San Francisco Summer 2010.   ~mike gradziel. to the index page
Emigrant wilderness, July 4th weekend 2010. Far off hwy 120 on the north border of Yosemite, in the Emigrant Wilderness, one can find high sierra lakes and trails very similar to the Chain Lakes on the opposite side of the park where we went last summer. It's a long trek in - ten miles to the high lakes - but there the water was pleasant for swimming, the breeze kept mosquitoes mostly away, and there were hardly any people even on the holiday weekend. We climbed a nearby peak and then, feeling ambitious, struck out off-trail from Boundary Lake to Many Islands and on to Kibbie Lake. This turned out to be a six-mile bushwhack through dense western sierra brush while descending a thousand feet of steep boulder-choked gullies. The high ground would probably have been easier. At one point we even ducked underground through a boulder fall!
Pinnacles National Monument is an unusual heap of rocky crags and canyons in the hills south of San Francisco Bay. There are caves with bats, grassy meadows, creeks, and a crystal-clear dark night sky full of stars. We went there with friends Saturday through Monday. It is hot this time of year, during the day, and the grass has turned brown. I prefer the green season, before the flies and mosquitoes are out.
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