High Adventure!
Kennedy Lake and Meadows via Leavitt Lake
July 28th 2009
“The word adventure has gotten overused. For me, when everything goes wrong – that’s when adventure starts.” — Yvon Chouinard, 180° South
What is it that gives us the sense of High Adventure? For me I think it is the thrill of the unknown. What's around the next corner? How am I going to get home? How far is it? Where will I sleep tonight? Maybe that's why I enjoy hiking so much. This hike was one of the best I've been on in a long time and it was almost completely unplanned. That being said, I do have enough sense to have a map along with the other ten essentials as well as a little knowledge of the area I'm going into. I don't care to turn into another Chris McCandless, AKA Alexander Supertramp.
So this trip was supposed to be named Emigrant Wilderness Thru-Hike, but upon hiking up the shoulder of Big Sam Mountain which is the highest point in the wilderness on trail, thunder and lightning started crashing down around me. Being well above tree line at 10500 feet and having my metal hiking poles sticking out of my pack like a lightning rod, I decided to utilize my emergency exit route and beat feet out of there. I was really bummed that I would not be seeing Emigrant Pass, High Emigrant Lake, Middle Emigrant Lake, Emigrant Meadow Lake and all the other lakes down the Crabtree Trail, but the continued lightning in the area reinforced that my decision to get out of the high country was the right one. I started my hike that day at Leavitt Lake after my father in-law so graciously drove me up there in the Jeep. Leaving the lake, I climbed the old abandoned Jeep road up to the top of the ridge and down to the PCT.
Following the PCT for a while going south, I made my way to the juction of the PCT and the Emigrant Trail near Kennedy Canyon. Following the Emigrant Trail West towards Big Sam Mountain, I was about 500' below the top of Big Sam when the lightning started and I turned around.
Having read reports of the area, including the excellent Emigrant Wilderness and Northwestern Yosemite book by Ben Schifrin, I knew there was an unmaintained boot path down through Kennedy Canyon. The boot path took me as far as Kennedy Lake where I picked up the Kennedy Lake Trail.
Once you get to Kennedy Lake the trail goes through some pretty muddy and swampy areas. There are also lots of cows in this area as it is utilized as a grazing area by local ranchers. Knowing this, it is a good idea to fill up on water before you hit the lake, or I guess after you hit the lake if coming up from below.
After passing the lake you will come up on an old log cabin which belonged to Andrew Thomas Kennedy. I wanted to get a better look at it but it looked as if someone was possibly using it for a base camp so I steered clear of it.
After the cabin you will come to a fence that is used to keep the cattle in but I don't think it worked too well as I saw cattle on both sides of the gate.
It was at this point of my hike that the thunder and lightning really started in earnest and I got hailed on pretty hard by marble sized hail (later I heard Yosemite was getting golf ball sized hail so I guess I was lucky).
After about 4 miles past Kennedy Lake, the trail crosses Kennedy Creek and it becomes very pretty and rugged with smooth polished granite all around. I was in a unique position seeing this trail this way as the majority of people seeing this area for the first time see it coming up from Kennedy Meadows, I was seeing Kennedy Meadows for the first time by hiking down to it.
Once you are in the canyon with all the polished granite, you have a choice of taking the Night Cap Stock Trail or the Relief Reservoir Trail down into Kennedy Meadows. I chose the Relief Trail to Kennedy Meadows.
At the end of the trail you still have a mile or two to go on a dirt road before you get to the store and restaurant. I believe I read somewhere that there used to be a lodge here but it burned down a couple of years ago. I did see a campground there. Having made plans to be picked up the next day at the Crabtree Trailhead, I used the pay phone to place calls to my father-in-law to come pick me up. He didn't answer so I left a voicemail. I didn't know it at the time but he later told me that he had gone in to the lake earlier that day and forgot that he still had his cell phone in his pocket so calling him did me no good at all. Sitting on the porch of the store at Kennedy Meadows drinking a Gatorade, I watched a car pull up and drop a guy off with a pack. I immediately recognized the guy as a PCT thru-hiker as he fit the hiker trash model with what looked like a couple of months worth of beard growth. I asked him if he just came from Sonora Pass and if the guy he was riding with was going west on Hwy 108. He said he was so I ran down the steps and stuck out my thumb at the guy and he waved at me to come on in. After securing my pack in the back of his car, I learned that the thru-hiker was up on the Sierra Crest near Sonora Pass not too far away from where I was when the lightning started. The storm really came out of nowhere as it was sunny one minute and black clouds the next. He said the thru hiker (named Bill) threw down his pack and ran downhill to the cover of some trees when the storm hit. After the storm abated a little he climbed back up, grabbed his pack and made for the pass. The gentleman that picked me up (Greg) said that Bill was soaking wet when he picked him up at the pass. Greg said he hadn't picked up a hitchhiker in more than 20 years and today he had picked up 2 in the span of an hour. I let him know that it was OK because I hadn't hitched in quite a few years either but under the circumstances I though it appropriate today. Greg was a really great guy and told me he was recently retired and that he used to be a private investigator for a law firm in San Diego. He told me the story of the lady that walked through someone's yard near Joshua Tree and found thousands of little piles of what she thought looked like kitty litter. Upon closer inspection she found a couple little metal tags in the piles and she brought them to her husband who was the county prosecutor. He knew what they were immediately. They were toe tags from bodies that had been cremated. This is when Greg the PI got involved to determine where the ashes to all these bodies were supposed to have been scattered. Turned out the owner of the property was in the ash scattering business for people who had no one else to scatter their ashes for them when they passed away. The guy had been falsifying documents for over 10 years saying he was scattering the ashes in the location the deceased requested but instead he just dumped them on his property thinking no one would be the wiser. Great story! Before I knew it Greg had driven me the 20 + miles back to Twain Harte where my family was staying and dropped me off right at my door. Greg if you are reading this, thank you so much for the ride, and the stories were top notch. The perfect end to my high adventure day!
