R06 TR: Couple Days in West Emigrant Wilderness 9/7-9/9 2024
Posted: Tue Sep 17, 2024 5:05 pm
I had a truncated weekend, but decided to get up into the hills a bit anyway. Not much of a trip, but I thought I'd mention just a few off-trail sections.
Didn't get to the Crabtree Trailhead until 6 PM. Headed off to Chewing Gum Lake, but by the time I started downhill after the 2000' climb, it was getting dark. Lost the trail on the granite slabs. Still, tough to get irretrievably lost there and got into Chewing Gum by 8 PM.
Next day I headed out to Wire Lakes. The trail to the northernmost Wire Lake was pretty easy to follow, but it was off-trail to the ribbon lake and to the southernmost Wire Lake. No real elevation and since the inlet/outlet streams were dry, I was able to follow those if the surrounding ground was too rugged. Southern Wire Lake was a nice place for lunch, but had a lot of breeze there and it was actually a little cool. From there I headed back to the middle, ribbon Wire Lake and followed its outlet west then cut north and eastward down to Spring Meadow. This is a real easy descent and only about a mile until I reached the meadow/pond and reacquired the Relief Valley Trail.
Heading west, I stayed on-trail until I got to Salt Lick Meadow. Since I was headed to Toejam Lake, I decided to cut the corner on the 90 degree angle the trail made and headed cross-country until meeting the trail to Toejam just north of the hills that border the lake. This was Sunday afternoon so I had the lake all to myself and went for a swim. There is a use trail from Toejam to Leopold, but I lost it on the approach to Leopold as there was little soil and the route was pretty evident anyway. Found a great site on the east shore of Leopold Lake.
Next morning, went north a bit before turning west into Tom's Canyon. Got myself committed to a gully and had to boulder-crawl a bit. The sides were too high to easily escape that. It wasn't too awful, but I might try going north from Leopold a bit more before heading for Piute Creek if I were to do it again. Once past the dry creek, I headed up the hill northwest and found a really nice shelf that turned almost due west and went right up to Granite Lake. I'll note that while on that shelf, I found the only bear sign I'd ever experienced in Emigrant. Some scat that was maybe a day old.
I believed that the descent from Granite to Bear Lake would be a simple exercise, but I found this to be the most challenging section of my weekend. Getting to Lily Creek was not too bad, but then when I turned to descend to Bear Lake, there wasn't a real simple way down. I veered back toward the south wall of the canyon, but it was harder to find a good path down than I wanted. Anyway, finally made it to Bear Lake and then out to the trailhead.
Didn't get to the Crabtree Trailhead until 6 PM. Headed off to Chewing Gum Lake, but by the time I started downhill after the 2000' climb, it was getting dark. Lost the trail on the granite slabs. Still, tough to get irretrievably lost there and got into Chewing Gum by 8 PM.
Next day I headed out to Wire Lakes. The trail to the northernmost Wire Lake was pretty easy to follow, but it was off-trail to the ribbon lake and to the southernmost Wire Lake. No real elevation and since the inlet/outlet streams were dry, I was able to follow those if the surrounding ground was too rugged. Southern Wire Lake was a nice place for lunch, but had a lot of breeze there and it was actually a little cool. From there I headed back to the middle, ribbon Wire Lake and followed its outlet west then cut north and eastward down to Spring Meadow. This is a real easy descent and only about a mile until I reached the meadow/pond and reacquired the Relief Valley Trail.
I believed that the descent from Granite to Bear Lake would be a simple exercise, but I found this to be the most challenging section of my weekend. Getting to Lily Creek was not too bad, but then when I turned to descend to Bear Lake, there wasn't a real simple way down. I veered back toward the south wall of the canyon, but it was harder to find a good path down than I wanted. Anyway, finally made it to Bear Lake and then out to the trailhead.