[Aerkuld]

Thanks for the tip Marv. This particular trip was in the mid '80's and we were visiting from the UK so we were limited to whatever time of year that was, probably mid to late August. To be fair the mosquito problem was limited to one camp site that we spent one night in. It looked perfect, a pretty little meadow close to a stream. It was actually perfect up to dusk when the mosquitos arrived. There must have been clouds of them and you could hear the high pitched whine as they came in at you like an attack of stukkas. Little b@stards, it was bloody miserable. Once we got out of there it was no problem. I think it was that trip that we did Elizabeth pass and 11,375 feet was a exciting for me when the biggest elevation in Britian is Ben Nevis at 4,406. If I recall, we spent a week and a half backpacking up there and when I got back to the UK my work sent me on a three week Outward Bound course in Wales. After trekking around the High Sierras that was a walk in the park and a nice way to 'wind down' from my vacation!
The bear experiences may have been the same trip, but I'm not sure. I recall we had to hike in quite a long way on the first day as the rangers had warned us of the bears at the first of the camps that you'd get too on the hike in. Apparently the bears had learnt that people staying there are loaded up with food so they stood to gain a good haul if they hung around that site. We ended up hiking in to Bearpaw Meadow and staying there for the night. It was a bit too much for my mom and little sister and we had to leave their pack on the trail with my uncle while we hiked to the camp with them. Dad and I then left our packs at camp with the ladies and hiked back to pick up my uncle and the other packs. We arrived in the dark to a welcome meal though! It was Bearpaw Meadow where the ranger had to extract the bear that had half fallen into the toilet pit and got stuck. That couldn't have been fun.