R06/R02 TR: Boundary Lake Area May 24-28 2021

[BillyBobBurro]

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These lakes were all cleared of fish about ten years ago to protect the frogs.
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Did they actually have to remove fish from boundary and little bear? I went to both around 25 years ago and the whole area was fish-less then. Lot's of frogs in both lakes. I experienced a dragon fly hatch while eating lunch at little bear which is one of my favorite high country moments. The western ridge along boundary lake has some really beautiful old western junipers.

[agfhst]

Nice report and photos, kpeter. I've been looking at maps while thinking about a possible Emigrant Wilderness trip next summer and saw the Kibbie Ridge trail. I was wondering if anyone used that trail and what the area was like, so thanks for filling in the blanks with your report.

[giantbrookie]

Neat report of a beautiful but fairly lightly visited area (probably because there are no fish there). Indeed this was one of those years where I think a number of folks planned earlier trips than usual owing to the dry winter and early warming. I opened with my backpacking season not too far away (but in more "conventional" and popular country) at Laurel and Vernon on May 11-12, which was very close to my earliest backpack trip I've done (May 9-10, 1992 at Roosevelt and Lane Lakes is my earliest backpack whereas, April 12, 1988 at the same location was my earliest High Sierra dayhike to a thawed location).

I am also glad the road to Shingle Springs is open. That really makes it easier getting into that north boundary territory compared to starting at Cherry Lake.

Regarding an earlier question about the fishless nature of lakes all of the named lakes went fishless owing to cessation of air dropping long ago. The only fish kill was in the unnamed lakes downstream of Little Bear where there were some self sustaining fisheries. These held some nice rainbows decades after the named lakes had gone fishless. I visited those lakes in 1995 and was able to enjoy the large fish in a trailless setting with virtually no sign of human presence (ie no use trails and no fire rings). The fish were killed, but the fond memories of what we called the "Emerald Staircase" remain.

[SSSdave]

Recall your intent for a trip up there last spring and expected it to be too dry for the effort so 2 of us just backpacked into Kibbie a couple nights. Decades ago went to all those off trail lakes including Spotted Fawn, Nance Peak, Flora, then over the ridge to Kibbie. Were large rainbows in Spotted Fawn. Expect to return again to that Styxx Pass zone I visited June 2017 given good late June photography conditions as there are many good lake reflection subjects. Need some snow but not as much as in 2017 that was just about raging Cherry Creek whitewater.