Althouse: In the Kettle Moraine.

August 6, 2010

In the Kettle Moraine.

It's very pretty here, but the mosquitoes are insane.

34 comments:

Original Mike said...: The mosquitoes are not insane. They know exactly what they are doing.; 8/6/10, 5:37 PM
chickelit said...: Isn't this Garage Mahal's favorite spot on earth?

Are you pandering to him now?; 8/6/10, 5:39 PM
Phil 314 said...: Do we have to go over the Wisconsin and mountains thing again?

PS Mosquitos,don't miss 'em.; 8/6/10, 5:41 PM
Fred4Pres said...: Piney woods!; 8/6/10, 5:43 PM
Irene said...: I'll bet the mosquitoes are as big as turkeys! Probably harder to photograph, though.; 8/6/10, 6:08 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I bet mosquitoes are on the side of building the mosque in NYC ;); 8/6/10, 6:24 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: tough crowd.; 8/6/10, 6:26 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: What you need is some protection.; 8/6/10, 6:27 PM
Unknown said...: That really is magnificent, Madame.

PS How many sane mosquitoes do you know?; 8/6/10, 6:34 PM
chickelit said...: Lem wrote: I bet mosquitoes are on the side of building the mosque in NYC ;)

@Lem: Doesn't mosquito mean little fly in Spanish?

BTW, what's so fly about "Spanish Fly"?; 8/6/10, 6:47 PM
Phil 314 said...: Ok the mosquitos are bad but what about the deer flies ?; 8/6/10, 6:47 PM
knox said...: Mosquitos? Dealbreaker.; 8/6/10, 6:55 PM
knox said...: Irene!

We love our goldendoodle. She started out black when we got her in May, and she's already silver, more white than black, really. But she's a great, low-maintenance puppy. Housetrained, not destructive. Good with the kids.; 8/6/10, 6:56 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: you are right Pollo.. as usual ;)

what's so fly about "Spanish Fly"?

a fly ball? a song by Engelbert Humperdinck?

i have no idea..

oh wait the Hump song is Spanish eyes!; 8/6/10, 7:01 PM
Irene said...: Knox! I am so delighted to hear the good news. Perhaps her color is similar the shade called "blue."

I have never had a destructive poodle, and I am so pleased by your report.; 8/6/10, 7:01 PM
Meade said...: Hey, knox got a goldendoodle!
Meade got puppyenvy.; 8/6/10, 7:03 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: The Sox lead the Yanks 4 to 2..

Please nobody tell Trooper until is over.; 8/6/10, 7:03 PM
Meade said...: And let me tell you about those Kettle Moraine Mosquitoes. Never have I seen anything like it. Clouds, I tell you, CLOUDS of mosquitoes enveloped us as we hiked. So we hiked super fast!; 8/6/10, 7:06 PM
chickelit said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/6/10, 7:30 PM
chickelit said...: Clouds, I tell you, CLOUDS of mosquitoes enveloped us as we hiked. So we hiked super fast!

I found myself in that situation in Colorado once. I was hiking up Mt Richtofen once which is ca 10 or 12k feet if I recall correctly. We had ascended up through a sparsely vegetated pathway and hadn't noticed any bugs at all.

On the way down, we decided to go through a forested pathway because we had caught site of a roadway which would take us back to where we wanted to end up.

Hiking down a thousand feet or so, we noticed that mosquitoes were getting more and more numerous. Soon it was unbearable and we had to keep moving faster and faster. Even that wasn't enough and we decided to split up and start running downhill
"See you at the bottom"

I started running through the wild forest, dodging trees and little brooklets (it was springtime). Tiny ravines and fallen trees became just obstacles instead of things to look at.

Then suddenly, breaking through some brush and bramble, I came face-to-face with an enormous female elk- 10 or 15 feet away tops--she froze as did I. I'm glad it wasn't a bear or a predator. The mosquitoes enveloped me again and I had to part ways with that elk after just a few seconds. I left her instead of the other way around.; 8/6/10, 7:34 PM
Michael Haz said...: The Scuppernong Trail is my favorite. Good hiking trail; great skiing trail.

Mosquitos? Sheesh. It's summer in Wisconsin. They aren't unexpected.

Get rid of all perfumes in your soap, shampoo, cream, deodorant, hairspray, detergent and dryer sheets. Wear mosquito net hats, long pants and sleeves, and spritz with deet as necessary. Not difficult to deal with.; 8/6/10, 7:49 PM
chickelit said...: Haz: I was 18 at the time and probably hadn't bathed in a day or two. "Soap, shampoo, cream, deodorant, hairspray, detergent and dryer sheets" weren't a factor in my encounter. Maybe BO, sweat and CO2 were. Those mosquitoes were just hungry!; 8/6/10, 8:02 PM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: My gee whiz mosquito story was up the Taku River about thirty miles from Juneau. I was nineteen. This was birchy, aldery, marshy, beaver pond country. As long as we stayed in the skiff on the river we were OK, but when we pulled over to explore we got eaten alive. We three stood in a circle and beat the mosquitoes off each others' backs. That night we stayed in a Forest Service cabin and got massacred. In the morning we discovered we hadn't closed the cabin's window screen.; 8/6/10, 8:19 PM
Meade said...: Easy for you with your extraordinarily low pH to say, Michael. We happen to be naturally sweet. So sweet that the little vampires pierce right through the Deet. And we never use soap, shampoo, or deodorant.

sheesh!

El Pollo: Great story. You Really Shouldn't Be Alive!; 8/6/10, 8:25 PM
kjbe said...: I just talked to a friend who's biked Kettle Moraine recently (I don't know if it was North or South). He said the mosquitos were just terrible - so bad I think they said they've closed some trails. It sounded like you couldn't even out run them on a bike.; 8/6/10, 8:30 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "Get rid of all perfumes in your soap, shampoo, cream, deodorant, hairspray, detergent and dryer sheets."

What about sunscreen???

"Wear mosquito net hats, long pants and sleeves, and spritz with deet as necessary. Not difficult to deal with."

We used DEET. That's the thing. Didn't really get bitten, but it's disturbing to have them swarming all around.

I would simply pick a different hike! Go to Kettle Moraine some other time.

Also the foliage blocked the good views.; 8/6/10, 8:32 PM
knox said...: Irene, if you want, email me at the address on my profile and I'll send you photos.; 8/6/10, 8:38 PM
Irene said...: Thanks, Knox.; 8/6/10, 9:07 PM
Unknown said...: Meade said...

And let me tell you about those Kettle Moraine Mosquitoes. Never have I seen anything like it. Clouds, I tell you, CLOUDS of mosquitoes enveloped us as we hiked. So we hiked super fast!

Try up above the line in Canada. The skeeters there are fearsome. Louis L'Amour related some of the experiences of the Metis, who saw the bugs all but suck the life out of oxen.; 8/6/10, 9:27 PM
Meade said...: Hey, Lem, did I hear right? Is it possible that the Red Sox have actually Pulled Within Five Games of the Yankees?; 8/6/10, 10:56 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Yes they have Meade.

We pulled off a squeaker tonight. the yanks had the tying run on the on deck circle.

we are playing against them 3 more times so theoretically we still have a shot at this thing.; 8/6/10, 11:02 PM
Omaha1 said...: The skeeters are bad throughout the midwest this year. Widespread flooding has given them a lot of extra wetlands in which to reproduce. DEET is the only answer, although I do like Chip's idea.; 8/7/10, 6:50 AM
Wince said...: I wish the mosquitoes were rational.

I've always fantasized that it'd be much easier to offer the mosquitoes, as a group, a pool of donated blood at the beginning of the summer, in exchange for them leaving us alone.

Kind of like the Obama foreign policy, minus the obsequiousness and bowing.; 8/7/10, 11:19 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: "It's very pretty here, but the mosquitoes are insane."

Shit, that's how I feel about this blog.; 8/7/10, 11:44 PM