Emigrant Wilderness: Kennedy Lake

Did an easy group trip to Emigrant Wilderness this past weekend. I brought my Little Brother, who had been camping a few times before, but not backpacking.

Friday we arrived after dark, to find that it was full, and I hadn't made reservations. Tthey get full? I guess. I never sleep in them, so I don't know.) Thankfully, even in the dark, it only took me 60 seconds to find a dirt road with a pullout and a nice hunter camp for us all to camp in for free.

Saturday we hiked from Kennedy Meadows resort (the northern one, for you PCT thru-hikers) to Kennedy Lake. It's a pretty well-maintained trail, with a fair amount of stock travel, but it wasn't anywhere near Tuolumne Meadows to Vogelsang level of donkey-shit awfulness; in fact it was quite nice. It's 6 or 7 miles up to Kennedy Lake, and the trail peters out right when you get to a narrow leg of it. To actually see the lake, you have to make your way through some boggy ground, and there really isn't anywhere nice to camp by it. So you end up camping on a bench by the outlet creek, which you won't have to yourself. Hopefully the group of a million Mormon teenagers dressed as pioneers yelling "Elmer!" at the top of their lungs will be quiet and camp far away from you when you go.

It's really pretty.

Also, everyone liked my dehydrated black beans and corn chips, so gf should admit that her opinion about them is incorrect.
How to read a topo map.


OK if I sit here?




Heading back down

Overlooking the canyon of Kennedy Creek



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adze Picket Co. (I Love the PCT)

Image
Me at the Border I spent the weekend at the ADZPCTKO with Nitro , Tatu Joe, Ducky (the Wise) , Tomato, BearCan't , Mattress, Love Barge, Nano, Sly, Disco , WeatherCarrot, Too Obtuse, Nacho, Tall Paul, Mags , and Wildflower (AKA Icognito Cheeto Bandito). I got a ride down with Firefly. I'm tempted to just end my post there, as it would seem like complete gibberish to many of you. But I won't. The ADZPCTKO is the Annual Day Zero Pacific Crest Trail Kickoff, held the last weekend in April (also known as NFL Draft weekend, where, miracle of miracles, the Redskins, despite Dan Snyder's best attempts to screw it up, actually managed to avoid throwing away multiple draft picks on Chad Johnson and instead traded for more picks. Hallelujah!) at Lake Morena campground, 20 miles north by trail from the Mexican border near Campo, CA. Conventional wisdom says that the weather window on the PCT is such that there's not much point to starting earlier thanks to snow in the S
Read more

The 50th Year of Trying to Hold the Western States Endurance Run

Image
I ran the 50th Western States Endurance Run June 24-25 in a disappointing 28:54.  I mean, 50 years ago a guy ran a horse race, and 47 times since then a footrace of similar distance has been held. (There was one fire cancellation and one COVID cancellation.) So it's kind of the 48th running in the 50th year, but whatever. By disappointing I mean it took me longer than 24 hours, and it took me longer than the 25:30 it took me when I did it 10 years ago. (And by 10 years ago I mean 10 years, not eight, though I believe I applied eight times in those 10 years, having not bothered to apply in 2014, and if I remember correctly, COVID meant they rolled over 2020 without a new lottery.) I trained hard and consistently from early March through May 20, going as far as hiring an online coach. That seemed to work well, until it didn't. I hurt my hamstring running the Silver State 50K (more on that in my previous post ) and babied my hamstring for the final five weeks prior to Western Stat
Read more