Emigrant 1995-97

Busy year for both George and myself, just time for one trip to our favorite warm up, Kennedy Lake. We were attempting to get further into the backcountry, however, a heavy snow season (remember those!) confronted us. We enlisted the help of my bowling buddy Ronson to give us a quick overfly of Emigrant to scope out. Pretty much solid snow all around, so we headed up to Kennedy lake and made the best of it. We did climb up the back side base of Kennedy Peak from Soda Canyon, which would become an obsession for George, with some spectacular views down into the valley.

Another year, another heavy snow season and the best laid plans are thwarted. Unable to punch into higher Emigrant country, we settled for a few days at Relief reservoir with a move up the Huckleberry trail to test our snow camping skills. We made it as far as Sheep Camp and spent 2 days checking out the area while dodging some intermittent snow showers. All in all, fun time. Returning to our cache at Relief and not wanting to finish the trip, we headed to our comfort spot, Kennedy Lake. Maybe next year we will make it further.

Big thanks and shout out to Ranger George for his pictures to make this trip complete. These are being used under copyright authorization by the artist and licensed to zScapes. I have no clue where my pictures disappeared to!

If you have been following our trips during this time, you may have gathered that we had been stymied by lingering snowpacks each year to get further into the backcountry. This year would be different. We watched and waited, had several talks with Matt @ Kennedy Meadows and pulled the trigger to get into Big Emigrant in June. When we arrived to pack out, Matt told us his packer could only get us as far as the split to Emigrant Lake on the Huckleberry trail. Not an issue, we were determined to get there, come hell or high snow. As promised, our packer got us as far as possible and we started our trek over Mosquito Pass to plant our camp at Big Emigrant Lake. Success! However, a lot of snow and the realization creeped in we would have to stay a few days to allow the snow to melt in order to proceed up to Emigrant Meadow Lake. And so we did.

We had Emigrant Lake to ourselves, expect for one brave soul who came wading across the inlet to continue on his trek. Did not get a clear indication where he was headed, but he was having fun. Three days passed and we felt it was time to go. Snow levels were manageable as we made our way to Emigrant Meadow Lake, however, the closer we got the more of the white stuff we encountered. Our biggest challenge was crossing the snowpack and not falling in! With a bit of rope and terrain knowledge, we made it to a sunny high point and sat down for another few days. Molo Mountain was our goal for George to scope out Kennedy Peak for another trip.

Last Phase of this trip was the way to Kennedy Lake. If the snow level was a tad lower, we would have dropped from Lost Lake, but that was out of the question this time. Big Sam was the path and when we got over the pass, it was pretty much snow covered in any direction. We made our way cautiously across several snow fields with packs off, ropes pulleys and our trusted orange scoopers as anchors! Looking back, not too smart. We lived to tell the tale. A memorable trek.