What happened.
Weighing all the good advice from VFTTers and some others, in particular my daughter, who has had much mosquito camping experience with the Girl Scouts, I decided that attempting to net the open front of our Roaring Brook lean-to, even though it was a small one, would be too cumbersome, putting aside how well it would work. Instead, I planned to rig a net canopy over the upper half of my air mattress (one of those thick Ozark Trails jobs sold at Wal-Mart), using two thin sticks, duct tape and some netting.
The sticks, tape and netting stayed in the truck - there were no mosquitoes, from our arrival around four p.m. Wed. until our departure very early yesterday morning for the Marston Trailhead, although some were beginning to stir as we left. Same thing on the Trails, until we were back to the Slide Dam parking area for the Marston this afternoon. The Deet stayed in my pack. I surmise that the cool, dry air that came in overnight Tues./Wed. after the big storms Tues. that broke the heat wave drove the mosquitoes into a temporary funk.
The hikes, incidentally, gave me more enjoyment than any that I can recall in a span of two-plus days. Arriving late Wed. afternoon, we hadn't planned to hike, but the perfect crystal atmosphere, which gave us wonderful vistas of the Katahdin Range as we drove up from Millinocket, had me dragging out my map, and I saw that a 2-mile trail led right from Roaring Brook to the summit of So. Turner, said to have great views. We hustled up, since the hour was late, and the 15 minutes we spent on the bare summit (alone, naturally, at that hour) beat any intoxicant. The views were sublime all around but the east side of the Katahdin Range, five miles off, gripped us, from Pamola and the Knife Edge's serrations to Hamlin and the two magnificent basins it divides - in the shade but with every detail clear.
On Thursday, starting early, we did the "Great Basin perimeter" hike - H. Taylor/Knife Edge/Saddle/Northwest Basin/Hamlin Ridge/Chimney Pond. I thought the toughest stretch was not Knife Edge but pounding down the interminable and unrelieved boulders of Hamlin Ridge, at a time when my quads (prone to tendonitis) were turning to hypersensitive jelly. (Ice and Advil worked wonders afterwards, however.)
Friday, starting earlier, with humidity up and visibility down, we drove over to the Slide Dam trailhead and did the Coe/Brothers loop, counterclockwise to ascend the Coe slide. Coe was socked in but we had fine views from both Brothers. That .3-mile spur trail to So. Brother is a tough little stretch, little-hiked from its looks and with some very scrambly bits. Well worth it for the excellent views of Katahdin's west side, Coe to the south and Doubletop with its own dramatic slides to the west. For some reason, hardly anyone seems to be hiking these trails, at least this summer.
With gratitude!
