High Sierra Topix

My friend Frank and I went in from Kennedy Meadows, and made a nice circle in all new country for both of us.  We were happily surprised by the Rocky Mountain feel of the upper Kennedy Creek basin; we felt like we had been transported to Montana.   The image below is a summer-like scene from around Kennedy Lake at 7,800.'   And just a few weeks back, C9 had been through on skis, and showed the same area looking like full winter!   




We loved being in a new and different part of the Sierra.  I struggled to place the scenery as Sierran, and finally decided that it reminded me a bit of the big Buckeye Valley, north of Bridgeport.  Kennedy Creek also has active cattle ranching, though the cows were not on it yet.  We did find ample signs of their passage:


These are Olympic record-setting cowpies!


We had great luck with wildlife around Kennedy Lake-- birds in particular.  We saw brilliant yellow warblers of several species, and mallards and sandpipers, a snipe, and 20 Canada Geese were sounding off on the big lake.  Best of all was the closeup view of a mature Bald Eagle, both perched and flying.  We also saw Squirrels and Chipmunks, and 4 Deer, 3 of whom were romping around together, leaping and chasing!  There is no quota for this area of the Emigrant Wilderness, and just like the good old days, we walked into the ranger station in Pinecrest and obtained our Wild. Permit.  The trailhead is well marked on the road to Kennedy Meadows Resort, and a nice store there has everything you might want for your trip.  There is also a cafe, and showers for backpackers who think they need them.

Okay, so our trip was pretty wide open.  We had a couple of circle options to choose from, and many easy peaks to climb for view-bagging.  Great fishing lakes abound in the North Fork of Cherry Creek where we were headed, but the solid snow covering confounded both my fishing hopes on the one hand, and our snowshoeing plans on the other.  Two trips in a row now I have packed the snowshoes along for no good reason, other than character building.  We took the conservative view that it is better to have them and not need them, than to need them and not have them.  But lately all my cursing has come from the former.  I suffered packing both pairs since they were my bright idea.  Here below is most of our gear:

New North Face climbing boots that worked well for me, and the new Northern Lite Snowshoes (both found dirt cheap on Facebook Marketplace).  Frank wore Sorel Boots with felt inners.  We also carried gaiters, and didn't need them, but the ice axes and crampons did get us up over the steep cirque-pass to Lost Lake (9750'), and from there we were in the beautiful Cherry Creek high country.  Frank carried 2 ski poles for the first time, and he liked them, especially in the sun cups.  As for conditions reporting, the two negatives were the presence of slippery damn sun-cups, and also a few biting Mosquitoes down around 7,200.' 




All of our days were set in brilliant weather, but for 3 of our 5 days we were back in wintery surface conditions.  This is what we had hoped for, but we did really enjoy our first and last days, which looked and felt like early summer.  Our actual route became the shortest of the two  possible circles.  We camped by Emigrant Meadow Lake (9,407') on our second night, and climbed up Grizzly Peak from there on Day 3.  We then returned to the Stanislaus River and K.Meadows via Summit Creek after crossing the easy Brown Bear Pass.  It was a 31 mile trip.  We chose to cut out the interesting additions of Snow Lake to Bigelow and Black Bear Lakes, and the possibly difficult crossings of the East, and the North Forks of Cherry Creek.  We omitted that circle mainly because we could see that there would be no fishing to be done even in the big Emigrant Lake, which still looked well frozen, though lower down, at 8827.'  I assumed the higher Emigrant Lakes would be frozen, since they are from 9,250 to 9,700' lakes

I will show the rest of our trip in photos, and describe some of the details in captions.


Thankfully Kennedy Creek has footbridges.





I felt like I was somewhere in the Wind River Range.  







First camp by Kennedy Lake.  We built a disappearing fire, and burned small wood and cowpies.

We said goodbye to summer. The low saddle leads over to Lost Lake, and into the high basins of Cherry Creek.





Lost Lake.


These cool slopes lead up to Molo Peak and Pinnacle.


We followed his Bear to Emigrant Meadow Lake.


We found this dry spot for our campsite.








The next morning we hiked 2 miles up to Grizzly Peak, and climbed it. The peak seen here is the one above Middle Emigrant Lake.

Grizzly Peak is pretty easy going, but we found some interesting rocky bits to climb.



On the summit ridge with Bigelow Peak in the distance.



On top, with big Emigrant Lake in the upper left, still frozen white.


Left to right are Tower Peak, Forsyth Peak, and Saurian Crest.  I don't know what those snowy peaks in the far distance are.  Anybody know?  They are in line with Lyell and McClure, but I can't tell if it's them. In the near right the 2 dark mountains are first Keyes, and then Snow Peak.


Back down, and looking toward Brown Bear Pass.  It's only about 320 ' up to the pass from the basin on the south side.



Near the top of Brown Bear Pass.

Summit Creek was really fun to follow down.



Back in the Hemlock, and Red Fir forest.




This Western White Pine was my tent.



I'd love to have this granite sculpture explained.


Western Pasque flowers.


Snow Plants.



Our last camp was by Relief Reservoir. 

Nice place, but zero fish.




Sierra Currants are just starting to flower.


Lizard.


Almost back in civilization.





Uncrossable Kennedy Creek.


And a mellowed out K. Creek back at the trailhead.  


This short trip had the best of all Sierra worlds. Wide green meadows, and a stunning lake. Wild creeks, and challenging terrain, leading into still snowy alpine scenery. Wildlife and solitude... and then friendly fellow hikers to share our last camp with.
I can never get enough big mammals, and at least we saw their signs, and even heard the Coyotes howling at the moon. Good Luck out there.

Another outstanding and enjoyable trip report, as per your usual. As to the question you asked about the view from Grizzly Peak, they also look like Lyell and Maclure to me, and HeyWhatsThat agrees: https://www.heywhatsthat.com/?view=WPBW3VJR. I've often found this web site useful -- click on 'New panorama' and enter a latitude and longitude if you want to play around with it yourself.

I always wanted to go from Kennedy Lake to Lost Lake and wondered what would be the best route. I suspect with snow the best route is different from when snow is gone. Could you show your route on a map?

The photos of Summit Creek look a lot like conditions I encountered in 2019 June 22 (176% snowpack). But I went up to Kennedy Lake and then backtracked to Relief Reservoir and up to Summit Meadow. Lost Lake is full of fish- did you try to fish? The photo looks like the lake was mostly frozen. I tried to fish Summit Creek at a rare spot where I could get to a pool in the creek- no fish at all. My husband had good luck at Kennedy Lake early season spin fishing. I had no luck with flies.

What a trip and adventure to my favorite area because I like to fish. I am surprised you didn't catch in anything in Relief its full of brown trout. Thank you for sharing an area I like with a different view in the snow. The pics are fantastic. Grizzly peak is great spot too and there are small goldens in Grizzly Lake. Thanks again for sharing.

Texan

WD - I came down from Lost Lake to Kennedy once; I followed the outlet generally on the left hand side going down, and crossed it near the confluence with the outlet that comes from from a tiny lake to the northwest (that is near a knob marked 9174 on the map), and then worked over to Kennedy creek. The last part to get across both creeks was major brush bashing, and then I found a use trail down to Kennedy Lake. If I did it again I would stay on the left hand side of the outlet longer, I think that would be steeper but slabby if I remember correctly. Going up, the last part just below Lost Lake is steep and a little loose but not too bad, easier to go up than down, there was a use trail on that upper section but this was many years ago.
On the other hand, the walk from Emigrant Meadow to Lost lake (or vice versa) is delightful. I did not fish, so I know nothing about that.

Wandering Daisy wrote:

I always wanted to go from Kennedy Lake to Lost Lake and wondered what would be the best route. I suspect with snow the best route is different from when snow is gone. Could you show your route on a map?

Here is the route up to Lost Lake: The area above and to the right our our route looked to be less steep, and could be mostly in the talus.


And here's a photo of the route up: You can see our tracks on the slope below my boot.