Trip Report - Emigrant Wilderness 06/30-07/03/2018

[jdabs]

Day 1: Pine Valley Horse Camp to West Fork Cherry Creek (~ 7 miles)

Excited to get back into Emigrant Wilderness this year, my partner and I left SF around 9am on Saturday, making it to the Summit Ranger Station around 1 pm after a few stops. At the ranger station we were welcomed by the amazing volunteers working outside to issue permits. When I asked the volunteer who approached me how he was doing, he responded with "reasonable." Not sure I heard him correctly he repeated it and offered, "it's much better than the alternative." After a good little laugh we got started with the paperwork and, based on where we were headed, he suggested we avoid the crowds that would be at Crabtree Trailhead, and head to Pine Valley Horse Camp instead, allowing us to avoid the reasonably large hill at the beginning (and end) of the trip. This would end up causing a little bit of stress throughout the trip which I'll get back to later. We made the right turn right before the Crabtree parking area as directed and headed down the dirt road toward Pine Valley Horse Camp. The road down started nice enough, but soon became quite rocky and rutted, though still no problem on a descent, even in the small Toyota Matrix we were driving.

After a little wandering to find the trailhead (east of the horse camp), we were on our way. First stop West Fork Cherry Creek, up on the granite where we had also camped the year before. The water in the creek is definitely flowing but nothing near what it was like last September.

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Our evening at Cherry Creek was plagued by mosquitos, so much so that we ended up eating in the tent and staying in the remainder of the night, even despite headnets, though after darkness fell they weren't bad at all. Nevertheless, after a full day we turned in early to get an early start the next day.

Day 2: W Fork Cherry Creek to Pingree Lake with a day hike to Yellowhammer Lake

Our second day was picture perfect, temps in the 80s during the day with a beautiful hike to Pingree. Some mosquitos at night, but mostly just the swarms of bugs that would fly above us and make loud buzzing but didn't bother us much. We watched for a while and it's interesting to see them partner up and drop out of the swarm. These same bugs were in the same spot about 2 years ago when I was at Pingree, and I haven't seen them anywhere else. Another hiker we ran into commented on them at Pingree as well. If anyone knows, please comment!

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Day 3: Pingree Lake to Rosasco Lake, with sidetrip to Hyatt Lake

Another picture perfect day, we packed up and hiked down out of Pingree to the junction toward Big Lake. We ditched our large packs near one of the ponds and day hiked to Hyatt Lake, partly along the granite entering into Hyatt's basin from the northeast. Afternoon at Rosasco Lake was beautiful with few bugs except for a short time right at dusk when we donned our headnets and bug spray again for several hours. We camped on the ridge at the south end of the upper lake area with a veiw directly over the lake. Saw 7 shooting stars over a 40 minute period that night.

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Day 4: Rosasco Lake to Pine Valley Horse Camp via Cherry Creek

On our final day, we crested the ridge above Rosasco and followed the well-marked trail down to Cherry Creek, headed up the creek toward the main trail and then made our way back to the car. After a celebratory IPA which was still remarkably cool in the car, we attempted our way back up the rutted road. We made it over what I thought was the sketchiest part of the road without much trouble but then got stuck about halfway up. But, after about 10 minutes of manual-labor road maintenance and a running start in the car, we made it the rest of the way up the road. I think the road would be fine for anything that's at least all-wheel drive (and after our road maintenance, probably fine for any vehicle until the next rain). Clearance-wise we never bottomed out at all despite the Matrix's relatively low clearance. But thinking about the potential issues of getting out was on my mind for a short time every night as we were getting ready to sleep. NExt time I'll bring the AWD!!

All in all, a fantastic trip to one of my favorite parts of Emigrant, though I would highly recommend good bug spray and headnets for the near-term.

[rightstar76]

I like the picture you took from the top of the ridge next to Hyatt Lake. The granite in Emigrant is amazing. I have to make it to the beach at Hyatt one of these days and go for a swim in Rosasco Lake. Thanks for sharing your pictures.

[balzaccom]

Love this area! Thanks for posting this report...