Weminuche Moon Lake to Rock Lake, trail information?

[Mina Loomis]

Looking for current trail information.  We have a Camp Fire youth trip going to Weminuche Wilderness in late July.  Back in 2012 I posted my questions about finding a route (this thread) for an earlier cohort, and with BPL help our group ended up hiking Turkey Creek up to Piedra, through the Goose Creek Valley (magical!) and out by Hope Creek.  It was a wonderful trip.

This year’s group would like to do a route that was mentioned by Luke Schmidt in the 2012 thread.  He said in part “Head up the Los Pinos River, then up Flint Creek to a pass (not sure of the name) then back down Lost Creek. This connects back to the Los Pinos River. This trek is lower on average. Thats good for elevation but I’d just do some research to ensure the scnery will be good. Total distance is about 34 miles with options for side trips.”  Looking at the map, I think Luke (if you see this maybe you can clarify) may have meant Lake Creek not Lost Creek.  But anyway the kids would like to go the other way around, Pine River TH up Los Pinos to the Emerald Lake Trail (which follows Lake Creek), past Emerald Lake to Moon Lake, and then up and over to Rock Lake and around and down by Rock Creek/Flint Creek/Los Pinos (Pine River) Trails to the Pine River TH again.  One of the trip leaders is a Dad who hiked this loop as a teenager in the 1970’s.

The current Trails Illustrated map #140 shows a cross-country gap on this route between Moon Lake and Rock Lake.  <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>A Backpacking Guide to the Weminuche Wilderness</span> by Dennis Gebhardt (12th ed.1993) shows on its map, and describes in the text, a social trail, which Gebhardt calls a “manway” between the two lakes.  The Gebhardt description is the reverse of what our group wants to do–the description is for getting from Rock Lake to Moon Lake.  We would be hiking up from Emerald Lake to Moon Lake where the maintained trail ends, and then north to Rock Lake.

So basically my question is, for Luke or anyone else who is familiar with this immediate area, is this section of the route/trail currently followable for a group with lots of backpacking but not a lot of off-trail navigation experience?  Does anybody have a reliable GPS track saved that you would be willing to share?  Also, is there a regional listserv, forum, or other discussion group that you know of that might have folks who frequent that area and would know?

Thanks, Mina

[Luke Schmidt]

Good to hear from you Mina! That looks like a nice area. Actually I have not hiked that area between the lakes.

I cannot find my Trails Illustrated map but I have a USGS map on my phone. There is clearly a trail there. Looks a bit steep but I wouldn’t worry too much.

If you are worried about following the route I’d download the Gaia app on a couple leader’s phones. With that you can download a map of the area and us it as a GPS. You can even download satellite images if you want (I do that for packrafting trips in Alaska and Canada). But probably a good to topo is plenty.

If you are worried the route will be sketchy you can look at it on Google Earth. Bing Maps and HERE.com also have good satellite images. Things look steeper there than in real life but it can be a good tool.

Personally I’d do the phone/GPS trick but not tell the kids. It’s a good area to practice map and compass skills. If you need to hurry things along grab a phone. I keep a small battery pack ready just in case my phone goes dead.

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