Jim and I squeezed in a backpacking trip to Emigrant Wilderness right before Labor Day. We left home at 6 am (left a sick Weener with G) and headed to the mountains. We stopped in Sonora for a carbo load bagel before heading to the Ranger Station for our permit.
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| Ranger Station |
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| Fresh and just starting the trail |
We hit the trail at 10:20 am and walked about 5.5 miles that day, passing by Camp Lake and stopping at a meadow for a lunch of crackers, salami, asiago cheese and dry jack cheese.
We made it to Lily Pad Lake and to camp there because it was so beautiful and because we had just gone 1.5 miles straight up in the blaring down sun and my legs were like jello.
We camped on a bluff above the lake and enjoyed looking around, having tea time and watching 4 meat bees fight an ant for a piece of jerky!
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| Lunch time |
We were not required to use bear canister so we hung our food instead. We didn't see any bears but saw a big paw print on our hike out.
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| Lily Pad Lake |
The wildflowers were amazing for so late in the year. So many and so many different types.
As is tradition, we stop everything for tea time between 3 and 4 pm. It is a great pick me up after a long hike. And it sort of gives you "permission" to rest!
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| First nite's camping spot |
We woke up the first morning at 6 am after a warm night in the tent. We really didn't need the rain fly because it kept it too warm! We laid around in the tent until 7 am watching the sun rise. That night was interesting because we heard a few big airplanes go over head - it's funny that you can get noise pollution that far out in the wilderness.
When I went to put my socks on, I noticed that my silk liners had been pulled out of my boots. Hmmm....that's weird! When I went to put them on, I noticed that some little mouse had chewed holes in them!
We hike up and over a hill from where we camped and came out to an expansive view of a granite valley!
We hiked about 4 miles to Grouse Lake. It was cool as we were walking down to Grouse because we were walking through a narrow granite canyon.
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| More flowers |
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| The canyon down to Grouse |
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| The trail down to Grouse |
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| Grouse Lake |
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| The reflection! |
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| A refreshing swim after a hike |
Jim started fishing in Grouse Lake and immediately starting catching fish! I went up to our camp to get some pliers and took a header on the slippery granite in my flip flops! (It brought back memories of Marty's classic "cup o noodles" fall at Cherry Lake). I am so luck I wasn't hurt worse because my knee bent backwards and I landed on my wrist.
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| Cows across the lake - when the black ones came they looked like bears! |
As we were walking towards Grouse Lake, we heard all kinds of cow bells and were thrilled when we came upon them. Little did we know that we would have a symphony of cow bells for the next 18 hours! There were at least 30 cows and they walked by all afternoon making cow bell music! And then they started heading back at 3 am!
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| Dinner - beans, cheese and tomatoes with Frito dips |
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| Our camp spot the second nite - Grouse Lake |
Another narrow injury miss was this stick that went right thru my flip flop without me even knowing it!
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| Caught lots of fish |
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| Good morning! (Our second morning) |
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| We called this cow "Oakley" |
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| Hiking out we stopped at a creek and caught a couple fish |
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| At the top of the trail hiking out |
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| In the middle of the trail on the way out |
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| We LOVE maps. We took this map with us and looked at it multiple times of day just for fun! |
All in all, it was a great trip. It was great to spend time with Jim on the trail. I would definitely recommend the loop for a 3 day/2 nite trip.
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