High Sierra Topix

Long time lurker, first time poster. Just a little background, I've always wanted to hike the Sierra and I've been planning this trip for a while now. I'm experienced at hiking/navigating etc, but not in the Sierra (I've hiked mostly 3000-6000 ft elevations). I also like to get off trail and explore but this time I'll have my inexperienced 15 year old son with me and if I don't bring him home safe and sound mom wont be happy with me. There are two things I've not decided on yet and would like some advice. #1 when I am going, right now the options are late July or early October. Any suggestions or advice regarding temps/bugs at these times would be much appreciated. My planned route looks to be at 7000-8000 ft elevation for the most part. #2 I'm not sure exactly how many days I should plan, not sure how much longer the off trail part of this route will take, it doesn't look terribly difficult but again I'm not familiar with hiking in the Sierra. If it matters my son and I both are in very good condition.

If anyone would like to comment on the route/trip that I've planned I would appreciate it, I'm a little unsure how many days I should give myself given I plan on being off trail 1/2 the time. Route: Starting at Crabtree taking the marked trail East via Grouse Lake, Ground hog meadow, buck meadow to Wood lake (looks to be 10 miles or so). From Wood Lake getting off trail heading to Coyote Lake, then to Pingree Lake, to Big Lake, to Hyatt Lake, turning North up to Rosasco Lake then West from there following Cherry Creek back North to the marked trail then heading back west to Crabtree. This looks to be about 25-30 miles total.

Any advice/comments are much appreciated.

Great trip. We've done this route (albeit in reverse). Route finding isn't too complicated.

You can also look for the large cairn marking the turn-off from the trail to Woods Lake that will take you to Pingree long before you get to Woods. You can also go past Karls and Leighton to Red Can...then down to Five Acre Lake, Yellowhammer (not great camping there, in my opinion. From Big Lake the route across the vast sheets of granite has to be seen to be believed.

We've got links to a couple different hikes in this area on our website under destinations, Highway 108...

Nice route and mostly easy route finding for experienced off trail hikers. However those not used to actually looking at maps even though they've hiked trails for years may become disoriented.

Definitely bring paper 7.5m topos and be familiar with them. To increase your route finding confidence before the trip, look at that route closely from point to point using Google Earth while IDing what you are looking at on the topo. Might even print out some of the GE views, mark em up for help along the trip. Also using GE is useful to survey camp site zones. Early July could be a lot of mosquitoes if El Nino goes big as expected. By later July those western zones of Emigrant are not as buggy. But not so further east.

Thank you both!

Good note about the bugs. Also bear in mind that Emigrant Wilderness is one big granite bowl. In the winter it fills up with snow. In the spring all that snow melts, and the streams can really roar, making stream crossings dangerous. But once the initial melt is over, it's a piece of cake.

Late July is a great time to go. I spend a week in Emigrant every year the last week of July. Temps are typically 70-low 80's during the day and 40's at night. Weather is usually dry but there is always a chance of a thunderstorm.

Your itinerary is a good one but the route you take is important. There are some areas that can be a pain to navigate through. If you would like to give me a call sometime I'd be happy to share maps and first hand experience. Shoot me a PM and we can set something up.

Michael