R06/R02 TR: Yosemite-Emigrant Wilderness Borderland, 5/25-6/3 2022

[Harlen]

We spent 8 glorious days, dancing back and forth across the border of Yosemite and the Emigrant Wilderness.  For 90% of our 50 mile trip we were within a mile of the boundary.  So it was an out and back trip, with a few nice day hikes thrown in, not the preferred circular trip. Still, the scenery, wildlife, and fishing made it fantastic.  The alternate title to this trip was "Tanagers, Eagles and Snakes--Oh My!"
(*Big thanks to Carleton for providing many of the best photos.)

Western Tanager.


We were amazed by closeup views of the usually elusive Tanagers on 5 occasions; with their sunset colors they are like rare forest jewels.  The Bald Eagles began appearing at Huckleberry Lake, which was our fishing destination too.  They soon showed themselves to be a family group, with 2 fledged juveniles.  The Eagles were often perched in the tree tops over Huck. Lk., and we saw them all around the lake, and in the upper basins.  As for the Rattlesnakes, we were buzzed by 4 giants, who shared the Kibbie Ridge trail with us.  All were between 3 and 4 feet, and the ones pictured below are the 4 footers.  We spent some time with each  snake, attempting to teach the dogs to avoid them ("Snake! Bearzy-- NO Chasing!"), and also just to admire them. [All Rattlesnake encounters were between 7,000' and 7,700'-- between the Shingle Spring TH, and the small lake above where we dropped down to Many Island Lk.].

Western Rattlesnake, Crotalus viridis. (Click to enlarge)

Were these Rattlers set there by the Park to guard against dog incursions?  We began our hike at the 6,000' TH above and east of Cherry Lake.  The 18 mile trail from Kibbie Ridge, across Styx Pass, to Huck. Lk. includes ~3 miles within YNP, very near the NF boundary, but where our 3 dog friends would be out of bounds.   Beyond Styx Pass, we would spend a week in the dog-friendly Emigrant Wilderness.  Seemed okay, but "Best laid schemes of mice and men," and all that--  and ours went awry again too.  This route to Huck Lk. was actually our "Plan D," after supposed area closures, and high snow levels reported by jtca changed earlier plans A, B, and C.  We knew this route up the creek had 4 potentially dangerous crossings of the Cherry Creek/River, but we hoped to avoid them by climbing around, above the left bank.  Then, on the trail, we met a solo guy retreating from the 3rd crossing-- the one at 7,450' just west of the big dome-- too dangerous, he thought.  So what now?  To reach Huck Lk., we could camp outside the Park at the top of Boundary Lake, and then, regrettably, drop back south over the ridge, and after 2 miles, cross back just north of Inferno Lake, and traverse down to meet Cherry Cr. beyond all the crossing points.  So that's what we did as alternative "Plan E."  After meeting the solo guy, we saw no one for 5 days, so we were alone for 6 of our 8 days.  To pay a penance to the Park, we hauled out garbage, including metal cans, balloons, and the heaviest, ancient 12 oz. glass bottle ever made, which went in the bottom of C's pack . 
 
We had great luck, due to Carleton's skill with the birdlife, and may have reached 50 species for the first time ever!  We also saw more reptiles and amphibians than ever-- 8 total, and an amazing display of the emergence of adult Dragonflies from their final larval stage.  For mammals, the usual rodents were all about, minus the Marmots and Pikas.  For all of the fresh Deer and Bear signs, we saw just one lone deer.  On the drive out though, we were lucky to see 2 Gray Foxes along the road.

[Re. access: Google Map the directions from Groveland (Hwy 120) to Shingle Spring TH.  It's a great paved road till the last couple miles, and then it's a good 2WD dirt and gravel road.  There are several bear boxes for excess food items at the trailhead.]

View back down on Cherry Lake, elevation 4,659.'

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We arrived late, and hiked in a couple miles.

This map shows our route in, with the red line, and back out with purple, and our day hikes are the green lines. [The map can be expanded by clicking on it twice.]

Snow plants, Sarcodes sanguinea, are now termed "mycotrophs" for gaining their nutrition from mycorrhizal fungi associated with conifers, so they are an indirect parasite of conifers.   (USFS) https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant ... inea.shtml.

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Corn lilies were emerging, and these "Forget-me-nots" were in full bloom.

Sierra stickseed, Hackelia nervosa.

 

The trail on Kibbie Ridge passes through burned, but still beautiful open forest.... with Rattlesnakes in it!

I would love to hold these snakes to feel their strength, but not their venom.  Backpacking trips are not the best place to try this.  We gently handle many other creatures, including fish, why not venomous snakes-- a creature that can harm us back? 

[Harlen]

A beautiful and non-venomous bird species-- the Green-tailed towhee.

Long views from above Many Island Lake.  [Blue line for Bigelow Peak.  Right of Bigelow, all I'm sure of is the Michie-Kendrick massif, marked in red.  Wildhiker will know the distant peaks, of which several are 11,000' or close to it.  The far ridge is the main divide, separating the Tuolumne from the Walker River watershed.

Many Island Lake.  We circled around the top of it, and crossed an easy ridge to reach Boundary Lake.

Here I'm looking toward Boundary Lake, and Little Bear Lake is over Lizzie's head.  The lake far to the right is off our map; Carleton thinks it may be Spotted Fawn?  W/o dogs, this would all be a fine place for BC wandering, as Daisy has done. 
*Click to expand Carleton's panoramic view.


 

West side of Boundary Lake.

The brilliant Mountain Bluebird.

 Violet.

Pussypaws, Calyptridium umbellatum

Pussypaws were at their peak bloom, as were tens of thousands of small native onions.

Onions.

[Harlen]

The brimful Cherry Creek in the Lord's Meadow area. Mercur Pk. on the left, and Styx Pass just out of sight.

Looking upstream at two branches of Cherry Creek, with the North Fork to the left, and the East Fork under the ridge.

A bit of snow at last!  Amazing how fast it melted off since jtca's March 14-15 trip.

We climbed the shoulders of Bartlett Pk. Almost due east is darkened Wheeler Pk.  Our route will be on its lower slopes, marked here with the dashed blue line.  It was dead easy.

Stormy weather, but we loved it because the rain held off.  It had rained the night before.

Inferno Lake.

We lucked upon a population of Dragonflies emerging from their final larval stage.  

Looks like mossie weather, but the only ones we met hadn't yet learned to bite.

[Harlen]

High water down on Cherry Creek.  The trail was wet, and we managed to soak a foot now and again.  Our leaping ability sadly seems diminished.

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We found Bear tracks in mud, snow and sand, but no Bears.

Almost a Bear.

Besides tracking up the place, these Bears $hit in the woods.

Wolfie the Lionheart is not concerned.

Our 3 night campsite was a beauty!  Halfway up the SE side of Huckleberry Lake.

All of the bird calls, and especially those of the Canadian Geese, seen here, really made the place feel wild.

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We all caught these 12-15" trout on the smallest of rainbow Panther-Martin spinners.  Big kastmasters hooked fish, but were flung out, often by airborne Rainbows.  We wondered if the greater length and weight of the bigger lures gave the fish more leverage to use against these lures?  We can't say the fishing at Huck Lk. is great, because it was hit or miss.  Whole areas seemed totally blank, while others were loaded.  It was the same the last time I was fishing there.

[Harlen]

We tried a new cooking method, using a stick rack.  The fire was kept low and away, and upwind of the fish.  It worked pretty well.  It's for when you forget the oil and tinfoil. 

Crossing at the top of Huck. Lk. was deep but easy, though Wolfie got carried.

Our first day hike was to Letora Lake.  

We found a Junco nest on the way back.

Young eagle- Soon after this, it flew right over our camp, followed by a sibling we'd not yet seen.  

Next morning, we set off across the ridge into Yosemite again, and possibly a climb up Haystack Peak for Carleton and me.  Lizzie and the dogs joined us to the lake at 8,500' that lies on the NF side.   

Haystack was more than we'd bargained for, including 3 creek crossings.

Even shin-deep rapids can be scary.

Lower Twin Lake was a beautiful scenic surprise. 

Carleton is looking for the rest of the family, after an adult Eagle just flew over the lake.

[Harlen]

The Haystack left, and Richardson Peak right.  These higher, north-facing basins still held a lot of snow, and we were thrilled to have the alpine scenery added to our trip.

Leaving Huckleberry Lake on a fine morning.

Inferno Lake again, and a nice swim.

Wolfie

Descending to Boundary Lake.

Nearing Styx Pass late afternoon we met a Rubber Boa, and a Sierra Newt, Taricha torosa, sierrae

We encountered two more Rattlesnakes on the way back.

Our last night was at the nice lake, just a mile west of the pass.  Like the rest of this trip, it was surprisingly empty, wild and beautiful.  Lying awake in the fly-free tent at dawn, I first heard the calls, then I saw, and almost felt a Mountain Quail as it whirred not a foot over our tent.  


For this trip, we were forced to deviate from one plan after another, yet our final route was a great success.  Isn't it a fun challenge to find a route that will work out well for the whole party.  Luckily, Carleton knew this area pretty well, and had that Inferno ridge crossing up his sleeve. Later we learned that we all had some reservations: Lizzie still worried about the snow level, and that worry melted away; Carleton didn't think Huckleberry would be such a great destination for a basecamp, but once there, he had honking Geese, Tanagers low in the trees, and Bald Eagles all around... and he found it much more scenic than he had remembered it to be.  I worried a bit about the low elevation, and seeming lack of mountains, and was happily surprised when the low country brought me Rattlesnakes, and endless other lifeforms!  And the mountains on our Twin Lake hike were brilliant in snow and cloud.  Thanks, and good luck out there,

[SSSdave]

The glaciated granite worlds of NW Yosemite and Emigrant have superb areas with life that one doesn't tend to come across at higher elevations. I also always see eagles at Kibbie. Also passed close to a huge diamondback at 6.7k on Kibbie Ridge along a narrow head height brushy trail.

Enjoy your naturalists interests. I find those onions more edible than their more well known stronger flavored swamp onion cousins. A long time ago when there were still fish in those lakes, I visited most of them and also climbed Nance Peak to look down on Edith. Shallow grassy Little Bear had huge numbers of damselflies. Along with dragonflies, they are the best defense against the enormous numbers of mosquitoes. Its an area I hope to visit again hunting for picturesque Sierra juniper.

Have always wanted to visit Letora but tis a wee too far for this old guy with a heavy load. Nice lake photo from that bay. Would base camp there and climb that dome mid frame right. Enjoyed the photo tour. In some rainbow lakes early season with large streams flowing in, (ie Vernon) trout tend to be up those creeks.

[Silky Smooth]

What a fantastic trip! Looks like you all had a wonderful time. Thank you soo much for posting all the stunning photos. Nice birds, scary snakes, great looking fish! and those precious little onions Liane is loving all the lakes and granite!

[giantbrookie]

Wow, that's quite a trip. Really neat report. Whereas some of the destinations on the Emigrant side are visited a fair amount, those on the Yosemite side see far fewer people; I haven't been to a bunch of those places northernmost Yosemite places (partly because they're fishless). The wildlife and such is cool too even if the snake encounters make one think of the Coast Ranges (where I encounter them frequently while doing geologic field work) than the Sierra, even though they are well known from that elevation range in the Sierra. Regarding the small PM v Kastmaster thing, it sounds like the rainbows may have hit the Kastmasters more tentatively so they weren't as well hooked as they were with the smaller lures, allowing them to eject the larger lures more easily. It is also possible that certain differences in the retrieves of the two different lures may have lead to a more adverse hooking situation with the larger lures---I'm thinking of watching Dawn's retrieve on her Kastmasters on the recent trip. Her particular retrieve style created situations brief moments of slackline. This may have been more enticing to the mammoth brookies than my retrieves ( I think her total number of strikes was higher than mine) but may have contributed to fish not hooking up too well. It is possible that your Kastmaster retrieve style may have some of those slack moments (at which inconvenient time the fish hit--the lure drops and flutters at this time and is particularly alluring to the fish) whereas your PM retrieve may not; that would be an alternative hypothesis for to the "fish more tentative with larger lure" theory.

[Harlen]

giantbrookie- Thanks for your comments John. I didn't express my question very clearly, and have rewritten it as below:

We wondered if the greater length and weight of the bigger lures gave the fish more leverage to use against these lures?

I am imagining the longer, heavier kastmaster dangling from the lip of the trout, and when they violently shake against it, might the weight of the lure lever the hooks out? I.e., more so than with the tiny Panther Martin #6's?

By the way, we had another fishing insight: the lures flung up into the trees-- even trees hanging right over the lake, will not interest the fish. They need to be retrieved differently, and re-cast into the lake water.

Another Harlen method is to bring a small dog of known weight-- Wolfie is exactly 14.8 lbs, and use them to judge the weight of your fish. This saves carrying the weight of the scale.

Our goal is one day to catch a bag of trout that equals Wolfie's weight.