TR Emigrant wilderness, Kennedy M up and around Upper Relief
Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 9:06 pm
I headed up last Friday morning from Kennedy Meadows to my first camp at Sheeps Meadow. It was very hot, which made for slow going. I've noticed it's real clean up there, many illegal campsites and fire rings are gone. Nice job trail crews and forest service !!! The next morning I was off to Emigrant lake, via Mosquito pass. I crossed paths with fellow HST member Venturefar. It was another very hot day, in the low 90s up there and very stagnant. Thunderstorms threatened at Emigrant lake, which was a relief from the heat. It rained about 30 drops.
I fished beautiful upper Buck lake the next day on my way to long lake. Mid day fishing was slow, but I had the lake to myself. There were plenty of mosquitos to join me on my hike to deer lake and some patchy snow ( which made for refreshing ice cold water in my bottle). I camped at beautiful long lake on Sunday and had the big lake to myself. I found a dead, and eaten, porcupine, and a bleached deer antler w/ top of skull. More dark threatening thunder clouds, but only a little rain. Lots of mosquitos. I had a long hike on Monday to lower relief valley. Didn't see a soul. More threatening thunderstorms. My Tuesday morning crossing of the combined Summit and Relief creek proved to be one of the most difficult stream crossings I've encountered. It was waist deep, ice cold and incredibly powerful. It took me 30 min. to figure out a way to get across. I made it across, but it was very dicey. It's easy to see how people die from such crossings ! This is a fantastic loop trip, with plenty of solitude, fishing and easy altitude gain and loss. I would not do this trip in the spring because of the extremely dangerous river crossing at the end !
I fished beautiful upper Buck lake the next day on my way to long lake. Mid day fishing was slow, but I had the lake to myself. There were plenty of mosquitos to join me on my hike to deer lake and some patchy snow ( which made for refreshing ice cold water in my bottle). I camped at beautiful long lake on Sunday and had the big lake to myself. I found a dead, and eaten, porcupine, and a bleached deer antler w/ top of skull. More dark threatening thunder clouds, but only a little rain. Lots of mosquitos. I had a long hike on Monday to lower relief valley. Didn't see a soul. More threatening thunderstorms. My Tuesday morning crossing of the combined Summit and Relief creek proved to be one of the most difficult stream crossings I've encountered. It was waist deep, ice cold and incredibly powerful. It took me 30 min. to figure out a way to get across. I made it across, but it was very dicey. It's easy to see how people die from such crossings ! This is a fantastic loop trip, with plenty of solitude, fishing and easy altitude gain and loss. I would not do this trip in the spring because of the extremely dangerous river crossing at the end !