Wednesday, 16-Jul-02:
Departed Pleasanton around 2:45pm. Paid a visit to the
Hi-Tec outlet in Oakdale. Stopped for gas in Sonora. Picked up our wilderness
permit from the after-hours box at the Summit Ranger Station at Pinecrest
Lake at 5:45pm, then took a quick tour of the lake and filled out water
bottles. Departed 6:15pm. Got to Kennedy Meadows 6:45pm, bought a couple
of sandwiches at the restaurant. Found the unsigned turnoff to Leavitt
Lake about 7:45pm. Road
wasn’t too bad, only took us about 20 mins. Several other groups camped
at the lake. Found a decent campsite amid some Whitebark Pines, then ate
our sandwiches around 8:45pm. Dramatic sunset colors- photo
1, photo
2.
Thursday, 17-Jul-02:
Woke 6:30am, glorious day, not cold (upper 50’s?). Hit
the trail 8:30am, quite cool and cloudy. Made the 1 mile, 1000’ climb
to Leavitt Lake Pass in one hour! Stopped at the top, ate, took photos-
Darren,
Paul. Sun
came out. Tower Peak dominates view to the south. Lots of storms to southeast.
Started down at 10:00am, got to the saddle above Kennedy Canyon just before
11:00am. Steep downhill was tough on legs and knees. Met Bill from Oakland
and his cousin Mike from Indiana. Took a nap, ate lunch, hit the trail
again 12:15pm.
Topped Big Sam just before 2:00pm, we were concerned about lightning, as there was a huge storm north of us and we could hear thunder, even got sprinkled a bit. But our luck held, not only no storm but it’s clearing nicely. Sun is warm, the air still and cool. Gorgeous panoramas- Darren, Paul, both. Hit the trail 2:30pm. Coming down from Big Sam, we could see High Emigrant Lake and others a few miles away. Darren thought I looked like a pack with legs.
Made High Emigrant Lake just before 4:00pm. The slog down from Big Sam seemed longer than 2.5 miles. Our feet were getting sore and our bodies tired. Found a flat, sandy rise next to the lake’s outlet and pitched camp. Relaxed for a while and soaked our feet in the cold water, then saw a man and boy fishing (they are probably the occupants of a big dome tent we saw next to Red Rug Lake. Man said the boy had caught three trout earlier that day on lures, biggest was 16”.
Lots of skeeters. Darren and I made Mandarin Orange Chicken for dinner along with cup-a-soup. The chicken we pretty good. I tried some dusk fly fishing, rises everywhere but I had no luck. Maybe the flies I brought are too large. Went to bed just before 9:00pm, tired and sore.
Friday, 18-Jul-02:
Woke 6:00am, got out about 6:45am. Had a light rain during
the night. Feeling pretty good, not too cold, no wind. Had the omelette
with sliced salami and cheese, pretty decent and quite filling.
Took a walk up the knob above us to the west, chose a destination for our day hike and headed back down to camp. 9:00am- cleaned up the breakfast frying pan and dishes, organized camp and took a short nap.
Left for Emigrant Meadow Lake at 10:00am. Saw the biggest rabbit we’d ever seen in our lives, bigger than any cat and many dogs as well. Emigrant Meadow Lake was a mystery because it didn’t seem to have an outlet stream, but we finally discovered it on the far (west) side, draining down through a lovely, scenic meadow that bends south and then back to the west before the stream enters Middle Emigrant Lake. These are the headwaters of Cherry Creek, with many cascades and pools rife with small trout. Emigrant Meadow Lake and Emigrant Meadow look like fishing paradise. Climbed the ridge on the west side of Emigrant Meadow, easy route but a fairly tough slog. Couldn’t climb the last 100’ to the actual peak but great views anyways from a lower knob at 12:15pm- panorama 1, panorama 2. Could see back to High Emigrant Lake and peaks beyond, and Grizzly Peak to the east. The Saurian Crest, a huge wall-like formation, dominated the view south, along with Quartzite and Bigelow Peaks. We headed back at 1:00pm, had to make our way through some challenging terrain. The countryside was resplendent with wildflowers of all colors, mats of blues, violets, yellows, whites, and reds. Got back to camp 2:45pm.
Closed our eyes for a bit, then filtered some drinking water. Later, I fished (skunked again) while Darren hiked the easy ridge south of us. Darren took photos of Grizzly Peak and some interesting volcanic rock formations. Four hikers showed up and set up camp near us. They had no tent and were sleeping under the stars. They fished with lures and bait, and nearly immediately caught a couple fat 12” – 14” beauties. Damn them. They also had brought along a stereo and turned on some music. Hard to imagine that anyone would enter this special wilderness and do that, not to mention the lack of consideration towards other hikers.
Darren and I had two packages of Beef Stroganoff for dinner, it was quite good. I went for a swim, dove off the rock near our tent. Surprisingly, the water wasn’t all that cold so I swam around for a bit. Very refreshing. I fished again with a big, black, weighted nymph and finally hooked and fought a strong trout, maybe 14”, but I got impatient and tried to land him too quickly, and he snapped my leader. Still, I was glad to have hooked and fought him. We packed it in for the night before 9:00pm and then discovered that Darren had a nasty sunburn on his neck, and that he’d also been eaten alive by mosquitoes- not nice. A wee bit o’ scotch helped us sleep.
Saturday, 19-Jul-02:
Got up 6:55am and decided to hike at least part of the
way back, due to Darren’s sunburn and skeeter bites. Had a quick breakfast
of oatmeal and some dried fruit, then packed up. Hit the trail at 8:50am,
topped
Big Sam 9:45am- amazing! What studs. Darren had us play a game of taking
turns naming bands and singers starting with A, then B, etc. That really
helped us keep our minds off the hard ascent.
Hung out for a bit at the top, then headed down towards Kennedy Canyon. Met a couple of solo hikers on the way down from Big Sam. One guy and his dog, Astro, were doing the hike to High Emigrant Lake and back as an overnighter. The next guy had started at Tahoe and was headed for Whitney. We made the Kennedy Canyon trail junction at 12:15am and dropped our packs for some rest and sustenance. We also decided to make this a long rest, then hike back to Leavitt Lake and drive home that evening.
Hit the trail again 2:15pm, saw a few more hikers. The
trip back up was really tough, with some sporadic light rain, but we got
to the top of Leavitt Lake Pass at 3:15pm. The light rain turned into a
brief hailstorm! At the junction with the PCT, we met a couple who had
started in April at the Mexican border and were headed for the Canadian
border. We hustled down and got to the car just before 4:00pm- hooray!
Changed clothes and headed back to civilization.