Black flies in ADK Memorial Day weekend

[Sparkdog]

I've never camped in the Dacks during this time period. Are the black flies at their peak or is it tolerable?

 

[Adk_dib]

memorial day to the 2nd week of june the little buggers are pretty bad. I usually go down to the catskills for that month to hike. I have never camped during that time period but expect them to be out in full force, especially this year. Bring plenty of bug spray and netting.

 

[Nessmuk]

memorial day to the 2nd week of june the little buggers are pretty bad. I usually go down to the catskills for that month to hike. I have never camped during that time period but expect them to be out in full force, especially this year. Bring plenty of bug spray and netting.

Don't plan to sit around and enjoy yourself relaxing. I keep moving all day and that helps a lot. Learn to tolerate their constant annoyance. Even if you can keep them from biting with repellent and headnets, the annoyance factor alone can be extreme enough to drive some people mad. Memorial Day weekend can be right up there near peak, which is usually a couple of weeks later. Peak weeks vary from year to year, but that's only relative (kind of like saying a temperature of -20 is better than -40 if you know what I mean). You can usually count on that weekend to be quite bad in any given year.

 

[rdl]

Tolerable is a relative term...

But I have sworn off camping/hiking in the Adirondacks from Memorial Day Wknd through late June.

My patience with black flies wear's thin pretty quickly

Bob

 

[Nessmuk]

Tolerable is a relative term...

But I have sworn off camping/hiking in the Adirondacks from Memorial Day Wknd through late June.

My patience with black flies wear's thin pretty quickly

Bob

Nothing personal against Bob here, but he and other kind folks like him make fly season one of the best times to go for solitude (discounting the bugs, of course).

 

[Pete_Hickey]

You can usually count on that weekend to be quite bad in any given year.

Usually, but not always. Over the past 10 years, there have been a number of memorial day weekends with no blackflies. At least on the day we've done trailwork.... Lets see... a few years ago, when it was snowing... None that time. Then we didn'T have any those days it was pouring rain. Then, '99 was a nice sunny day, and there were very few out, but that was unusual.

You might be lucky, and it will be pouring rain the whole time you are there.

 

[Nessmuk]

Usually, but not always. Over the past 10 years, there have been a number of memorial day weekends with no blackflies. At least on the day we've done trailwork.... Lets see... a few years ago, when it was snowing... None that time. Then we didn'T have any those days it was pouring rain. Then, '99 was a nice sunny day, and there were very few out, but that was unusual.

You might be lucky, and it will be pouring rain the whole time you are there.

Yup. In a different thread not long ago I stated I had one glorious Memorial Day weekend several years ago out with a bunch of boy scouts, perfect blue sky weather and warm temps with near zero bugs of any kind. I was in the damp western 'daks BRWF where bugs would be if nowhere else. But that one of a kind MD experience was so dreamy and unusual I didn't want to raise false hopes to anyone here on this thread.

 

[Sara]

I wouldn't completely swear off hiking/camping/canoeing in the dak's during Memorial Day Weekend. It really fluctuates year to year, and even within the same year depends on where you are. Last year ADacKr and I had a great 4 day hike around the perimeter of the Seward range and had very few problems w/ black flies except on our last day 2-3 miles when the temps spiked after a rain shower.

Canoe camping is another great option, especially if you can find a point with a nice breeze. Many people are afraid of the dak's during this time so we find lots of great camping/canoeing w/ few people. Good Luck!