Hey folks, my memory is fading since 02 and I have a specific question. How are the bugs around Great Barrington? What is the usual bug cycle for the summer? By that I mean, when do the black flies go away, when are the mosquitoes the worst, etc. I’m looking at spending some time there in late July/early August and I’m wondering what to expect. I seem to remember some parts of MA being really bad, but I didn’t write about it in my journal.
Thanks.
Wedding Singer
I have only hiked 500 miles of trail but the section from Kent to Cheshire were some of the worse bugs I have ever experienced. I used deet it was so bad. It was in 2003 and early August so I suppose all the rains in spring could have contributed to this, but I think I have read many others describe summer hiking in Mass to be very buggy as well.
tribes
That stretch after Jug End before East Mountain Retreat, the swamp?..sucked. We ran it. I’ve never seen skeeters so thick. Elbows looked like pin cushions. If its warm and wet WS you’ll bleed for sure, sorry. But it was still cool.
Bushwhack & Bramble
I guess it depends on the time of summer, though also depends much on the year and weather patterns. When I section hiked here in late June the skeeters were Awful. Sectioned again in late August and they were pretty bad too. On my thru-hike I came thru first week of June and they were pretty minimal, but that was a very weird, cold, rainy “summer”.
I’ve spent many summers near there, about a mile from Sages Ravine, working at a summer camp. Usuaully the bugs were worst in late june and died down later in the summer. Bushwack is dead on though. After you descend Jug End, the next 5-7 miles of flat ground is hell. Makes you wish you were climbing!
A-Train
When I hiked thru that area the last of May, the mosquitos were the worst I had encountered on the enire trail. I had to jog thru areas to keep from being eaten alive. Good luck!
Pancho
May and Early June are the worse for mosquitos. The Mass AT is in the process of being drowned in many spots because of beaver activity. In the late 1990s we passed a stupid law by referendum that no longer allowed traps to be used to hunt beaver. Since then the population has exploded, no one is hunting them. This makes for a very wet Mass AT, even if it doesnot rain much
Chef
the trail in mass. is in a lot of swamps, because this was the this land that could not be developed and no one wanted it. unfortunately this made of a lot of bog bridging and bugs. July and August are the bad months and if it is not windy you can expect to live in a tent.
FLETCH
The section though the Housatonic River Valley and across Route 7 used to be a road walk. Now, the trail has been relocated onto bog bridges through the low areas. Might be a good place to blue blaze and follow the old road walk. I’d suggest a yellow blaze, but there isn’t enough traffic.
Peaks
I live in MA, I have found the bugs to be very bad on the AT in MA.
Bring Deet and a tent,(if you do not bring a tent you will not sleep) from May to August. If you get a real dry season that helps. But there is so much standing water around, a breading ground for these bugs. Last year when I hiked in MA, in the middle of August, I was eaten alive, and that’s even with using the deet. The higher spots were better because of the wind. Don’t get discouraged because MA is a nice state to hike. Be sure to stop at Upper Goose Pond, it is 1/2 a mile in, for $ 3.00 you stay in a dry place and have pancakes in the morning. With a beautiful pond to swim in.
Good luck with the Bugs.
“The Key to happiness is having dreams; the key to success is making them come true”
Happy Trails
POOH-BEAR
POOH-BEAR
Great Barrington?? Isnt that the place where the silent retreat is? Even the cats at that place didint talk. Very strange. But I do remember that lady’s yard being full of mosqitoes. That was around late August I believe. Hey Wedding! Whats up man??? Do you ever work. Ok,ok me either. I just got back from Naples it was cool.
Virginian
OK folks, point taken with the bugs - I thought that’s what I remembered, but thanks for refreshing my memory.
Virginian, been meaning to contact you. I’m engaged! (and yes, I’m working too) I guess I’m getting ready to be Wedded Singer. The bug post is actually in regards to wedding planning. We’re thinking about getting married in the Berkshires, but maybe there’d be less bugs in Vermont.
Hope all’s well in Rockville. Come up to Boston sometime, and bring some of that moonshine with you. Is that Naples, FL or Naples Italy you went to?
Wedding Singer