Gnats on Palomar?

[Jim Robinson]

Hi, looking for some local knowledge here.  Anyone have a recent gnat report for Palomar?  Are they gone yet?  If not when do they leave?   I'm itching to ride there again but am not sufficiently strong to maintain gnat escape velocity and don't want them all over me all the way up.

Thanks

[karlos]

No replies, eh? In May, I went up South Grade 5 times - no gnats. In fact, I've never encountered gnats on South Grade or East Grade, and East Grade is so exposed, I'm not sure they're even there. Now, the Nate Harrison climb is another story. At 10% for 10 miles, when you hit the shady bits, the gnats are all over you this time of year, although I haven't done that this year. As far as gnat escape velocity is concerned, in our June Alps tour, we noticed that was about 12-13 km/hr. Unfortunately, that's right at my sweet spot on alpine climbs so gnat escape was a constant source of irritation and hilarity. I don't know the difference in speed between Alps gnats and Palomar gnats. Are you thinking about this for this Sunday'rs ride? I would say it shouldn't be an issue.

Karl

[Nigel Rodgers]

gnat escape velocity 

[karlos]

Since we rode it on Sunday, gnat report [most climbed East Grade, I did South]:

• no gnats on East Grade
• half a dozen gnats on South Grade between 44.0 marker and 4000 ft sign, in shade (I actually went up twice and no gnats at all on second pass)
• more gnats in shade on climb to Boucher Lookout in State Park, which starts at the very end of Nate Harrison Grade, so this was somewhat expected as Nate climbs the southwest face and does have a gnat problem

Not enough gnats to ruin the joy of climbing on such a beautiful, relatively (of late) cool day in the sunshine.
Go for it, Jim. This is the best time of year through November for Palomar, imo.
Karl