Bay Area June BPL HIke

[Ken Helwig]

Well we had a wonderful trip to Emmigrant Wilderness this weekend. Our loose group of miscreants headed out to Bear Lake which can be hiked into from the Crabtree Meadows trailhead. The weather was nice, around 70 degrees and the nightime was a tad chilly. Snow still can be seen on the higher peaks and from what I heard the snowline is around 8500 feet or so.

Our group brought many delicious apps for all of us to eat and it felt like a nice little community coming together. With wine, some whiskey, a nice fire and great company, this trip turned out to be another winner. I want to thank everyone that attended, it was fun wasn't it????!!!!

A special thank you goes out to Jack who drove up from Bakersfield, hung out with us like a pro and made some great quesadillos/peperroni thingys. Nice.

People that go on these trips thank me for organizing these things, but really, if it were not for all of you making the drive and hiking in, it would not happen. Thanks!!!

Tony….pictures?????? Oh wait, why would I have to ask that.

[Aaron Sorensen]

Hey Ken,
I just had to work this weekend…
So what temp was a little chilly at night?
How many people total?

I'll be up there next weekend.
I'll give you guys a report on the actual snow levels before the July TRT trip takes place.

It does look like I'll need to bring my micro-spikes with me though.
Man, I am running out of room in my 1350 ci pack and the weight it's starting to get up to something astronomical, (like 11 pounds) and that's without the spikes.

Can't wait to see the pictures.

[Ken Helwig]

Aaron, it dropped down to the 30's somewhere. It was comfortable but between 3-4am it was cooling down a bit. Nothing that was a problem or anything. I am planning something for Sept. after the season is over. Hope you can attend.

[David W.]

Ken,

Sorry I missed you guys. I arrived at Bear Lake at 1 on Saturday coming from Y Meadow Reservoir. The short of the long is, I looked around but was unable to find the group. I circled the north side of the lake and I learned on Sunday I got within 50 yards of where you were all set up but you were out of sight. I camped on the opposite side of the lake near the inlet. I ran into Tony, Cary and Lane at the site on the way out and found out I missed quite the good time. Next trip I will have to re-read thread closer to the date of departure so I know where people intend to set up. I felt like quite the fool hiking out today.

I'll post just a few pics of my unpleasantly cold and damp night at Y Meadow reservoir. I woke up with ice cubes on my bag and there was still a good amount of snow on the ground.

Bear Lake from the East above.

[Tony Wong]

David,

I really feel bad that you could not find us.

We should have sent out a scouting group to find anyone who might have been missing.

Ken,

My suggestion for the future is that we have some sort of small flag or marker at our group site that is easily identifyable or seen to let people know that we are the BPL group.

I can see how it might feel intimidating for people to walk up to strangers to ask them if they are BPL members or not.

Soooo….should the flag be made out of silnylon or cuben? :)

Maybe a BPL sticker on a neon orange cloth/flag?

-Tony

[Roleigh Martin]

A split group should each have about 8 feet of ultra, virtually zero-wait non-adhesive neon flagging tape with a mini-sharpie to be able to flag attention to action/direction you've taken/trying to convey to others out of sight.

http://www.findtape.com/product468/Berry-Plastics-771-Surveyors-Flagging-Tape.aspx?idx=3&tid=2&info=non-adhesive

In the 8 foot section, cut it in 4 strips of 2 feet long, and each person has 4 strips they can use to make a message as well as "point" to the direction you want to point to. I have 2×3" ziplock bags I put these in and distribute to each member in the group.

the lead hikers can have a perpendicular pointing "arrow" message left on main trail to show where they split off the trail to make camp for those trailing behind.

This tape is available at Home Depot, etc. It's a trick I learned watching how hunters behave in the wild in a split-up group.

of course, the last hiker should pick up the strips and return to "owner" so there is no trace left behind.

[cary bertoncini]

Lane & I took it easy for a couple days after the Bear Lake bacchanallian bonfire bonanza. Did a little hike over to Grouse Lake via a short x-country shortcut down a little canyon. After a night at Grouse Lake, spent some time along the creek until heading out.

[Richard Gless]

Anybody do any fishing?

[Tony Wong]

Richard,

Not that I know of.

Did not see anyone in our group or other people around the lake doing any fishing.

Nice pics posted up.

I am not sure when I will have time to post up my photos.

Heck, I have yet to download them from my camera.

Probably going to be weeks before I get a chance guys.

Sorry, but I am working, starting Kung Fu classes, and preparing for my 10 day Tahoe Rim Trail trip….so not much time for geeking out with the photos.

-Tony

[Richard Gless]

Tony,

Thanks for the reply. I've tried to make the last three Bay Area BPL gettogethers, but I'm a couple of weeks out of phase. While you guys did Mt. Diablo, I was at Rancheria. It was terribly hot up there too, but the falls were really awesome. We'll get to meet eventually.

Richard

[cary bertoncini]

I didn't fish Bear Lake, but saw some decent sized (12" or so) Rainbows cruising. I'd say inlet/outlet best like a lot of alpine-ish lakes. Grouse Lake had some rollers in the evening, but I didn't really scout it at all – I'd guess a pretty healthy population though.

I fished the creeks a bit & there were quite a lot of small rainbows that hit small flies, jigs & spinners. Some good holes had fish that appeared to be up to 11" or so, but most were under 7".

I didn't fish much – maybe 30 mins or so total for the trip.

[Author]

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