THE WindRiver's

I know what you're thinking. "Oh, how peaceful that is." Or, "Wow, looks like a relaxing place to be."

Well, think almost the exact opposite of these two statements and then you'll get an idea of what I and my fellow trekkers were going through during this evening.

We were viciously attacked by marauding, thuggish, sketchy, gangs of mosquitoes. I'm talking hardcore, DEET can't stop us, devil insects.

I've been in the mountains a lot during mosquito season and frankly wondered why I heard so many people whine about the bugs, they hadn't really bothered me much. My reality was shifted here. For this shot I was handholding a GND filter in front of the lens, and as I was waiting for the 10 second timer to fire the shot, helpless, I watched about 20 land on my exposed hands and attack. The only exposed part of my face was my eyes and they kept dive bombing in and out, at times biting my eyelids.

My 4 fellow backpackers weren't faring much better. When I returned to the fire, it was clear everyone was skating on thin ice. One of my friends was shadow boxing, punching at the air and yelling obscenities at the masses of "skeeters". Finally after dark, they relented. Which allowed us to sit around the fire and talk about how much we hated mosquitoes for another hour or two before we went to bed.

Fortunately, our next camp site was much better in the bug department, and the unprovoked attack of the bugs is now just a new campfire story for another trip.

Oh, the shot turned out pretty good I guess.

Windriver's Mountain Range, Wyoming.