Emigrant Lake Day 1 Montage

Emigrant Lake Day 2 releases tomorrow at 6AM PST.
Thanks for your patience.
Music written for me by Breaking Shadows.

[@TrailStrider909]

Good stuff!

[@highcountrychronicles]

Thanks! Day 2 drops tomorrow!

[@TrailStrider909]

@@highcountrychronicles ❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@jimpowell6789]

One thing to be said for early season, besides mosquitoes, is all that green -- I've never seen that trail looking so vernal. Did you ever try to work your way south across Emigrant's east end meadow to find the actual inlet? I spent 40 minutes dodging sloughs while my friends fished down the meadow north shore, and gave up. Are you a believer in the notion that inlets make good fishing? Have you fished up the North Fork above Emigrant, below Middle Emigrant? Choice hiking through emerald elfin littoral but we never fished it.

[@highcountrychronicles]

@@jimpowell6789 Not sure I understand your question about the inlet but I've hiked all the way across to the other side. Through the sloughs to the north side. I've hiked from high emigrant past middle to Emigrant and fished in the canyon below middle emigrant. It's pretty country and decent fishing for Brookies. Where I've never really fished is the north fork between the trail crossing and where it drops into the basin. I walked it once and only saw small fish and have never looked again. 😅

[@jimpowell6789]

@highcountrychronicles Pretty country is right, and a bad horse trail, which is always a plus. I was just fooling around and didn't want to slog tbrough slough bottoms for no purpose but sight-seeing. I get the impression that wouldn't stop you. I got tired of dodging and had a look round the packer camps on the east edge of the meadow (where you'r camp, I think?) and then climbed up the ridge that rises behind them running east. I believe I saw a badger hole, as close as I ever got to that elusive beastie. That kind of poking around is my kick, rather than fishing. There's a cool route that follows right up the outlet channel of west Fraser Lake (that only runs during melt-off) starting a quarter mile from Emigrant outlet. Stellar camping up there but no fish. Have you fished Emigrant Meadow Lake? Maxwell? Have you been up Sachse Monument? It's more or less a walk up if you pick your route right but the last time I was there rock fall was coming down it every few minutes so we changed our plans. Fantastic view on top down into the East Fork. Thanks for all your videos. It's a huge pleasure to see this loved terrain again. My bod will no longer get me up there. Get it while you can as much as you can. Happy trails & good fishing.

[@highcountrychronicles]

Hi, Yeah, I camp at what is essentially the second pack camp. I haven't seen pack trains in here for over a decade but sometimes still find horse manure. I haven't fished Maxwell, it's always been too buggy for me there, this time of year. Timing wise, my long trips are typically on July and September and September is usually in the Eastern Sierra. I have fished along the chain though, High Emigrant, Emigrant Meadow, Middle Emigrant. Middle is my least favorite along the chain. I've never hiked to the top of the monument. I'm not a peak bagger so really no interest, though as I recall, the map shows a lake nearby, one day I might check if it has fish. I haven't fished below the dam at Emigrant but I vaguely remember fishing that small lake near the other outlet. So many years up there, It's hard for me to recall clearly.

[@jimpowell6789]

@@highcountrychronicles High season for horse-packing is later July and above all August -- up through Labor Day. So maybe you're just missing the horses. The upper end of Emigrant used to be a destination, and the upper end of Huckleberry. Now, I wonder? Agree Middle Emigrant is totally nothing. There's this weird spring on the upstream end. That's a feature! Cow Meadow Lake is in the North Fork also and sometimes usta have fishing. And the lakelet which shall remain nameless is in the North Fork, on the upper east wall. The little V-shaped lakelet a half mile southwest of Emigrant outlet, at the foot of the cliffs on the southwest face of the knob there (9160), is called Estella. Like at Yellowhammer only better, it has flat level glaciated granite on lakeshore -- like camping on a counter-top. No fish -- the lake is a solid granite basin of yearly replenished snow-melt. Crystalline. Great swimming and one of three good base camps for the outlet area. The smaller lake a quarter mile south, right on the trail (or its remains) -- a lily-choked pond when last seen -- is David Starr Jordan Lake. Are you talking about the big pond on the North Fork a half mile below the outlet? The half mile of oxbows through meadow downstream of Emigrant outlet is gorgeous and abounds in trout (small), is mosquito hell until it stops, like camping on like on the grounds of an estate, the river comes up every spring and washes it new. Flat level lawn.

[@jimpowell6789]

@@highcountrychronicles By "trail-crossing" you mean where the trail from Buck Meadow meets the one on Emigrant north shore? And "where it drops into the basin" is a half mile below the outlet? The West side of the creek as it plummets into the canyon there is do-able cross-country. Steep and slow but not difficult ground. The pond at the confluence at the bottom of the drop ought to swarm with fish. Not to mention the unnamed lakelet nearby.