Hi all, I just posted a version of this over at highsierratopix.com and thought it might be useful here too.
Here's a quick report of my trip this past weekend. I did a ~30 mile loop solo from Crabtree to Emigrant Lake via Gem Lake and Deer Lake, then Emigrant L. to Woods Lake, and back along the Buck Meadow Creek and Grouse Lake. You can see my route in red here: http://caltopo.com/m/766B; the other colors map out side trips I didn't end up taking, except I did make a small detour to have lunch at the South Buck Lake on the 2nd day.
Note that the 3 mile portion of the route going around the west side of Emigrant Lake to the junction near Cow Meadow Lake was almost entirely off trail with lots of scrambling. A trail is shown on the Caltopo maps, but not on the Trails Illustrated or 7.5' USGS maps.
Perhaps not surprisingly, mosquitoes were bad this weekend. Except within the few miles closest to the trail head, the route passes through very wet areas and here the mosquitoes were constant. It was warm enough this weekend that there were even some to greet me at 5:00 am. I did get a break from them in the early afternoons.
Weather was warm and sunny and all creek crossings were fine. No snow left on the trail anywhere.
You can view some mediocre-quality cell-phone pictures (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B49snwlXGiOefmF6cUNXMWlDREgtUndWLWptUjVET3NiREw5YThpaE1QM290bkFFUXByWVU&authuser=0) I took to document the trip.
Seems like a popular area with much already written about it online. I'll just add that the area near the trail head is somewhat unremarkable, but past Camp Lake to Emigrant Lake was very nice, and also the stretch along the Buck Meadow Creek from Woods Lake to Cherry Creek was also very scenic, with the creek rushing below you along the south side of the trail and exposed granite mountains rising on the north and south sides. I'm happy to answer any questions if anyone else is interested in a similar trip.
