| Emigrant Wilderness trip, September 9-12, 2002 |
|
After moving out to California, I decided it was time for a backpacking trip
up into the Sierra Nevada. I headed off into the Emigrant Wilderness in Stanislaus
National Forest. Emigrant is the wilderness area just to the north of Yosemite
National Park. I drove up from Oakland Monday morning, and started out around
noon from the Crabtree trailhead at an elevation of 7200'. The first afternoon
was spent trudging uphill, east into the wilderness past Camp Lake and Piute
Meadow to Piute Lake, elevation 7865' (see pictures below), about 8.1 miles
from Crabtree.
Pictures from Day 1
The following day the trail continued east, crossing the West Fork of Cherry
Creek, then climbing up to Gem Lake, Jewlery Lake, and finally Deer Lake (el.
8461'). The trail kept climbing past Deer Lake to a crest at about 8700', then
dropped down to the north end of the Buck Lakes, where I finally stopped for
lunch. The trail then turned northwest along Buck Meadow, then began switching
back up a ridge to a saddle at 9000' overlooking Emigrant Lake. The trail then
followed the north edge of the lake for over a mile, often just a couple feet
from the waters edge, with an imposing bench rising close to 1000' above the
lake. Here I came across four guys who had set up camp in the rocks near the
end of the lake. They were amazed that I had hiked all the way from Piute Lake
in basically half a day, as it had taken them two days to make the same trip.
But I also didn't have all the fishing gear and other stuff they appeared to
be carrying. Plus I hike fast (long legs help). The second day ended near the
east end of Emigrant Lake, 7.3 miles from Piute Lake, and about 1000' higher.
I camped right along the north shore of the lake and spent the rest of the afternoon
sitting in the sun by the lake cooling my feet off in the water. Two other hikers
had apparetly carried inflatable tube things up to the lake for fishing and
floated by with the wind, heading back to their campsite at the west end of
the lake.
Pictures from Day 2
Day three began with a turn to the north and an ascent up a glacial valley
to Mosquito Pass (el. 9360', the highest point on the hike). From there I descended
into the Summit Creek valley, which serves as a dividing line between the rounded
granit peaks that dominate the southern two thirds of the wilderness and the
sharp volcanic mountains to the north. The trail turned to the west to follow
along the north side of Summit Creek. The valley gradually grew deeper, and
the creek went through a series of short waterfalls and chutes, one of which
provided a nice resting stop for lunch. As I continued down the valley I passed
a group of about eight people on horseback coming up the valley, obviously on
a guided tour of some kind. About 20 minutes later I passed the pack train with
all their gear (at least 10 mules). Finally the valley began to widen and open
up as it joined with the Relief Creek valley coming in from the west. After
descending down to the valley floor the trail turned west to cross Relief Creek
at about 7520', downstream from its confluence with Summit Creek After almost
9 miles, the fun was just begining as the trail followd Relief Creek west up
to the Lower Relief Valley, and then up another sharp incline to the Upper Relief
Valley, an elevation gain of about 1200' in just over 3 miles. Near the top
of the valley I passed a National Forset crew improving the trail that looked
like they'd been out for at least a month. Total mileage for the day, 12.3,
with close to 2000' total elevation gain. I setup camp near a large bulge of
granite at the mouth of the upper valley. The view bulge made the trip well
worth it. Immeadietly to the west Relief Creek drained out of two odd-shaped
lakes and down a long series of short waterfalls, with the steep cliffs around
Relief Peak (el. 10808') just to the northeast.
Pictures from Day 3
The final day continued to the southwest across more gentle terrain to Whitesides
Meadow, then climbeb briefly up and over a ridge to Lake Valley and Chewing
Gum Lake. The trail continued to climb up to a ridge offering views to the east
of the valleys crossed during days 1 and 2. From the crest of the ridge at about
8840' the trail was a seemingly endless downhill (4 miles) to the trailhead
at Crabtree, ending a 10.4 mile hike in time for lunch.
Pictures from Day 4
Total mileage: 38.1