Trip Report: 5 Days in the Emigrant Wilderness

Day One

7.2 mi, +1,330 ft, -921 ft

We began day one by stopping in Sonoma to grab some extra supplies from Safeway. For some reason, we decided it would be a good idea to purchase a steak, with the plan being to eat it for dinner that night.

Once we reached Pinecrest, we drove up past the pack station to Crabtree Trailhead. We hit the trail around 12:30, a somewhat lazy start.

We stopped for water at Lily Lake, and considered setting up camp for the night, but decided to push on a little further. It was only 5 PM and we had plenty of daylight.

The descent into Piute Meadow was a bit painful on tired feet. The trail was pretty steep and rocky, with a number of switchbacks. According to my notes, I fell on my ass sometime during this descent, however I have no recollection of the circumstances.

We setup camp around 7 PM in a rocky area just south of Piute Meadow, east of the creek. The water in the creek was pretty stale, but we were able to find a few areas that were flowing enough to be comfortable filtering it. We had hoped to make it all the way to Cherry Creek, but with our slow start we ran out of daylight.

The steak ended up being tastier than I expected, however the cleanup was less than ideal. A bit too greasy, especially while trying to leave no trace and minimize the risk of a bear encounter.

Day Two

7.3 mi, +1,183 ft, -1,022 ft

According to my notes, the night was warm and I slept well. Apparently Minhtam forgot to inflate his sleeping pad, and somehow this went unnoticed by both myself and Anderson. Poor guy.

We stopped at Cherry Creek for some early lunch. There was plenty of flowing water, and Anderson spotted a few fish.

The trail led us southwest down the valley, following the creek. We stopped for a swim before making our ascent up to Rosasco Lake. There were a ton of great swimming holes formed where the water was channeled over granite slabs. Definitely could have spent a day there.

Finding the trail to lead us out of the valley was our first real navigational challenge. We ended up missing by a few hundred yards, and were led up a steep scramble over lots of shale. It was a bit sketchy.

In a few places, I had to drop my pack and scout ahead, in hopes of finding the easiest way up. Eventually we were able to rejoin the real trail, and things became a lot easier from there. We reached the top around 4 PM.

We chatted with an older gentleman who was fishing at Rosasco Lake. He had astonishingly little gear, and told us how he eats those Trader Joes cheese crackers for dinner when he can't catch a fish. This did not seem like enough food, but we wished him luck and headed on our way.

It was easy going from the lake as we headed down into the next valley. Things became a little more difficult when the trail forked and we began heading south. There was a fair bit of bushwhacking involved and even some light scrambling. Cairns guided our way.

Eventually the vegetation cleared up and we were spat out into a vast granite basin. The views were awesome. At this point the trail was all but gone, so we worked our way across the enourmous stone slabs, looping south around peak 8352.

As we got closer to Big Lake, we were led up a steep gully and onto a poorly marked trail that appeared to circumnavigate the lake. We made our way to the shoreline and set up camp around 7 PM.

Our bear hang was disastrous. It took over 45 minutes to get right. I think this finally convinced Anderson to buy a canister.

Day Three

4.1 mi, +737 ft, -522 ft

Day three was our chill day, so we took the morning slowly. I spent some time inventorying our food and reorganizing my gear. We had a nice granite beach near our site, so refilling water was a pleasant task.

Anderson insists on bringing a camp chair. His philosophy regarding gear is to just bring what he wants and to not worry about weight. It's easy to make fun of, until you get to sit in a camp chair while filtering water. Then it kinda makes sense.

Before leaving, myself and Anderson swam out to a rocky island. I'm a decent swimmer but I was pretty out of breath by the time I reached the other side. Alpine swimming is difficult!

Our day's hiking began with a climb up what is known as the golden staircase. This involved following a discoloration in the granite, where (presumably) water flows down to the lake during rain and snowmelt.

We took in some pretty stunning views of Big Lake. I managed to sunburn the back of my legs pretty bad. I switched to my pants pretty quick after that. Oops.

Pingree Lake marked the approximate summit of our trip, somewhere around 8,000 ft. We encountered one other group as we passed through, the first people we'd seen since Rosasco Lake the day prior. We refilled our bottles and continued on.

We reached the fork from the day before, and followed the familiar trail back towards Rosasco Lake. We set up camp at the lake around 4:30 PM. The man from yesterday was still there, unfortunately reporting that he had not seen a single fish.

Anderson had brought a collapsable fishing rod, so we took a stab at it. Realizing that none of us knew any fishing knots, we gave up pretty quick.

Frustrated from yesterday's debacle, I left the bear hang up to Anderson and Minhtam. Hey, I brought a bear canister. Not my problem.

Day Four

5.1 mi, +420 ft, -1,115 ft

We woke up early to some light drizzle and left camp around 8:30 AM. We saw the man across the lake on our way out. He was already up and had his lines cast. We watched as he got a bite, but lost it. He said the rain likely drew them towards the surface.

At this point, we were retracing our steps from day two. We took in some beautiful views as we descended back into the valley. It's a lot easier when you actually follow the trail.

As we worked our way down, a passing group of hikers gave word of an approaching thunderstorm. Realizing we should of inquired further, we asked another group slightly further down the trail if they knew anything. They had hiked in that day, and said that heavy rain was expected to start sometime after 3 PM.

We heard a proper clap of thunder around 11 AM, and occasional rumbles haunted us for the rest of the day. This put something of a spring in our step. We arrived at Grouse Lake just after 2 PM. Being close to the trailhead, we were a bit limited on site selection.

Worried about rain, we pitched our tents carefully and ate an early dinner. Except for a small drizzle and some lightning, the rain never came.

Day four marked the start of the real world starting to creep it's way back into our thoughts. It's always unavoidable on the last day of a trip, since any form of planning requires you to engage with concepts such as cars, cell reception, grocery stores and showers.

We discussed hiking back to the car that day, since there was only about 4 more miles left in it. We decided against it, but went to bed early, eager to begin our final leg back to the trailhead.

Day Five

4.2 mi, +570 ft, -559 ft

There were scattered showers all night, and we rose early (around 5 AM) to cloudy skies. Not willing to risk packing up in the rain, we broke camp quickly and began hiking just as the sun was beginning to rise.

We followed the well established trail west through Pine Valley, where we were assulted by bugs. I suppose that's what we get for being in a warm damp valley at sunrise.

Even after climbing up and out of the valley, the bug situation improved only marginally. It was only after the sun had been out for a few hours that we were finally left alone.

We arrived back at the car early, around 8 AM. Having skipped breakfast, we were hungry, so we drove to Denny's where I ate the most delicious chicken fried steak I've ever eaten. We smelled (and looked) awful. Apologies to all those unfortunate enough to be dining with us that fine Saturday morning. After Denny's we went to Rite Aid and got ice cream cones for the road.