Emigrant Wilderness With Light Packs – Group BPL Trip

Flowers were blooming and very beautiful on this trip.

Three of us, Kevin with the hammock, James with the Golite SL2, and me with nothing for shelter, spent Friday night sleeping in the woods at the trail head.

This was James' fist night with the shelter, though, not the one he brought on the trip. That would not have been SUL.

Along the way, we met a few PCT hikers. Here is Seth Brewer, who in addition to being really cool to talk to, correctly identified the make and model of nearly everyone's backpack. (So much fun to meet other gear junkies!)He even recognized Jay as, "the guy from the website!"

Andy with his homemade cuben backpack, similar to Zpacks Zero. (Look at those swithbacks!)

A stream where we filled up our water.

The first glimpse of where we'll camp for the night. (I think it was the lake farthest to the left where we camped)

Eating dinner that evening. (Even though you can't tell from the photo 9 of the 13 people had Patagonia Houdini wind shirts with only one repeated color, there were two reds)

Hiking early the next morning through the meadow. (You can make out Andrew's white xpac MLD Burn)

Obligatory self portrait.

To be continued…

Our first break after Brown Bear Pass (easiest pass of the whole trip)

Relief Reservoir

The welcome sign from Kennedy Meadows as we were exiting.

The road home.

Thanks for putting this trip together Adrew and thanks to all for coming, it was great to experience this with other BPLers.
-James

Ps. If I got names of places wrong please correct me. I not that good either.

Julie and I had a blast on this trip. Thanks for organizing it, Andrew. And thanks to Jay for letting us borrow the 2 person bug shelter.

I haven’t sorted through our pictures yet, but I did upload the one video we took just after the final climb on Saturday. High Emigrant Lake, where we camped, comes into view about 9 seconds in.

Emigrant Wilderness BPL Trip

Seth from TS?
Are you sure those last photos from Relief Reservoir on arent' mine? :) Thank you, would have been fun to tag along, but my gear is not SUL yet. Off to Desolation Thurs. At least my food for 6 days/7 nights weighs more than my gear.
Duane

How hot was it? It looks like you were at some lower elevations. It was over 100 when I went there back in early June.

I don't remember seeing a stepped pyramid or tropical island. I bet you saw those while you were way ahead of the rest of us ;)

James,

You need to look up more when you're hiking.

You're missing the good stuff like ancient pyramids!

I camped on that tropical island once. It was divine.

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

Hillmap shows 26.8miles, A GPS said 30+ at the end of the day.
4,057′ Elevation gain, 7,381′ Elevation loss

Gearlist:
Baseweight = ~ 8lbs
Baseweight + Water + Food = ~17lb

SMD Wild Oasis
Plycryo Groundsheet
Mix of Ti Shepherd Hooks and MSR Groundhogs
MYOG Quilt
ZRest (4-sections for backpack frame/sitpad)
Thermarest Prolite 3
BPL cocoon UL 60 Vest
MountainGoat Merino Hat
Nylon Pants (Worn the second day due to sunburn, OUCH!)
Patagonia Houdini
Darn Tough Socks (Sleep Socks)
Patagonia R1 Jacket <– Threw this in last minute as I was cold sleeping at TH.
Evernew 450ml Companion Cup w/ Ruta Locura CF Lid, Snow Peak Hot Lips
Trail Designs Caldera Cone Sidewinder
MYOG Brian Green Esbit Tray
Matches + Mini Bic
REI TiWare Long Handled Spoon
Bear Bag + Rope + Throw Sack (Very few trees, so I borrowed space in an UrSack)
MLD Prophet
NyloBarrier Pack Liner
1L Snapple, .9L Evernew, 2L Platypus as dirty bag, Sawyer Squeeze, Tornado Tube
Tom Harrison Map + Button compass
Petzl e+lite
First Aid Kit
Ditty Kit (Chapstick, Pencil, Knife, Sunscreen <– REAPPLY OFTEN, MSR Nano Towel, bug headnet)
Toiletries (Child’s toothbrush, toothpaste, Bug spray)

Worn:
OR Oasis Hat
Sunglasses
Patagonia Merino 1 Zip-Tee
ExOfficio Boxers
Underarmor Running Shorts
DeFeet Wooleators
Inov8 Roclite 315
BD Ultra Distance Z-Poles

More than 11 items and over the 6lb limit but this trip was both my longest in milage and my lightest. I definitely have seen some areas that I could trim more if I wanted to. No torso insulation and use my quilt inside my windshirt like Andrew modeled for us, and I think I’ll try going cookless too. I was envious of Jay’s assortment of fresh foods vs. my light/compact processed junk.

That's more than 11 items. :) I might have been able to do that weight.
I have not been in to Emigrant via the PCT, nice views. Which lake was that island at? :)
Duane

Really great trip, thanks for organizing Andrew. My feet were definitely complaining but my soul was refreshed, a good trade off I think.

A few more pictures:

Jack doing emergency repair on my backpack

Sunrise

Group shot, with everyone I think

Looks like a great trip. Thanks for posting the pictures.

Some more pics….

Great pics everybody. Adam, that one of the sunrise with lupine in the foreground is desktop wallpaper worthy – got a higher res version posted somewhere?

Justin, it's very unusual for it to be that hot up there. That week in the Bay Area was unusually warm. Temps were back to normal this time – 70-ish during the day and an overnight low of somewhere in the high 40's.

There was only one item I didn't bring that I regret leaving at home – my Esbit stove windscreen. Everything else worked out fine. Here's a list of what I left behind:

-Tenkara rod and fishing kit (OK, maybe I regret leaving this one behind too)
-Pack frame
-1/8" thinlight for sitpad/to go under NeoAir
-Puffy jacket
-First aid and repair kit
-Extra tarp guyline
-Balaclava
-SPOT messenger
-Watch w/altimeter
-Compass
-Hand sanitizer (had soap, usually bring both)
-Toothbrush and toothpaste (used scotch instead)
-Extra firestarter (brought a single mini-bic)

Thanks Andrew, I did a brief trip report on my blog. You can find the sunrise photo there, feel free to use it as a background.

http://danceswithangiosperms.blogspot.com/

Many thanks to Andrew for organizing a fun trip and to everyone in the group for making me feel welcome (as the only SoCal hiker).

PCT hiker “Naturally Caffeinated” and Kevin. This guy really was caffeinated. . .

Latopie Lake and Koenig Lake from the first pass.

Fearless hikers on the snowfields.

James taking a break on the PTC.

The wildflowers were blooming everywhere.

Jay on the way down the switchbacks to the Emigrant Lakes area.

High Emigrant Lake and Emigrant Meadows Lake.

Cross country travel on the second day.

On the way to Brown Bear Pass.

Relief Reservoir.

For the gearheads in the group here is a link to my:

SUL Summer Sierra Gear List

Great pictures Andy and it was nice to hike and meet you. We won't hold SoCal against you! LOL

Thanks Jay! It was good to meet you after reading your posts and photos here on BPL over the past few years. . . and great Belize photos.

Nice trip. Would have been there but was somewhere else. Hopefully next time.