Emigrant Wilderness SUL Trip – July 13-14

Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to go, I have a pinched nerve in my right arm and leg but it sounds like a great bunch of people; I hope to do once I'm well and able to enjoy the trek.
Anthony

also I PM'd Jack just to tell him there might be room

Andrew, if there is still room available I would like to join in on the car shuttle on the way out. I will have room for three plus gear if needed. Looking forward to it.

So I had a car of three people leaving from SF (next to the bay bridge) but Chris is making other plans so it's just two now.

I can take on two more people or we could drive somewhere and meet and merge cars when we get there.

No sense wasting money and this way the conversation will be more interesting :)

OK Andy, we'll see you at Kennedy Meadows at 9AM on Saturday.

Kevin, I'm leaving from the south bay. Are you guys going up Friday evening or Saturday morning? I was planning on going up early Saturday morning to avoid traffic, if that works for you guys we could meet up somewhere near Dublin and carpool from there. My wife is probably coming now so more than likely it will be two of us.

We were going to leave Friday at about 4:30ish from downtown SF. I can seat two more …

OK, I think we'll probably drive on our own on Saturday. I've exceeded my lifetime quota for sitting in Friday rush hour traffic in Fremont…

I totally agree about the traffic but hoping the carpool lane helps out a bit… knock on wood!

I'll be coming from Jamestown on Saturday morning and could meet at Kennedy Meadows at 9am to help with the shuttle if necessary. Otherwise, I'll just plan on being at Sonora Pass by 9:30am.

So far the car shuttle has 4 people – me, Ellen, Andy, Michael. My car only fits 5, so I don't think we have room for both of you unless somebody rides in the trunk or if somebody else's car will seat 6+.

andrew,
you said you have a corolla, this would seem to mean that we have to now move from the sul to the xul mindset in order to shuttle the people and their gear. NO backpacks, just hip packs and or a camera case

michael

As much as I'd love to ride in the trunk, I think I'll just plan on meeting you all at the Sonora Pass TH by 9:30.

The weather forecast looks like it will be beautiful, though a bit windy. Maybe that will keep away the mosquitoes.

Friday Night – Mostly clear, with a low around 46. South southwest wind 14 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph.

Saturday – Sunny, with a high near 64. South southwest wind around 14 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.

Saturday Night – Mostly clear, with a low around 47.

Sunday – Sunny, with a high near 65.

Sunday Night – Mostly clear, with a low around 49.

NOAA usually predicts the overnight lows pretty accurately so I think it will be warm out in the evenings.

My friend and I plan on meeting up with Jay at the trailhead Friday evening and camp a little ways in if possible to avoid a fine. If I could get a ride back to the Senora Pass TH on Sunday to pick up my car that would be great. If needed I can drive down to Kennedy Meadow’s to pick up those coming in Saturday morning and deliver them to the trailhead. I would have room for three (maybe four) + gear.

It appears that non wood-burning camp stoves, ie. alcohol, esbit, etc, are still allowed within our hiking area as we are not in the defined High Hazard Area.
http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5425187.pdf Does anyone have information contradicting this?

We'll have at least two cars parked at Kennedy Meadows, so we should be able to accommodate anybody who needs a ride back to Sonora Pass on Sunday. Just make sure to remind me on Sunday morning that you need a ride.

I'm leaving a SUL sized 4-runner at KM on Saturday morning and will have room for 3 or 4 adults plus gear to help shuttle back to the Sonora Pass t/h as needed on Sunday.

I just did the math and it is:

21.2 miles from sonora pass to emigrant lake
11.6 from emigrant lake to kennedy meadows

so 32 miles total..

I'll probably split this up in half and do 15 miles each day…. or maybe slightly less the first day and more the second since it's faster down hill.

That and I'm a hammock camper and it will be easier to find better trees at a slightly lower altitude. Though Emigrant Lake doesn't look half bad.

Perfect… 2-3 of us are headed out friday night and will try to park at sonora pass.. we can try to swing by kennedy meadows on Sat morning. What time will everyone be arriving at Kennedy on Sat morning?

Anyone know how cell reception is up there? I suspect non-existant so we should probably have some sort of way to make sure everyone gets a ride to sonora.

Kevin, where did you get those mileages? The 25 miles I quoted is what I got from drawing a reasonably accurate path with Hillmap. I think 14 of that was from Sonora Pass to Emigrant Meadow Lake. Keep in mind we are not actually going to "Emigrant Lake", but rather over Brown Bear Pass. There are lots of different lakes up there with Emigrant in the name.

The plan is to meet at Sonora Pass TH at around 9:00 and start hiking at 9:30. A few of us, myself included, will probably arrive right at 9:30 since we are setting up the car shuttle (meeting at Kennedy Meadows at 9:00 as detailed above.) If anyone needs a ride from Kennedy Meadows to Sonora Pass who has not spoken up yet, now would be the time.

National Geographic Trails Illustrated map # 807…

here are the mileage breakdowns below…. Occasionally I've found that it might be missing a trail so if you're planning on a shorter trip somehow maybe that's it. But generally I've found the mileage to be accurate.

7.7
1.9
6.6
0.4
1.2
2.7
0.7

21.2 miles from sonora pass to emigrant lake

3.2
4.6
2.6
1.2

11.6 from emigrant lake to kennedy meadows

What is the route exactly, when I look at a map of emigrant, I get pretty close to that 15 or more miles from Sonora Pass to Emigrant Meadow Lakes as well, just adding the numbers up on the Harrison map, I get 17 miles to Emigrant Pass, so are we turning right at High Emigrant and going cross country for a couple of miles?

thank you,
michael

Andrew,

My crude tracing on Hillmap puts High Emigrant Lake at just under the 15mile mark. So Kevin's information looks fairly close if going to Emigrant Lake (Which we are not doing).

http://www.hillmap.com/m/ag1zfmhpbGxtYXAtaGRychELEghTYXZlZE1hcBjMrIMBDA

Edit: Michael see my link for our approximate route.

Eric,
Your route pretty much is what I see on the Harrison map. So thank you, and it looks like a good day whether it is 15 or so miles , or 17-18 miles…

michael

Oh, HIGH emigrant lake! mea culpa.

So the revised mileage per my map is:

7.7
1.9
5.6
—
15.2 (sonora to high emigrant)

1.0
0.4
1.2
2.6
4.6
2.6
1.2
—
13.6 (high emigrant to kennedy meadows)

GLAD we got that fixed :)

the slope seems perfectly reasonable too… maybe too easy :-P. I was trying to figure out the intensity so I could determine weather to lift friday morning.

Hi All,

I am in with Jack and David, still not clear on how many people are actually going but we can get a second permit Saturday morning.

I was just north of Toulumne Meadows a week and half ago and the mosquitoes were pretty bad in the wetter areas and near lakes. Temps were very mild at night with a very short thunderstorm in the afternoon. I expect it will be similar this weekend.

BTW, anybody have an extra head net I could borrow :)?