Before departing the car, I broke out the tripod and took this photo to capture our pre-trip condition. A handsome bunch, don't you think? From left to right we have, Alan, Dave, George, Andra, and Mike. We are standing near the Crabtree trailhead outside the town of Pinecrest, CA.
Shortly after departing from the trailhead, we ran into an Emigrant Wilderness sign. Andra wanted to snap a photo and Alan volunteered to help include us in the shot. I couldn't help but add about five pounds of weight to Andra's backpack while we posed for the picture! Now you know how Andra went from 5' 11" to her present height!
The Emigrant Wilderness contains the Wire Lakes which we visited a couple of years ago (your lazy webmaster never posted the pictures - oops). The last time we were in this area, we ended up here because our first choice had fire restrictions in place (no camp fires). We had originally planned to hike out of Leavitt Station and go south. This year we planned that same trip, but just weeks beforehand, the ranger district banned fires again! So this is the second time we've hiked this region due to fire bans in the Leavitt Station area. The two trails are a stone's throw from each other, but the other ranger district is a lot stricter, especially during dry years.
As we made our way through the rough terrain, the lack of shade drained our energy. Alan and I paused to allow our party members to regroup before pressing on up the canyon. Neither Andra nor I took any pictures of our first campsite at Groundhog Meadow. We had planned to stop at the Meadow in order to break up the distance and keep the first day short. I generally avoid having a long first day trail leg just in case we get delayed getting to the trailhead.
Groundhog meadow has a perennial stream cutting through it (Piute Creek). I picked Groundhog Meadow as our first overnight stop for several reasons. 1) It was about the half way point from the trailhead to the lake loop we were interested in, 2) it had a stream for refilling our water supplies and cooking dinner and 3) the topo map showed a significant amount of level ground for pitching tents.
The problem with backpacking in drought years is that "perennial" (year round) streams are often not so - "perennial." As I had feared, when we finally reached Groundhog Meadow, the creek was no longer flowing. Fortunately several large mosquito breeding pools remained in various sections of the dry creek bed. Did I say "fortunately?" Well anyway, we had no issues boiling enough water to make dinner and tea for our trail weary group. The mosquito larva is just extra protein - right?