Crabtree Trailhead Trip Planned July 8th/Emigrant

[mshiker]

A group of us are flying in on July 7th from the Southeast US and have a trip planned in the Emigrant starting from Crabtree Trailhead and hitting Chewing Gum Lake -> Gem Lake -> Lertora Lake -> Wood Lake -> back to Crabtree. Seeing all the news about the record snowfall, the Forest service website says the trailhead is still closed. I'm hoping to gain some insight into whether this will even be possible in 3.5 weeks or if we need to start looking at options elsewhere. One of the guys has done this trip before, but it was much later in the season, and obviously not after a record snow. Also, any recommendations for a 4-6 day trip that would actually be possible at that time would be very much so appreciated.

[c9h13no3]

I'd be worried about crossing Piute Creek & the West Fork of Cherry Creek. Those will likely be your biggest obstacles. I think the trailhead will be accessible by then (looks close enough now).

Having a backup plan at a no-quota trail head isn't a bad idea either.

[texan]

I was just at Leavitt Meadows area today. We hiked to Lane Lake(around 7.3K) and above 8K looks like solid snow for sure. I have done all of Emigrant and I would wait until end of July, the rivers and creeks are way too high right now(too dangerous right now for creek and river crossings. Also, I have never seen the West Walker River this high ever in mid June and I have gone there for over 30 years. Good Luck.

Texan

[mshiker]

Thank you both for that input; we have backup plans as of now. The forest service site is still saying Crabtree is inaccessible so unless there's a massive melt this week, we'll probably avoid.

[c9h13no3]

Thank you both for that input; we have backup plans as of now. The forest service site is still saying Crabtree is inaccessible so unless there's a massive melt this week, we'll probably avoid.

Did you call and check? Maybe the road washed out, but there shouldn’t be any snow problems.

[Wandering Daisy]

Even if you could drive to the trailhead, you likely wouldn't get that far. 4th July 2019 I started a similar loop and got stopped by Cherry Creek near Piute Lake and turned around, easily got a new permit at the ranger station to go into Kennedy Lake and did that. If you still try this trip, keep in mind that you can quite easily adjust to conditions.

2019 had much less snow. The week before, I had already been to Kennedy Lake so I knew it would go. I have also gone in early season other years when the creek was crossable, but snow covered the trails, and it was melting. It was a soggy mess.

https://www.highsierratopix.com/communi ... ke#p147955

Here is the trip report of the one I did a week earlier. This shows that going to Emigrant Lake from Kennedy Meadows would also have been difficult. Much more in that drainage than Kennedy Lake.

https://www.highsierratopix.com/communi ... ke#p147403

[Optimus-00]

My friend is camped just up from the trailhead right now (Saturday afternoon the 8th), the road was opened but FS hasn't opened the campsites there. So they drove in and are parked by a flat spot just uphill of the trailhead. Ranger told them Piute creek was not passable at the lower trail, but they might try in a few days, on their return swing.

Jim Lowe was up there over the July 4th weekend...

https://youtu.be/KlouCGQL4a4