July 7th: Mile 878. Selden Pass. Todays miles = 18.4. Mosquito hell! The hike up to Selden pass was a 7 mile uphill. The first 4 miles were not too bad. The remaining 3 became rather steep and tedious. Like almost every pass there was a series of lakes. Unlike most passes, however, it was mostly tree covered due to the lower elevation. It was a nice change to hike a pass and feel like I was in the woods. One of the lakes below Selden was called Heart Lake. I'll give you one guess why. Thats right! You guessed it. It was shaped like a heart. It was actually truly shaped like a heart, also. It was rather spectacular in that respect.
By the time I shot the pass and got down to the North lake of the pass it was already 3pm. Thats when I looked at the maps and realized that I still had 13 miles left in the day to end where I had planned on camping. I put myself into high gear and took off on the trail. I managed to hike those 13 miles by 7:30pm! Baboon got water while I started a fire. I was desperately trying to get the mosquitoes to back off a bit. The camp spot I chose for the night was absolutely infested! I know I mentioned that my tent does not close but I'm not sure I implied just how awful this is while trying to set up in a mosquito hell hole. There is a few moment lapse of time while setting up the base of my tent that exposes the front of my tent to the wide open air. Many mosquitoes take this opportunity to mosey their way into my tent at this time. Then I set up my fly. I have not been guying out the fly's vestibule portion of the tent so that instead I can try to make it as flush with the base of the tent as possible. Its then that I pin it down with rocks to attempt to make a cover for my tent. It works to some degree although there is an unavoidable 2 inches of space between the base and the fly (where the tent pole needs to be) where the mosquitoes can still get in. This set up also does no good at keeping out any crawling insects (although that doesnt really bother me). So by the time I'm ready for bed I can count between 20-40 mosquitoes buzzing around inside my tent. At first I was attempting to remove them from my tent but for every one I got out two would find their way in. I've just been sleeping with a bug net over my face to minimize the bites. Also, because of this fly set up I was crossing my fingers it didn't rain. By setting my tent up this way it took away its waterproof components. If I had any cell service I would call Big Anges (tent company) and see what they could do for me. I guess I just have to wait until Mammoth.
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