Backpacking and Fly Fishing Emigrant Lake July 2024 Day 1- Hiking the Emigrant Wilderness
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ก.ย. 2024
- Come with me as I make the hike into Emigrant Lake in the Emigrant Wilderness. I go through the trail route in detail. Watch as I work through the challenges that often happen backpacking and fishing in the backcountry.
#highcountryflyfisher
#jimlowe
#EmigrantWilderness
#BackpackingTheEmigrantWilderness
Music Made for me, by Breaking Shadows - 2024
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jim , you should get an award for your unwavering unflinching determination to fish amongst the hordes of mosquitos that were swarming everywhere
@@solukhumbu911 🤣 Thanks. It's par for the course there. To be honest, this year wasn't as bad as some years. Although getting swarmed like that in the grass was new. 🤣😅
Great video Jim! I truely appreciate the narrative on the hike. It’s a hike I hope to do someday and now I’m more prepared because of you. Keep them coming
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!
I was getting phantom itches when those mosquitos were around. Love the dance and dash to the tent, and that was a very nice Rainbow! Looking forward to day 2! Really well put together video.
@@outsidewithmike Haha! Thanks! I had a batter fishing day the day after. 😉
Jim, Killer content and storytelling as usual. Keep up the good work. Also careful with that knife. Seemed like it was bouncing off that wood a bit too easy. You don’t need a deep cut in the Emigrant. Thanks again. You’re an inspiration.
@@andrewwood4013 Thanks for the concern. I'm prepared if it ever happens. Hopefully it won't but yeah, being tired and working a knife isn't ideal. I do carry a tourniquet. 😬
Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching.
@@highcountrychronicles I don't understand why you need a knife that size. A good pocket knife suffices.
@@jimpowell6789 so that I can build a shelter and start a fire if I should ever get separated from my pack or caught in a blizzard (as I have done).
I don't carry a saw or axe, so a knife of 5" or greater is important.
If you also don't carry a saw or axe, then here's an exercise for you. On your next trip. Find someplace that doesn't have ready made firewood and time how long it takes you to prep wood and start a fire large enough to keep you warm for a hour. Time how long it takes you to do that and then imagine doing it in the cold with no dexterity in your hands or after you've fallen in a river in late fall.
Building a fire under pressure, even if you give yourself a time limit, say 15 or 30 minutes with few resources is an enlightening pressure test.
It's worse case scenario contingency.
Here's a video I made on the subject: th-cam.com/video/YyAqQTdHSUc/w-d-xo.html
@@highcountrychronicles Not disputing but comparing notes: The firewood up there is almost entirely down lodgepole and it needs to lie on the ground for 3 seasons before it burns without black tar smoke and foul stink, and then the coals are poor -- and after 4 or 5 seasons on the ground, its trash. By the time it's good for burning you can bust it over a rock (wear your cooking gloves and sun glasses). Anyplace that gets camped much at all, it will take time to hunt up enough firewood to bake potatoes and trout -- when you could be fishing, or swimming, or dayhiking, or inspecting wildflowers or sitting still contemplating the wonder. The good firewood up there is hemlock. It burns good, makes better coals, and sheds 3/4 inch-diameter branches ready to gather under its skirts, which break up easy enough and make good coals. But tree hemlock (as contrasted with shrub hemlock) is fairly rare. God bless Coleman's backpacking stove, in short.
A lake that makes a good layover, with primo fishing, camping, swimming and hemlock, and deep enough in to the wilderness to be seldom visited -- is heaven for sure. There's one five miles challenging crosscountry south of Huckleberry that sees visitors maybe once a decade by the looks of it.
For survival I'd rather have a Filson jac-shirt and poly long johns and a tarp. And especially, my wits about me in the first place.
I've been backpacking and hiking where the mosquitoes are as bad as you endured on this trip. It's why I learned to love late summer and fall.
@@Benjamin-David 😅 I have a love hate relationship. Love being up there that time of year. Love the fishing. Hate the mosquitoes but that's the price. 😁
Right. Exactly. Don't go up there before about July 20, or expect hellacious mosquitos.
Jim...you are the best,,,lol.......Quintessential Renaissance man right there
@@mmfruitveg 😅Thank you sir. 🙏🏽
Great to see you still getting out there. Please post Day 2 soon, can't wait for a look at Huckleberry. The inlet meadow area of Emigrant was always hopelessly buggy, not to mention in early July. We camped one year 200 feet above the lake on a 2-tent size shelf near the minor drainage next west from Mosquito Creek -- fewer bugs, but still. There's good fishing at the outlet end and great camping in the tiny side-canyon that runs southwest up from the meadowy bowl on the north shore a quarter mile above the outlet (where the trail comes in from Buck Lakes). I like your proposed crosscountry route to Huckleberry, curious to see it. Pruitt is useless, Yellowhammer is a beauty but not much for fishing. There's a moderately challenging crosscountry route from Huckleberry to the outlet of Lower Twin, which is seriously great fishing. You can probably figure it out on the topo. The lakelet where it crosses the ridge is a jewel but no fish. E-mail me for specifics (we were in contact a few years ago). Thanks for this video. Hoping for more.
Hi, yeah I'm behind. Sorry about that. Spoiler alert. I didn't make it to huckleberry. I decided to head out. Sorry to disappoint. Maybe next year.
I like the outlet as well but usually spend my time at the inlet.
I was going to take the normal route to huckleberry. The cross country route is from the creek at Cow Meadow. There's an old trail that's fallen off most maps up that granite bluff between the two lakes. It puts you on the far side or Emigrant near the small lakelette. (North West of Emigrant ?)
Thanks!
@@highcountrychronicles I've done part of that North Fork trail up from Cow Meadow a mile or so, just exploring. A friend was able to follow it all the way down to Cow Meadow. The North Fork below Cow Meadow is great crosscountry but probably no fishing. Fishing in the pools just below the confluence of North & East Fork at Lord Meadow (so called meadow) is supposed to be good, looks good, but wasn't the time we were there. Little Bear Lake up on the ridge in Yosemite was. In the North Fork canyon above Cow Meadow way more interesting is to drop down Fisher Lake's outlet creek to the North Fork then up it to the confluence where the canyon below Shallow Lake meets it, and go up the N Fork (more or less straight up) to the wonderful stretch of meadows below the Emigrant outlet. The pool at the confluence looks like fish but the mosquitos were so bad we didn't pause to try. Fisher L was astonishing (underlined) fishing for several years, but the last time I was there (without fishermen in our party) I saw an otter -- who knows what he did to the trout. The long meadow below the Emigrant outlet is horrific with mosquitos until late season, then beautiful camping. The creek swarms with small trout. Estella Lake is a stone jewel to camp and swim but no fish. Frazer Lakes the same. Both the Emigrant outlet meadow and Estella make good base camps for fishing the outlet (as well as the site mentioned above). Kennedy Meadow is a stupid trailhead for anything but the little lakes under Granite Dome -- and even they are more pleasantly accessed from Gianelli. The best of the Emigrant for fishing is along the Yosemite border and over it. Bear Lake (the one near Haystack), Lower Twin outlet, Snow Lake west end -- probably Brown Bear but we never properly fished it. There's truly great fishing in lakes offtrail upslope of the PCT north from Matterhorn Canyon to Grace Meadow -- takes a long time to get in there, but lordy lordy. God's back pocket. Happy trails.
@@highcountrychronicles There's a route that heads down the meadow from W Lake and passing south of Shallow Lake, and then follows the ridgeline southwest until it intersects the trail as its dropping in to Huckleberry. I haven't done it myself but we ran into a guy just as he reached the trail who described it. It must be 2-3 miles shorter, though crosscountry. The meadow itself is a stroll.
Thanks for the beta. You've mentioned "in-between" places I haven't tried yet and will probably never get too (I don't plan to stream fish much in the Emigrant), so nice to hear about them. I'm not terribly fond of Gianelli as a launching point (don't care for the road nor the trail) and prefer Kennedy for ease of access and facilities as well as Crabtree. Kennedy's a tough haul for sure. Those lakes near Yosemite are very good, I've never done well at Snow personally (still need to fish that lakelet though). The others fish better for me.
@@highcountrychronicles I stream-fished Sierra trout in my boyhood and teens at mid-elevations (5000-6500). Lake fishing bores me silly; I left it to my trail companions, always glad for a reason to catch and keep one more good one for dinner. We concluded that the high country streams in the Emigrant are too small to grow big trout (though some swarm with little ones). The pools below Lord Meadow ought to be an exception, but the one time we tried they skunked three fishermen (on a triple Pisces true master). We never got more than two miles down the West Fork below the trail crossing -- possibly further down might be an exception. (We never fished Summit Creek, only used that trail twice.).
In the Yosemite back country there are wonder pools in Jack Main Canyon and many big trout visible, but they skunked us three years running -- wise fish. The headwaters of the Merced Lyell fork was the only good -- really good -- north Sierra high country stream fishing we ever saw. It takes 3-4 days to get in there. We had great luck at Snow four years running, always on the outlet end and the cove up against the cliffs there. Maybe it's changed? The trail from Gianelli is a long way to anywhere, yes, especially for fishing, nothing before Long and Deer -- but there's some stellar and much loved camping a few miles off it south on top of the ridge between Piute and West Fork headwaters. Happy Trails and good fishing, Jim. Get all you can while you can. And thanks for the videos
My family and I were at Mosquito Flats. We backpacked to Chickenfoot lake, the mosquitoes were fairly bad. I treated all of our clothes with Permethrin. Not one bite.
I sprayed it all and set it out to dry in the sun. We also sprayed any exposed skin with Picaridin.
You may just have super mosquitoes up in Emigrant Wilderness.
Those mosquitoes do look pretty darn thick.
@@1970SBenny Yeah, the Emigrant is the only place I ever need to use anything. Other places they're pretty easy to ignore for me. LLV included. 😅
Probably just a numbers games. 😬
Jim
I so enjoyed this video
In June of 1976 I hiked along the same route, ultimately terminating at Hetch Hetchy reservoir. Following along I remembered many landmarks all these years later. And of course the mosquitos!
Happy high Sierra times
Kim’s husband Duane
@kimberlyh3055 Hi! Really glad you enjoyed it and took the time to follow along! Thanks for watching!
Coming from the valley, I always spend the first night at Sheep Camp for better acclimation. Even though I've got the legs for it, if I push it, I could get altitude sick. Zero appetite, nausea, headaches.
I was at Emigrant a few days before you, exited July 2nd, and got absolutely slaughtered by mosquitos. A few weeks before that I wanted to get to Yellowhammer via Louse Canyon/Rosaco, but Cherry Creek was flowing too fast to cross.
Love this channel, one of my favorite outdoor channels on TH-cam.
Thanks for the kind words. Yeah, I worried that Cherry Creek between Pruit and Yellowhammer was going to be too high to cross. There's a trail that exits Yellowhammer into the canyon.
I don't worry about acclimation anymore. I find I perform better when I do one big push and relax on day two than try to do it over multiple days. Love Sheep Camp though! Thanks for watching!
You are a stud on the hike in. I’ve fished that lake many times and my go to is black ant or wet fly on that section of the lake when windy. Dry’s come out in the morning and last light. Caught my largest rainbow ever on that lake 22”. Me and my buddies would go in on horseback and bring everything + kitchen sink lol including my pontoon boat. I was able to hit spots people can’t access. That side of the lake has a big drop off about 50 yards out and that’s the zone. I have a picture from the mountain top that shows it. I prefer the West side for sight casting off the granite, I miss those days. Thanks for taking me back. BC
Thanks! Sounds like a great time! I do ok off the granite but always prefer the flats.
its easy to catch fish at the main lake ,specially at the drop offs using spoons and spinners but more difficult fly fishing in the flats , in the inlets. i think thats what jim was trying to do
@@solukhumbu911 It is what I was try to do. I like to sight fish and in the right conditions the flats are good for that. These days prospecting bores me pretty quickly...🙃
Fully agree about the stud part. That trail is a non-stop grind all the way to Brown Bear or Mosquito Pass, take your pick. Chewed up bad with horse traffic too.
@@jimpowell6789 🤣😅🤣😅 Thanks. I just want to fish. 🙃
Love your videos. It's inspiring me to get back out in the wilderness and mix in fishing. I've done Mt Whitney with friends but it was all about the hiking and no fishing. For eating you should make fresh jerky and take it along. It keeps well and it is delicious.
@@titanhangman Thanks for the kind words! Jerky is a great idea. I have a friend that sends me some from time to time. Last time I was here I had some but never thought to make my own.
Get out there and have fun!
@@highcountrychroniclesmaking it is super easy!
@@titanhangman Do you have any good resources I could check out?
@@highcountrychronicles Yes, there's a great book that I use called, simply enough, Jerky. Author is A.D. Livingston. I have only done one recipe from the book and I have no reason to do anything different. Get 10 pounds of flank steak and cut it into strips. Marinate it overnight in 2 cups of soy sauce, 1 cup of Worcestershire sauce, 1/4 cup of liquid smoke and salt and pepper to taste. Remember that there's already a lot of salt in the sauces so I actually don't do much additional. I have a cheap dehydrator I got from Walmart but I had to make a huge batch for church several years ago so I learned that you can make it in the oven. Just turn the oven down as low as it goes and leave the door slightly open. Put the strips on a cookie sheet and even better if you can get a rack for cooling cookies so it has air flow underneath. But, honestly, the dehydrator wouldn't set you back very much. I just saw one about the same quality as mine on Amazon and it was $40.
@@titanhangman Cool! Thanks! I'll give this a try sometime!
I just got back from a trip to Yellowhammer lake. Almost no mosquitos , and the fishing was very poor. Water temps were warm. The usual mid summer slow down . One of these days I hope to meet you out in the Emigrant, as I go there several times a year.
Thanks! I'm sure it will happen. I've met quite a few viewers out in the backcountry.
Yeah, summer in the emigrant is tough. A lot of the lakes are shallow and warm. I usually stay away until fall. Thanks for watching.
I’ll be at Big and Yellowhammer (along with Rosasco) Aug 20-26. Love yellowhammer!
@@stevenbrewer8788 Cool! Good luck!
Yellowhammer is wonderful for camping and swimming and vibe, but not fishing. We thought Big was a Big bore. Rosasco yes, Hyatt yes, Red Can too (the lakes themselves and for camping & swimming -- none were much for fishing. Leighton is or was supposed to be good fishing but we could never find where.
Yellowhammer was better than ever last month. Pulled out 11 healthy rainbows in a couple of hours. Big was slow, but caught a huge one very deep. I’m a convert to ultralight spin gear after a better fishing year than I’ve ever had with a fly rod up there…
I took my son fly fishing over on the lower Owens and we were absolutely swarmed with mosquitoes like this. We ended up running to the car just to get a few minutes of peace.
@@hookbrother Never heard it being that bad there. 😅 I'd do the same.
Awesome ,In my backyard again ! I want to do this hike someday. Looking forward to the rest of the videos from this trip. 🤙🏻
Thanks! You should definitely do it!
Great video again!
@@HuyNguyen-lu3zj Thanks!
Very enjoyable video. Great hike.
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching.
We call those rein engined mosquitos. Beautiful country thanks for having us along
@@chili1593 Thanks for watching!
@@highcountrychronicles twin engined mosquitos. Predictive typing and spell check get me every time
@@chili1593 😅
I'm wondering if you used to post trips reports on a blog way back before youtube took off. There were writeups on weekend trips to the emigrant wilderness and many thunderstorm encounters where a piece of sleeping mat was used to stand on with feet together to avoid getting zapped.
@@melodicaether6294 Yep. Highcountryflyfisher.com.
Nice adventure, thanks for bringing us along.
What type of salami and cheese works for backpacking?
@@richbanister Salami I really don't have a preference. Usually dry aged. Cheese it depends. Lately it's been provolone but hard cheeses are better.
No kidding! I was in Emigrant from 7/4-7/7. Spent the night of 7/5 off trail very near Emigrant Lake. I look forward to seeing where the coming days take you. Cheers!
Thanks. Did we pass each other on the trail?
@@highcountrychronicles That would have been a fun coincidence, but no I don't believe we did. I hiked in from Gianelli and eventually came to Emigrant Lake from below (cross country up the N. Fork of Cherry Creek). Other than the first several miles from Gianelli, I encountered only a half dozen individuals, all around Deer and Buck Lakes. Your next videos will indicate how close our paths were to crossing!
In the mid 70s a wood sign warning fisherman that fishing the inlet was illegal because the fish spawn in the 3 or 4 fingers entering the lake,the fishing in that lake can be great. I spent 17 days in 2022 and never left the lake,it's huge and fish can be found just about everywhere.Be for-warned some are huge !!!!$$$$$.That was my 7th time at Emigrant.I will be back in August 2024 😊 see ya there, NOT.....
@@daledavis5593 Interesting. I've been fishing the lake for a long while and this is the first I've heard of that. The old DFG Angler guides specifically mention the "good stream fishing".
That said, I could see them posting no fishing from trail crossing and up. The spawning mostly takes place in the first sandbar at the crossing and above.
Interesting bit of history. Thanks.
Sure. There are big fish everywhere. The flats are just what I enjoy fishing. I've fished all over the lake. I enjoy the bluff and the flats at the outlet as well.
See you out there! 😅😅😅
Hiking from Crabtree trailhead to Kennedy Meadows in September. Wish me luck.
@@JasonLake-hp5qg Nice! Which way you going?
@@highcountrychronicles my question too. I did a 12-day solo loop between Crabtree & Kennedy one year, then picked up a resupply at Kennedy and did another 11-day loop returning to Kennedy -- the first loop through Deer, Cow Meadow, Huckleberry, Wood, Deer again, and Upper Relief, the second back to Upper Relief, Toe Jam, Long, Upper Buck, Emigrant outlet and inlet, Sheep Camp and out -- revisiting favorites, six layovers in all -- the last time I got to spend longer than two weeks at a stretch in the high country. After that we did several 14-day ventures targeting deep trail-less areas in the Yosemite back-country. High duration trips are mind- and life-altering. In a lifetime, there's gotta be a way to arrange do a few, if it's your cuppa. What else is freedom for?
@@jimpowell6789 That sounds great! Not sure I'll be able able to do that myself but it would be a blast.
@@highcountrychronicles If you put your mind to it you could rig it. And it is a transformative experience. After 8-10 days your sense of time and sense of space pass through a threshold to a different kind of centeredness. Spending more than a lunation out under the stars puts you in synch with the cosmos -- the Milky Way unveiled in full glory at the Dark of the Moon, then night by night the Moon rising later and brighter and then the glory of the stars returning. Sleeping under the stars is key and easy in the Sierra -- it almost never rains at all, still less at night -- we always slept out -- in approaching 300 nights in the high country I slept in a tent four times that I can remember -- once to escape the heavy overnight dew in Slide Canyon Big Meadow, once in Rainbow Canyon behind Tower Peak (called "Rainbow" for a reason), once at the top of Horse Meadow on the East Fork when a system moved in off the desert, and once above Emigrant inlet meadow hiding from those insane mosquitoes. Little did they know you were coming to feed them even better!
Jim I often wonder the same. some trips seem meant to be while others not so much, life intervenes I suppose. I appreciate your honesty either way as we can all relate to leaving home knowing there’s important matters to tend to. Catching that fish would have made it worth it for me. Is that a 7ft rod you were working with?
@@ogoutdoors4202 Yep. That is certainly the case. There's a reason this is Day 1 of Emigrant Lake and not "4 Days in the Emigrant Wilderness".
I'm fishing an 8ft 4wt with a GPX line and 7.5ft 4x leader as the base.
went to kennedy lake last year. Great hike. Keep killin it man 🤘🏼
Thanks! Yeah, Kennedy is fun. Ironically, I haven't fished much in my last two trips there.
Those swarms look ridiculous. I want to head back that way and maybe try to find the Granite lakes. Is there a place to car camp in case I arrive in the area late?
@@rodoutdoors Sure. I typically sleep at the trailhead. There's a camp site there specifically for backpackers. There's also a PCT campground and several other spots near by.
Check out my golden trout of the emigrant videos.
Im impressed with how little the mosquitoes bothered you hahahaha
Must be all that clean living. 😅😅😅
Good afternoon Jim,
Do you lead any group hikes here in the SF Eastbay/ Marin County area?
If so I'll be interested in joining.
Thank you
@@MrKelly-ll1lx Hi, I don't but feel free to follow me on Strava for some trail routes.
Kennedy Meadows is beautiful but those summer mosquitoes are a real pain but it comes with the territory. I look so forward to the fall. On your AC at least you just needed parts. I needed a new one....$$$
Ouch. Yeah, the AC "goes" out every 5-7 years. It's always the same reason. I came soooooo close to letting it slide and just leaving. 😅😬😂 Thanks for watching.
You lucky dog 🤠
It's been Soo hot 🥵
I wish I was up there right now
Thanks! It was a beautiful time to be up there!
I was at Clark fork with my son! Mountain biking and fishing 🤙
Nice! How were he flows at the Clark Fork?
@@highcountrychronicles it was higher than normal. We caught quite a few fish. Mostly hatchery rainbows but a few brookies and one wild rainbow that was absolutely beautiful 🤩
@@Tenkara_Retiree Nice!
Can't find definitive info on whether Relief is stocked. Do you know? Seems far enough up there that they wouldn't bother. Last September we caught a bunch of rainbows as if they were planted, but they were in beautiful and pristine condition like wild trout. 🤷🏻♂️
@@HuyNguyen-lu3zj I suspect it is stocked but haven't actually checked.
@@HuyNguyen-lu3zj www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd707379.pdf
@@HuyNguyen-lu3zj according to the forest service page it’s not stocked
Good to know but I'm very surprised. :)
@@highcountrychronicles Yeah, again, the numbers we caught indicated stock to me, but the pristine condition of the fish (perfect tails/fins, presence of adipose fins) all pointed to wild. We didn't cast far, and 9"-12" was standard fare. Mostly rainbows, but a few brookies up to 13". This was September 2023. Thanks for your feedback!
How big are the trout at Sheep?
@@HuyNguyen-lu3zj they where decent sized. Roger and I shared some fish with some other campers in exchange for their pizza and I recall the fish being at least 10 inches.
You need to purchase a California trout baking license if you plan to bake trout no less than once every 12 weeks.
@@madeinusa5395 😅
Looks like a hundred mosquitoes in the tent at the end of the video. I hope you weren't a pint low on blood when you got home.
😂 Fortunately, they were outside the bug netting but yeah, I had a LOT of bites. Fortunately, I can usually ignore all but a handful and they go away quickly.
REPEL 100. Accept no substitutions.
@@johntuttle9544 yeah. I'm allergic to deet... also allergic to mosquito bites. 😅 Deet seems to be worse though.
@@highcountrychronicles So sorry to hear it! Emigrant Wilderness is notorious for the skeeters. Go back in the fall (no skeets) and fish a streamer for GUARANTEED success.
Yeah, not a surprise to me. I've been hitting the Emigrant this time of year for over 20 years. All par for the course. 👍
@@highcountrychronicles Just go later -- by the last week of July they start to mellow out. Of course, a place like the meadows at the head of Emigrant Lake is just hopeless. Agree deet is filthy.
@@jimpowell6789 Sure. I've been at several different times in the summer, including late July. 4th of July week suits my schedule best. I get one "free" day of PTO and typically have the lake to myself.... 😃