Leavitt Lake Trailhead Backpacking

[Ben Kobrin]

I saw Ed's post about Leavitt Lake. Instead of hijacking his, I thought I'd start my own post with an Emigrant Wilderness backpacking trip report. This is my first fishing report, so I'll do my best!

Day One:

Drove to Leavitt Lake, just over Sonora Pass and 3.5ish miles up a 4X4 road to the lake. Got there around 3:00pm and set up camp. I decided to drive up to the lake that afternoon so that my body could acclimate to the altitude, as our backpacking trip was going to be long and high (9,300 feet up to 10,850). After getting settled, I headed down to the lake for some late afternoon/evening fishing. Anything hopper-like was good enough for these fish, they were not picky. Here's my first one of the day:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j35/lazychuck1/IMGP0326.jpg

After all was said and done, I landed probably 20 fish in the 8"-12" range. Seemed to be an even mix of brookies and rainbows (with the greenish tint that Ed spoke of in his post). Fish on at sunset:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j35/lazychuck1/IMGP0333.jpg

And here's the last fish of the day, and one of the biggest:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j35/lazychuck1/IMGP0334.jpg

Day Two:

Got up at sunrise and went back down to the lake for another 10 fish before 8:00am. At 9:00 I met my backpacking partner at the Leavitt Lake trailhead and we started in on the most grueling backpacking trip I have ever been on. Here is Leavitt Lake from about half way up Leavitt Lake Pass:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j35/lazychuck1/IMGP0346.jpg

Since this is a fishing post, I'll spare you the details on the hike. No fishing day two, just walking....and walking....and walking. 12.5 miles and 9 hours later we arrived at Snow Lake and made camp. 15 or 20 seconds after finishing dinner we both passed out from exhaustion.

Day Three:

Woke up at sunrise and hit the trail for our 4-lake day trip. We hiked from Snow Lake to Bigelow Lake, Black Bear Lake and finally Upper Twin Lake. Compared to the previous day, this hiking was a piece of cake. Upper Twin Lake may be the most beautiful place I have ever been. Obviously my pictures can't do it justice:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j35/lazychuck1/IMGP0385.jpg

Perhaps my love for this lake has something to do with the great fishing. We each landed about 10 fish to 16", with the majority in the 12"-14" range.

Fish on:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j35/lazychuck1/IMGP0391.jpg

If you look carefully you can see that this one hammered a size 12 stimulator:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j35/lazychuck1/IMGP0388.jpg

This guy was just cruising along the bank:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j35/lazychuck1/IMGP0410.jpg

We landed another 5 rainbows at Black Bear Lake but got nothing at Bigelow and Snow Lakes. Still, a good day-hike and just what the doctor ordered after the big hike in.

Day Four:

We wanted no part of hiking all the way back out to Leavitt Lake in one day (learned our lesson hiking in). So, we packed up early and decided to walk about half way out and spend the night at High Emigrant Lake. The hike was an easy one and we arrived at around noon. After setting up camp, my friend decided to hike to Lost Lake and I stayed behind to check out High Emigrant. Boy am I glad I did. The lake itself isn't much to look at but every fish I pulled out of there was HUGE. The first one slammed my stimulator and I thought he was pretty big, but once I got a good look at him I decided that I needed a picture. Remember, however, that at this point I was alone. I'm glad there was nobody around to see what I did next, because it must have looked ridiculous. There I was, fighting the biggest brook trout of my life on a 3wt rod, while pulling my camera out of my pocket, while programming the auto timer with one hand using my peripheral vision, while trying to steady it on a rock at the right height. Considering all of this, the pics came out better than I would have expected:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j35/lazychuck1/IMGP0422.jpg

I'm know there are bigger fish in the world, but it was such a wonderful surprise to pull something like this out of a lake that sits at 9,400 feet and that at first glance looked completely dead. After my friend got back from Lost Lake (5 brookies to 8") we continued to pull monster fish from High Emigrant Lake. We kept two of the smaller ones for dinner:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j35/lazychuck1/IMGP0433.jpg

Day Five:

Woke up and hiked out. Got back to the trailhead at about 2:00pm and drank two of the most delicious beers of my life. About 35 miles, and 50 fish on a four-day backpacking trip was all I could handle. Every single fish came on a dry fly. It was lots of fun but very difficult on both the body and mind.

This ended up being a longer post than I had anticipated. Sorry :)

[Scott V]

Awesome report, I would have loved to been there, even as hard as the hike sounded. I hope to some day do an adventure like that myself.

[Flycanoe]

That is an awesome trip and report. Thanks for sharing.

About how far is High Emigrant lake from the Leavitt Lake trailhead?

[Digger]

good report, nice pics. love that area.
would like to see more reports like this.

[erhetta]

A fantastic report and awesome pics.

I absolutely love that you posted about keeping two of the smaller ones for dinner. They looked absolutely tasty. Nothing better for a camp dinner IMHO.

[Ben Kobrin]

Thanks for the thumbs up on the report guys. It was fun reliving the experience while writing about it!

Flycanoe - High Emigrant Lake is about 6.5 miles from Leavitt Lake. However, these are 6.5 straight up and down miles! Leavitt Lake is at approximately 9,300 feet. The first 1.25 miles is a climb over Leavitt Lake Pass, topping out at about 10,650. At the top of the pass you see what is really ahead of you...Big Sam. If you're familiar with this hill, then just the mention of is will make you curl up into a ball and cry for your mommy (or is it just me?).

Anyway...after the pass, you have a drop down into Kennedy Canyon, which takes you from the 10,650 all the way back down to 9,400ish. Again about 1.25 miles. From the canyon you begin the 2 mile climb to the top of Big Sam (10,850). This is the second highest peak in the Emigrant Wilderness next to Leavitt Peak, and the highest point accessible by trail. And by the way, you have to go RIGHT OVER THE TOP. You would think that there would be some way to avoid a few hundred feet, but you have to actually summit in order to get over. Then from the top of Big Sam it is another 2 miles to High Emigrant Lake, sitting at around 9,400 feet.

So...big up followed by big down followed by big up followed by big down. By far the most difficult 6.5 miles of my life. Oddly enough, it wasn't too bad on the way back. Anyway...some pictures of the hike from Leavitt Lake Trailhead to High Emigrant Lake:

This is looking back on Leavitt Lake Pass from the Big Sam side of the canyon. The pass is on the right side of the tallest peak, with Leavitt Lake directly behind the peak.

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j35/lazychuck1/IMGP0352.jpg

This is a picture of the valley below (to the south of) Big Sam. You can see, High Emigrant lake (the close one on the left), Red Bug Lake, Emigrant Meadow Lake, Middle Emigrant Lake. Obviously a heck of a view:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j35/lazychuck1/IMGP0360.jpg

This last one is looking up Big Sam from the southern side (the High Emigrant Lake side). Notice the nasty switchbacks. It's hard to understand the scope, size and distance in this picture, but we saw someone on coming down and they just looked like a tiny speck. Each one of those switchbacks is probably three or four football fields long.

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j35/lazychuck1/IMGP0434.jpg

Looking at these pictures I have already forgotten how miserable I was at the time and I'm itching to do it again! Am I sick?

[Adam Grace]

:shock: Wow, what a great report! :shock:

Where to start?...first off I'm glad that you had a great trip full of BIG high elevation trout. I also enjoyed your shopping list written in the palm of you hand that is holding the brookie in your first picture, looks like you saved the best for last, "beer" :lol:

I really enjoyed your photos, especially the one of the hookup showing the rod raised over the head. You also had a cool underwater shot.
Which camera did you use, a Pentax?

You caught some huge brookies for high elevation areas, congrats....... and on dries no less 8)

Great job on your self portrait, what a fat brookie, that picture turned out very well!

Wow, that trout meat is the darkest red that I've ever seen come from a trout, I haven't cleaned a trout in a really long time but when I was growing up and learning to fish with salmon eggs I kept some wild high elevation trout with pink meat but nothing like that, they must have been tasty!

Overall, this post really impressed me, man I love what we can do with technology through the internet!

I know how much time a report like this can take to create, thanks for a great report.

[jbird]

Really enjoyed that report! Beautiful place for sure!

I too have never seen meat that red. Brookies are chars, not trout, but I have cut into a few and Have never seen it quite like that. Did you examine its stomach? Sometimes crustacean diets will do that. Maybe the lake is full of scuds?

Jay

[Flycanoe]

Thanks for the extra detail and pics of the hike. I definately get the message for how difficult a hike it was, particularly at that elevation.

I was up that way in July, crossed over Sonora pass and fished the West Walker and Kirman Lake. But thinking of giving Leavitt lake a try next year. Thanks again.

[jhaquett]

Excellent report, must have been a ton of fun. 8)

[Adam Grace]

:o Sorry :o

Wow, that CHAR meat is really red :lol:

:D My bad Jay :D

I get so used to calling them Brook Trout. They sure are beautiful fish, no matter what you call them. :)

[SteelieD]

That is a killer report. What great time that must've been. I know what you mean about hikes like that, I have seen grown men literally cry after some especially brutal backpacking trip in the CO Rockies. Nice job!

[Ben Kobrin]

Yes, the camera was the Pentax W30. That things great. I've got some really cool underwater pix and videos that I took earlier this spring while up on the McCloud. That was my first trip with it and I fell in love.

And yes, the CHAR tasted twice as good as it looked! The bright red color struck me as strange as well. Didn't check what was in the stomach, but it was the hopper patterns that they were killing.

[scsurfer]

sweet report, is this pretty basic terrain as far as 4x4 up to lake Leavitt? I'm thinking it would be great place for an weekender to take my son for a quick getaway.

Thanks for all the killer pics.

[Ed Wahl]

Love that report, do some more! I'd say you definitely found a scud rich lake there. The big fish and the bright red meat are dead giveaways. You guys did a hell of a lot of walking, my hats off to you. scsurfer, the trail up to Leavitt is pretty easy, just barely qualifies as 4x4. Also, there were quite a lot of people showing up in the late afternoon, but I think they all left at dark. Ed

[gryhackl]

Boy, I'd love to see this report in a slide presentation. Great post!

[Hairstacker]

Outstanding report and pictures! Gave us a good sense of what the trip was like. 8)

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Wow........wowee..........one of our top reports with spectacular photos.

Thanks WB.

[WinterrunRon]

=D> Awesome report, cool photos. I really enjoyed it. Thanks for taking the time. And for the record, I've not read a fishing report that was too long and contained too many pictures! Looking forward to your next one. :)

[Hairstacker]

And for the record, I've not read a fishing report that was too long and contained too many pictures! Looking forward to your next one.

I second that as well! :)

[anon]

great report.

but i must correct you... leavitt lake to high emigrant lake is not 6.5 miles; it's more like 9 miles. my tom harrison map of the area shows 10.6 miles from the gate above leavitt lake to emigrant pass, add another ~1/4 mile from the parking lot to the gate, and subtract the ~1.5-1.75 miles from high emigrant lake to emigrant pass. in any case, you're right about it being a grueling hike. an extremely beautiful hike though.

i camped at high emigrant for a couple nights in august '05, and the mosquitoes were the worst i'd ever seen in the sierras. it was so bad that if i clapped my hands repeatedly for a minute or so, i'd have a mosquito snowball. no, not really that bad, but when we awoke each morning, our tents were practically covered in mossies -- there would literally be over 100 of them on each of our tents! literally!

i've caught some huge football-shaped brookies in some of the higher lakes in the emigrant wilderness, but nothing like that at high emigrant. the best we did was a handful of 8" to 10"ers. i kind of which we kept some of them open, because the red flesh looks beautiful.

[Ben Kobrin]

Anon - Looks like you are closer than I am. I just checked my GPS and it was 7.74 miles from my camp at High Emigrant Lake to the car. As painful as it was, I would have though that I had estimiated on the high side!

[anon]

i guess i can't argue with your gps --- maybe it's actually farther from high emigrant lake to emigrant pass. in any case, yes, a painful hike it was. but an extremely beautiful hike. the views from both passes are amazing! when i went, we were threatened by nearby thunderstorms, which made the scenery even more dramatic.

[Ben Kobrin]

GPS could be wrong too...or maybe I didn't start the tracking right away? :oops:

I just read in one of my trail books that Leavitt Lake Trailhead to High Emigrant Lake is 9.2 miles. Something tells me that the author of the book is a wiser man than I.

From the response to this post it looks like there are quite a few backpackers on the board. Next year we should think about setting up a backpacking trip for anyone interested. If that sounds like something people would enjoy just let me know and I'd be happy to spearhead the planning.