High Sierra Topix

Post storm cloud masses that never bothered us again.


Well, it started out pretty wild, but it was mercifully brief.  Our first day in, on Sept. the 9th, we got light rain, followed by a little bouncing graupel... and finally the biggest hail in years-- marble-sized pellets!  Thankfully, this pelting occurred when we three and two scared dogs were ensconced in our thin tents.  It was dramatic-- thunder, lightning and all, but brief.  Unlike Ken's recent Wet-all-through-the-Emigrant adventure, our storm blew itself far away for the rest of our days, leaving only fair weather cumulus to brighten the sky.

On this trip Lizzie and I had our two dogs, and friend Lars with us.  Lars used to join us more often, and would help carry our boys high on his 6' 5" shoulders.  Now he has reverted to shorter trips to wave his fly-rod over the waters.  He was keen to fish the creeks, and the narrows of inlets and outlets of the lakes, so we chose to make a couple of our camps by the fishable waters of the West Fork of Cherry Creek.  Looking at the maps, it appeared to us that Lower Buck Lake would have some interesting narrows for Lars to cast flies into.  Our plan was to do the tight loop route from Crabtree trailhead east on the Crabtree Trail, and return west along the Bell Meadow Trail.  These two trails parallel each other to and from Buck Lakes, just about a mile apart.  So it isn't a big circle trip, but each trail passes by differently fascinating lakes, meadow, and swimming holes, and we enjoyed both ways a lot.

This westside Sierra country gave us views of a diverse conifer forest, with huge Red and White Fir trees, and Jeffreys, and Western White Pines, and then Juniper, and Hemlock, and the ubiquitous Lodgepoles.  We were surprised by the amount of flower species still blooming, and the emerald greenery of the many meadows and lakeshores.  What a colorful summer comes after such a heavy winter snowfall-- at least after the snow finally melts.  We didn't see all the wildlife we hoped for, but it did seem as though the squirrel and chipmunk populations had exploded, and their long chattering calls followed us everywhere.  The Chickaree Squirrel's call seems to be the perfect sound for the western forest, just like monkey calls suit the tropical jungle so well.  The birdlife was also prolific-- especially the little flocks of juncos and warblers.  We had the luck to see Redtail Hawks on several occasions, and one impressive Golden Eagle cruising along the granite cliff.  Black-backed Woodpeckers and Red-shafted Flickers, and blue Steelers Jays all showed up too.  

Our goals were to meet all the wildlife we could, including some of the giant Trout.  I threatened windknot Matt that I was going to get one of his big fish, but only my wife Lizzie caught a really big Rainbow.  We ate trout for dinner on three of our 5 nights, and we could have eaten them on the last night by Cherry Creek, but Lars lets smaller fish go.  Deer Lake, Buck Lakes, and Wood Lake all gave us a few fish, but once again, I never did make it into the land of the big Trout, in the higher up Emigrant Lakes.  We spoke to one old fisherman who raved to Lars about the size of the Golden Trout found in the Wire Lakes, and we all set to move up there, but then we met another seemingly knowledgeable fisherman who said the Wire Lakes were now fishless?  Any comments to clarify that, or is it secret knowledge?   On this short trip we also hoped to hike on the clean bright expanses of granite bedrock that the Emigrant is famous for, and we got to do a bit of that. The weather was fine, the mosquitos were scarce, and we had a great time.


Upper Buck Lake on a misty morning.


Off trail in granite land.


Red Bear in the meadow.



We had to make do with our own big wild animals


Wolfie: King of the last snow patch.


We did see Tigers again!


Goldenrod is an expected late season flower.


And acorns are right on time.


However, Lupine flowers everywhere was an unexpected pleasure.


Buckbrush and Bearzy in the rain.


There are a lot of dead and dying conifers in the western forest, but also a nursery of young trees coming up.  Hope they make it.


The sun rising.

We fished all along the way, and did pretty well.


Rainbow Trout in very tall grass.


One of us did catch a very nice fish- Damn!


Here's the proud fisherwoman with a Rainbow just shy of 16."



I fished the most, especially from our camp at upper Buck Lake, but caught nothing over 12.5"  We did better at lower Buck Lake.  We never lacked fish for dinner though.







We really loved our time on the east side of the Buck Lakes.  From there on down to the end of Wood Lake was really beautiful country, and good trail walking.  We took a nice day hike from our camp at the west end of Wood Lake.  We went off trail to the south, to visit some new lakes-- Karls, Leighton, Kole, and Coyote.  That was a great jaunt, with the pleasure of walking on solid granite bedrock.  We tried fishing some of those lakes, but they seemed to be barren.  Coyote Lake has a granite slab beach, and the water was warm enough to really go swimming!  


There is an odd thin stretch of water at the east end of Wood Lake. You can see the end of it here, but I never got a good image to show it.  Imagine that thinned down stretch of lake going on upstream for more than a half-mile. Ken tells us that it is due to the check-dam building of Mr. Leighton, who was passionate about the area, had his way with The Emigrant before it became a Wilderness area.


We camped at the outlet end of Wood Lake, above some lovely meadows, and a wild logjam clogging the outlet.  Great fun fishing from there.

Sunrise on Wood Lake.


Fishing and log-rolling at the outlet.


It was worth the risk of a dunking.  



We didn't eat these, but we did add 3 giant Butter Boletes to our dinner one night. *Note that the top image is of Amanita muscaria, or Fly Agaric, and it is poisonous.


Backlit Bearzy.


And Lars.


This is Karl's Lake.


Lizzie fishing for nothing.


These lakes have a lot of "ghost trees" due to the raising of the lake level after the check-dams were put in.

We moved on to Leighton Lake and looked for big, ignorant fish. 


Lars says that remote lake fish are inexperienced, and easier to catch.  The Leighton fish were still too smart for us, or they were missing.  Lars blames his rod whenever he blanks. Here he is seen cussing at it.

From Leighton Lake, we headed up the ridge to the west, looking for Kole Lake.



We found a very nice lizard-- one of the 22 species of Sceloporus lizards in the U.S.


  We did find Kole Lake from that ridge, and we also saw Yellowhammer Lake below in the granite landscape.  In this photo, we're looking to the east, down on Leighton Lake. You can pick out Bigelow Peak, Forsyth Mountain, and Tower Peak in the distance.






Lars said that one of us had to walk the log.  He got himself named "Leader" on the Wilderness Permit, and he lorded it over us for the whole trip.



We all loved Coyote Lake.





More cool granite.





We got back in time for sunset happy hour.

Heading west on the Bell Meadow Trail.




Yarrow was still going strong.






The waterhole on Lily Creek.




Downhill run to Crabtree TH, which thankfully had one last waterhole to clean up in.


At the end of most days, I'll carry Bear's pack for him.  Yes, it's true: "Properly trained, man can be dog's best friend."


The west side of the Sierra is growing on us, after years of east side entries.  The richness of the forest, the feeling of the extensive wildlife habitat... and the long walks through it all, to reach the inner gems, like Buck Lakes.  I used to lament the long miles to get into the high country, but now it's becoming part of the adventure, as a great place to look for Bears and other animals, and to admire the plant life.  The most diverse forests are lower down, and we're learning to appreciate that more and more-- right down to the ferns and the mushrooms.  On our next trip in a couple of days, we'll get to walk for about 15 miles in the forest and meadows to reach the mountains of the LeConte Divide, and we're looking forward to it all. 
 
A few more of the flowers we found out there:


Helenium, or Bigelow's Sneezeweed.


Western Mountain Aster was everywhere in bloom!

Goldenrod.


 Streptanthus tortuosus, or Jewel Flower, with its seeds filling long pods.


Spiraea splendens, or Meadowsweet, or Mountain Spiraea, or Rosy Spiraea....


Meadow Penstemon


This delicate Buckwheat sometimes covered over an acre of the lower hills.


Mountain Spray-- cousin to the Ocean Spray of our coastal hills back home.

A great report and I agree about the west side entries [having never actually driven all the way over to the east side for this reason!].

Hey bwd, BTW, is that short for "Big Wild Dude?" Just a wild guess. With that smile it could be "Big Wonderful Dude."
Not sure where you live, but before you die, I really hope you take a hiking tour all around the eastern Sierra.
Thanks for your comment, Ian.

I love both of these acronyms! Sadly it's just my initials.
I have hiked over to the east side from the west and was supposed to do the north/south lake loop this summer until the snow scuttled that plan. I do have dreams of spending more time on the eastern side when that time is easier to come by. Berkeley isn't *that* far from the east...

Fantastic trip report! I swear, y'all are inspiring me to make more of those longer drives to the west side!