Emigrant: Chain Lakes to Louse Canyon?

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mediauras
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Emigrant: Chain Lakes to Louse Canyon?

Post by mediauras »

Hi. This weekend I'm taking my 9 year old son on a 3 nighter in Emigrant. We're going to start at Box Springs TH and basically wander the area for a few days, probably making it out to Pingree or Kole Lake at the farthest. The terrain looks pretty straight forward, at least east of Cherry Creek, but I'm wondering if anyone has advice on Chain Lakes to Louse Canyon. Check out the link, but would something close to that route work without a ton of scrambling? I'm all for exploring and figuring it out normally, but I don't want to drag my son thru an hour's worth of manzanita or a discouraging route if I can help it. I'll let him keep building his skills and sense of fun then hit him with that in a year or two. :)

All advice appreciated, thanks!

http://caltopo.com/m/4M1J
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justm
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Re: Emigrant: Chain Lakes to Louse Canyon?

Post by justm »

I've never done your route, but I've often thought about a short cut over the ridge to Louse canyon. I've been to both Chain lakes and Louse canyon. The forest and scrub around Chain lakes is pretty dense, with no real trails. The ridge line down to Louse canyon always looked pretty steep , with a lot of scrambling . I did notice a few hanging valleys on the ridge line down, so I'm sure it can be done. Might be pretty tough for a 9 year old though.
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tomba
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Re: Emigrant: Chain Lakes to Louse Canyon?

Post by tomba »

We went from Louse Canyon to Chain lakes couple of years ago (see trip report) just a few days after your trip that year. Our route from Louse Canyon to Studhorse Meadow was similar to your line and it was easy. From Studhorse Meadow we followed Piute Creek downstream till about the double bend east from point 8126T. The climb of the ridge west was a tiresome bushwhack. Once above the bushes the way to point 8126T was easy, as was the way down to Chain Lakes.
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mediauras
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Re: Emigrant: Chain Lakes to Louse Canyon?

Post by mediauras »

Awesome, thanks. I want to believe so I'm going to go with tomba's take on this one. We won't be in a rush, so we'll take it easy and see how it goes (especially now that there's thunderstorms in the forecast).
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