August 22 – Crabtree Trailhead to Piute Lake
August 23 – Piute Lake to Big Lake slabs
August 24 – Big Lake slabs to Huckleberry Lake
August 25 – Huckleberry Lake to Louse Canyon
August 26 – Louse Canyon to Crabtree Trailhead
This was a shorter trip compared to what we usually do in August. It was lacking in high elevation but overflowing with large rock slabs and still had some off-trail adventures. Last winter's large snowpack made for many wet creek crossings.
Cherry
Creek Canyon is in the Emigrant Wilderness north of Yosemite National
Park. We started at the Crabtree Trailhead near Pinecrest Lake,
and took the higher trail past Camp Lake to Piute Lake where we spent
the first night. On the second day we headed over to Gem Lake and
then down to Buck Meadow Creek and up toward Big Lake. We didn't
visit Big Lake, instead opting to head straight down the slabs (largest
expanse of slabs I have ever seen!) to an area of trees halfway down to
Cherry Creek where we camped for the second night. On day three
we dropped down to Cherry Creek and followed it upstream to Lord Meadow
where we rejoined a trail. The trail took us to Huckleberry Lake
but was hard to follow in some areas. We camped the third night
at Huckleberry Lake where we had a short period of rain around
5:45pm. The trail continued faint the next morning until we got
to Letora Lake, one of the more beautiful lakes in the area. We
turned back west and passed Cow Meadow Lake and Wood Lake before
arriving at Louse Canyon where we spent our last night. Next day
was a short walk back to the trailhead.
Go
here to see
all of the pictures with the same captions at Google Photos.
Map
Below is an interactive map of the trek. The green tent symbols are our campsites. The trailhead is the "P" symbol on the left side.
Click here for a full-page version of the interactive map
Click here to download the kml file of the tracks to load into other software like Google Earth