Cathedral Rock, Peggy's Pond — Sunday, Aug. 2, 2009

Snoqualmie Region > Salmon La Sac/Teanaway

LEaving the trailhead from the meadows parking lot the trail is nice and shaded from the early morning sun. The trail is a moderate climb for 1.8 miles to the junction to Cathedral Rock. A nice break spot is not far at Squaw Lake. The traversing trail (Peggy's Pond) is a little difficult for those that are unfamiliar with off trail travel. Go slow and stay high when in question. Welcome to Peggy's Pond & Mt. Daniels. I am renaming this place Mosquitoe pond and Mosquitoe Mountain. 98.11% DEET (Jungle Juice) is nothing to these biting critters. Deep Woods Off only attracts them. My clothes were pre-treated with some expensive spray on stuff. NOTHING WORKS HERE. We made camp FAST and dove in the tents. These bugs swarmed the tents. They stuck to our tent waiting for my blood. Early morning the same conditions. Packed up for summit run on Daniels. Getting on the ridge wasnt to hard, we started from the creek via glacier route. Those mosquitoes were on us up to 7000 ft. They never backed off. Lot's of variation climbers trails up the SE ridge. Choose any of them and they will all meet together. I wish we took more direct route up the glacier, veer right up snow finger or obvious rock slope, veer left under false summit, cross to west summit. This place should be a proving ground for bug spray. Again, NOTHING WORKED AT ALL. These guys were landing on my bottle of DEET. Taking pic's was not very possible. 7 mosquitoes bit me on the face last one I tried to take. I've never packed up camp so fast to get out of there. I am writing this swollen and itchy. I feel weak from loss of so much blood, one bite at a time. Hiker Beware!!!