT can bore one to tears at times, but there is always the potential to form a life-long memory even on the worst day. Even if you don't, you might.

Many find friendship, or adventure and even learn something about themselves when the hiking sucks on the AT. Not sure that happens on a weekend trip too often.

to me, the fact that you felt cold and were annoyed by gnats simple tells me you are self-aware, and aware of your surroundings. Not such bad traits to have, I think.

[Gambit McCrae]

Even from a section hiker point of view, If you really have a passion for backpacking/ AT then you embrace the good with the bad. Out of 5 trips to the AT in the last 8 months it has rained 4. I drove 16 hours to hike MD this month, knowing that 3 huricanes were hitting the east coast the week before, it rained the whole time. I pass people that are drudging along with a smile on my face ear to ear and ussually say something like "beautiful day on the AT isnt it!?" That is my method, when it gets tough and miserable, put a smile on your face it helps me. As far as the 1 out of 3 rain days I would say that this is accurate, as well as equal days of each, it just depends on the weather but, here is what I do to prevent the rain deal:

If its going to rain or not I hike in a dry fit tshirt and dry fit shorts. If its going to be a torrential downpour and I am going to be out for several more days then I will take my hiking shoes off, and wear my keens and a spair pair of wool socks its quite confy. All my kit goes in a 90 L dry say so it doesnt matter if I throw my pack off a bridge into the Potomic river, at the end of the day all my things are dry. so once I set up my tent in the torrential downpour, and dry the inside, then I can slowly start drying my pack and myself inside, betime its bedtime I am dry and cozy and ready for my 10 hours of trail sleep lol

Good luck on your Thru and remember, smile on face, AT under your feet and youll be fine

[attroll]

Don't let these things discourage you from a thru hike. Yes you will get rain, cold, bugs and heat. But it is not constant. The rain you can't control. The cold all depends on when you start and when you finish but it usually is at the beginning of the hike and the Smokies is where you usually experience it if your northbound. But that also depends on the weather the year of your thru hike. Heat you can't control either. The bugs are somewhat controllable with bug dope and a head net but they are not 100 percent effective all the time. With this said, it all depends on the weather the year of your thru hike.