I went back and forth on the third rule of camping and fishing in Southeast Alaska, but I decided that it wasn’t nearly a rule as much as a suggestion. It has apparently been a long-running joke in Alaska that the official state bird is the Mosquito. During the day it seems like they’re out in layers. After my experiences there I can genuinely understand the idea behind it. They are there and boy are they thick. My rule/suggestion is to bring something, anything, everything you can to combat biting bugs. The mosquitos are so thick at times that you feel like you could cut through them with a knife, but there’s another critter that’s equally pervasive and obnoxious; the noseeum.

“Ain’t nothing but teeth and butthole,” is the way George often described them.

He wasn’t wrong either. Any exposed skin would likely start to feel a small sharp tinge before becoming a fully fledged bite. You’d slap at it and scratch at it, but you’d rarely find the culprit. They’re certainly aptly named; “no-see-um.”