They warned us in the original email.

Bring bug spray.

The wife, in her wisdom, bought me not one, but two cans of Off!. Upon first arrival, I was one of the most popular people in camp. Three people had borrowed my can before I could even walk away from the truck. And even with DEET on, the mosquitoes were dense.

We were fortunate to have in our midst one of the state's resident mosquito experts. And yes, he pointed out we were in the county with the state's highest incidence of West Nile. But we also learned that most of what was bothering us was Aedes mosquitoes.

Which rarely carry the West Nile virus. The Culex genus, which often carries WNV, usually doesn't become active until near dark. But I suspect none of the group actually worries about West Nile, except for their horses.

About half the crew bided their time waiting for dinner outside with the bugs

while the rest took refuge in the screened porch.

After dinner, a friend and I hiked down the valley to some petroglyphs. And found the mosquitoes were even worse when you got away from camp.

In our approximately two-mile hike I inhaled eleven (yes, eleven!) mosquitoes. Two of those up my nostrils.

Yes, I swallowed. All eleven. Fair's fair, you know.

I wondered aloud why there weren't any swallows out trying to eat the annoying pests. And almost immediately afterwards, we saw why.

They were all sitting on the wires.

Stuffed with mosquitoes, no doubt.

Later, I found it difficult to get a picture of the sunset without getting the shadow of a mosquito in the frame.

And playing with the camera's flash lit the night up with pseudo-fireflies.

Despite the screening, many mosquitoes made it into the Mess Hall to annoy and bite the late night card players.

Our table collected our kills in a neat little mosquito cemetery.

Presumably most of those were the more dangerous Culex.

Tuesday night's card games were much the same

but the evening's thunderstorm cooled things down, which slowed the bugs.

Increasing our kill rate.

Being true biologists, we counted the night's harvest before heading to our cabins around midnight.

62.

The bugs still won. The wife and I counted over 120 mosquito bites on me when I got home.