This was our second attempt backpacking down Cherry Creek Canyon together, after having to bail out early on our October 2008 trip; I had also done an out-and-back down to Lord Meadow with a friend in May 2008. Described here is our trip beginning Wednesday September 23rd, 2009. In hindsight, it was a riveting backpacking trip, and only by experiencing it first-hand can one truly appreciate the difficulty and beauty of hiking through this remote canyon. Here are some notes from our trip, for anyone interested in planning their own Cherry Creek Canyon backpacking trip, or for those just living vicariously through our lack of sanity in this endeavor.
Please reference this map for following along with these notes. First, four items of caution to those considering this hike:
- There will be some fairly sketchy rock climbing in several sections, depending on your luck with route-finding. We didn't need rope or special climbing equipment to complete the trip, but we did have to take our packs off, lower them down, and very carefully descend some 10-15 foot granite cliffs.
- If you don't feel absolutely confident in your cross-country map navigation abilities, bone up your skills in an area that has more margin for error than this 2000-foot deep canyon, riddled with impassable cliffs and numerous zero-visibility bushwhacking sections. Leave your route and itinerary with a friend and tell them to call the Groveland sheriff immediately if you don't make it back out at a pre-arranged time. There is no cell phone reception anywhere near Cherry Lake, and you are not likely to see any rangers or other people once you get into the deep backcountry. Always bring enough supplies to stay one more night than you intend!
- Bring a mosquito headnet! When mosquito season is over, the shaded forest sections are full of gnats that will swarm you in relentless clouds, and constantly dive-bomb into your eyes, ears, and mouth. They don't bite, but they are pervasive enough to drive you mad after a few hours of dealing with them without a headnet.
- Make a solid plan for finding Forest Service Road 1N04 as you exit Cherry Creek Canyon, and give yourself plenty of time. I suggest following a SSE bearing once you feel you've passed Peak 5328 (it's not an obvious peak) at northernmost tip of Cherry Lake, and be conscious of how much you need to climb to intersect Forest Service Road 1N04: It's higher than you think. The only visual aids you will have are filtered views of the two "juts" of Cherry Lake's west shore that turn in left 90 degrees; and the unmistakable Shingle Springs drainage (described below) that is roughly in line with the second "jut". If you reach the Shingle Springs drainage without finding Forest Service Road 1N04 as we did, just follow it uphill and you will eventually run right into the road. Note that it's entirely possible to miss seeing the Dead Horse Gulch drainage or confuse it for an unmarked drainage; also, you will not see the forest service roads until you are literally on top of them, and there are many more forest service roads than are shown on the map.
Wednesday September 23rd: Drive to spillway lot; hike to Overlook campsite
7.85 miles.
+2463' elevation gain, -354' elevation loss.
Bushwhacking and routefinding challenge: Minimal.
Route indicated by dashed red line on map.
There is a fire road from the Cherry Lake spillway up to the Shingle Springs entrance to the Kibbie Ridge trail, however the gate to this fire road is closed at the spillway the weekend before (deer) hunting season starts in September. If you want to maximize your solitude, start your trip once this gate is closed. You will have to park at the spillway and add an extra 5 miles (in each direction), but you will likely have the entire canyon to yourself. This is what we did, and so our first day's hike began at the southwest tip of Cherry Lake. We followed the main Forest Service Road 1N04 across the spillway and then turned left at a gate onto Forest Service Road 1N15Y, along the south-east tip of the lake. This road eventually branches off uphill and to the right into a proper (but unmarked) trail, which in hindsight is probably the Lake Eleanor trail that we should have taken; but as it was unmarked, and didn't quite make sense on our map, we kept along the lake on the Forest Service Road until it literally ended into the lake. We noticed a large concrete structure to our right about fifteen yards upshore with "No Trespassing" signs on it -- I suspect this was probably the terminus of the tunnel, indicated faintly in blue on the 7.5' topo map, which connects Lake Eleanor and Cherry Lake. Continuing north past this structure along the shore, we came to an unmarked drainage and followed it east until we intersected the Lake Eleanor trail, which eventually took us to Forest Service Road 1N04.
We decided to stick to the road to avoid getting turned around again, and followed it up to the big zig-zag, and at the south-east part of the 'zag', we made a quick bushwhack due east up a steep slope to catch the Kibbie Ridge trail, which we then followed north to Shingle Springs. This was the best flowing water source of the entire trip, along with a nice campsite (right on the trail) and a big firepit.
After pumping water from Shingle Springs, we pushed on a good ways up some switchbacks to ascend the southern shoulder of Kibbie Ridge; shortly before it flats out, a bit south of Peak 6558, there is a trickling stream that crosses the trail. I've had it supply adequate water in October in previous years (and more than adequate mosquitoes in April), however now it was little more than boggy earth. Continuing up and north, we passed some aerial snow markers and descended down to Snow Canyon, which was recovering nicely from a big fire a few years back. There are typically a few water sources here and there even in late season, but they had all dried up! I could tell water was going to be scarce until we made it to Cherry Creek Canyon the next afternoon. We continued on to what I call the Overlook Campsite (I believe this is at 38°2'51.99"N, 119°53'22.24"W). Do not to be confused by the "Lookout Point" that is indicated on the 7.5' topo! This "Lookout Point" is certainly not signed on the trail, and doesn't even appear to have a use trail leading up to it anymore.
Our Overlook Campsite (pictured) has an astonishing view of Cherry Lake, and it picks up the canyon breeze which, given the day's mid-90's temps and no respite by way of cloud cover, was quite a relief. Due to the dry season, the water supply I was counting on, located a 1/4 mile southerly backtrack on the trail (and not indicated on the 7.5' topo), was stagnant with red algae and barely trickling, which promptly clogged the water filter, and made for an interesting bathing experience. One aspect of backpacking that is so alluring to me is the perception shift that transforms a perfectly horrid task like rinsing off a long day's sweat in a stagnant pond, into one of the highlights of the day. I suspect experienced backpackers will chuckle and nod in agreement upon reading this, and everybody else will rightly assert lunacy.
At Overlook Campsite, we had a nice fire and dinner, enjoyed the stars and the distant southwesterly glow of a city -- perhaps Modesto, or Oakville, it didn't seem to matter anymore, and sacked out after a long day.
Thursday September 24th: Overlook Campsite to Cherry Creek campsite
7.48 miles.
+1143' elevation gain, -859' elevation loss.
Route indicated by dashed black line.
Bushwhacking and routefinding challenge: Just a little challenging.
We continued up the Kibbie Ridge trail, and bumped into three guys from Watsonville (which is 10 miles from where we live) who were on their way out after fishing Lake Hyatt and some other lakes. That they caught nothing the whole time didn't seem to phase them, and we briefly traded friendly trail stories and moved on. We were running low on water, and I was hoping to find the "Spring" that is indicated just west of the trail, which turns into a big drainage leading down the canyon. We got in the general vicinity, and the vegetation was reflective of damp ground, but it was quite overgrown off trail, and I didn't see a tell-tale line of well-watered bushes indicative of a spring; we weren't desperate for water yet, so rather than bushwhack around to find it, we simply continued on the trail to the pond a little further up. The dry season had reduced it to a stagnant pond, as we had expected, and filtering its water caused my silt filter to turn a skungy brownish red. The product tasted strongly of algae, so we only filled up one water bottle, and pressed on to Sachse Spring.
The little trickle of water of Sachse Spring is preceded by a signpost (but no sign; it was there back in 2008, but no more); following the trickle about 30 yards northwest to its source, we discovered a surreal 1" diameter metal pipe jutting out of the dirt and rocks. The water was ice cold and very refreshing. There is also a good campsite nearby, in a grove of trees, though I suspect the bugs can get fairly intense given the close proximity to the water supply, and horses seemed to make the whole area their bathroom (as they tend to do on any part of a trail).
The portion of Kibbie Ridge Trail between Sachse Spring and Styx Pass can be tricky to follow depending on the time of year it is hiked. In May 2008, it was covered in snow and so we had no choice but to follow the ridge all the way to Mercur Peak; in October 2008, we got turned around a good number of times; this time around, we only lost the trail about a half-dozen times, and promptly picked it back up again. As was made it to the top of Styx Pass, even though it was the third time I'd seen it, the view down into Cherry Creek Canyon (pictured), and beyond, made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and reminded me of why we promised to do this trip again.
We hiked down the switchbacks and then broke away from the Kibbie Ridge trail to head to an idyllic campsite between two pools of water (38°5'49"N, 119°47'56"W). We bathed while it was still quite warm out, and had a relaxing dinner and fire as the sun slid down the back of the canyon and pulled a blanket of stars out over the sky; I hadn't seen the milky way since the last time I had gone backpacking.
Friday September 25th: Cherry Creek campsite to Flintstones Campsite
6.97 miles.
+467' elevation gain, -1857' elevation loss.
Route indicated by dashed green line.
Bushwhacking and routefinding challenge: High.
Departing from our campsite between the two pools, we began on the north side of Cherry Creek, and then descended down into the otherworldly polished granite bowls that define most of the canyon. Every time I come through here, I have the irrational wish of having packed a skateboard, to make the best of the smooth and gently rolling granite, its undulating concavity and convexity making a dream skatepark (pictured). We didn't bother taking more than a handful of pictures of this section; last time, we were so astonished at the beauty that we took skads of pictures, but upon review, none of which were able to capture the essence, much like how pictures of the Grand Canyon can't convey its immenseness. This time, we resigned to take in the scenery without worrying about capturing it on film, and it was quite a pleasant and liberating change.
We made it to the section of canyon where Ben Schifrin's "Emigrant Wilderness" guidebook suggests bushwhacking south away from the canyon (and 200' up to a ridge) to avoid a nearly impassable section of the canyon downstream, where the strangely black granite of Peak 6806 all but strangles any hope of a viable path through the canyon route. Last time through, we didn't have his guidebook, and so we simply followed the canyon through this part, and consequently we had two treacherous and very frightening ledge crossings that I wouldn't do again without climbing gear; particularly difficult was passing the dome of Peak 6806, which we negotiated by taking a tiny ledge on the opposite (east) side of the river. So this time, we tried out Ben's high route to maneuver through this section, and while it was not as scenic as the canyon route, it was probably a little safer. We had to do a good deal of boulder climbs and descents, taking off our packs frequently, and this was extremely slow-going. The bushwhacking was also tiresome, and it was getting near the end of the day. So once we caught sight of the canyon again, we headed directly for it and crossed over it, electing to take the route we knew from our last time through.
The next section of the canyon is the Cherry Bomb Gorge rapids, and is absolutely impassable by hiking. In high water, the canyon turns to cliffs on both sides, plunging straight down into the fierce rapids of this gorge for almost the entire mile-long stretch; in low water, it is a cascade of dozens of deeply-cut round pools flowing into each other, with a ten to fifteen foot drops between each pool. The entrance to Cherry Bomb Gorge is one of the most amazing sights on this trip, and even though it's impassable, it is worth taking a moment to walk up as far as is reasonable to admire the cascading pools, before laboring to climb up some 250 feet and well around them.
To pass Cherry Bomb Gorge, Ben Schifrin's route stays high and east of Peak 6458, which is certainly a good route, but we were more familiar with the westerly route around the opposing Peak 6523. With this route, there is decent camping just before the forested section indicated on the 7.5' topo, a little southwest of the unnamed lake. Once you make it around Peak 6523, a poorly-ducked trail begins to emerge and helps lead you out of the forest and bushes, and back into the easily-traversed granite, putting you right at the last series of drops in Cherry Bomb Gorge (pictured) before it opens up into the amazing swimming hole of the Flintstones Campsite area (38°4'41"N, 119°52'20"W). The whole up-and-over takes only 45 minutes to an hour going this route.
Thanks to a handful of kayakers with questionable judgement and video cameras, you can get a feel for the mile-long section of Cherry Bomb Gorge that is impassible to land-lovers:
Once we made it down to the big swimming hole, I walked to the east side and into the forest a little, to scope out the Flintstones Campsite area. There I found the namesake elaborate stone furniture: benches, tables, firepits, and so forth, all pieced together with big slabs of granite. Don't miss this. The camping is probably superlative when there is water flow (both in Cherry Creek, and also in the nearby stream that drains the unnamed lake about two miles northeast); however since there was none, the stream bed and various little pools provided too many bugs to camp comfortably in this area. We made our way slightly south to a nice flat bluff a bit out of the forest, and set up camp. After washing up in the swimming hole and pumping water, it started to get dark. We were both too tired to put together a campfire, and besides, it was quite warm, and actually got warmer that night from a hot easterly wind blowing down from Kibbie Ridge most of the night. We were both beat from hiking in the direct sun all day (temps in the lower-to-mid 90's), and sleep was tugging at my eyes while waiting for our freeze-dried Vegetarian Lasagna to finish cooking in its foil pouch. After eating and helping to clean up camp, I promptly curled up in the tent and crashed out.
Saturday September 26th: Flintstones Campsite to Spillway Lot
10.57 miles.
+1713' elevation gain, -2713' elevation loss.
Route indicated by dashed black line.
Bushwhacking and routefinding challenge: Extremely High.
We woke up when the stars disappeared out of the early morning sky, well before the sun, which rises due east given the recent autumnal equinox, made it over Kibbie Ridge and hit the canyon. We both had a quick breakfast and promptly broke camp.
Though we had originally provisioned to stay another night out, we got an early start because we were going to see whether we could make it out of the canyon and to Forest Service Road 1N04 by nightfall. The motivation for this was our previous trip, where we didn't have the fallback of another night's food and a guidebook to suggest when to keep to the canyon, and when it was best to bushwhack up-and-over impassable sections: We needed to get out of the canyon that day, and so we took the most direct visible route, rather than continue down the canyon and risk running out of food in unknown terrain. So in a single day, we hiked south out of the Flintstones Campsite toward Peak 6202, and then southeast directly up the drainage and plopped out onto Kibbie Ridge trail, about a half-mile north of the "Lookout Point" indicated on the map. In doing this, we had climbed 2002 feet in little over two miles, without experiencing the lower section of Cherry Creek Canyon, and therefore this route is not recommended, though it worked in a pinch (I've put our route on the map in a dashed 2.17 mile red hairline for grins)
So we toyed with the idea of maybe trying to make it back to the car today, but we definitely wanted to see the bottom of Cherry Creek Canyon since we hadn't seen it on our previous trip! We headed south from the Flintstones area, keeping south of the dome that creates another impassable section in the canyon below, and headed southwest along the granite. We were eventually forced back west down to the canyon by the north-jutting shoulder of massive Peak 6702 (pictured, in background), which entailed a somewhat sketchy rock-climbing descent (packs off & lowered down one section at a time).
We followed the canyon further down, and came to a deep pool formed in the granite, with a waterfall poised to spill into it (it was just a trickle). Shortly afterward, we came to a point where a drainage flowed east into Cherry Creek, and we continued on through a wooded area until the creek turned southwest and was pinched off by a cliff, and we found ourselves up on a ledge above this cliff, just east of a small pool indicated on the map. The descent down off of this ledge was very challenging and once again required removing our packs and carefully lowering them down the sketchiest rock-climbing descent of the trip. If I did it again, I would disregard Ben Schifrin's suggested route and instead try to stay on the opposite (north) side of the creek before it turns southwest, thereby avoid this cliff altogether. We came upon a large swimming hole that Schifrin calls, "the most idyllic spot in the entire Cherry Creek Canyon, and possibly in Emigrant Wilderness." Due to the lack of flowing water, it was not so idyllic when we were there, but I can see it making for some noteworthy camping.
After moving on from Schifrin's favorite spot, we entered into a heavy shaded forest with absolutely mammoth trees. It felt ancient. It was straightforward to follow creek from here, and as we emerged from the trees, we stopped for lunch at a nice shady spot provided by a little dome due south of Peak 5384, with a fantastic view of the astonishing granite cliff that shot up into the sky to form Peak 7126. Following the canyon further south, we passed by the confluence of the West Fork of Cherry Creek, which dropped dramatically into Cherry Creek in a violent chute of deeply-carved pits and jags, with an enormous deadfall tree snarled near the bottom (pictured).
We followed the canyon further south and came to the southwest-jutting rib, which Schifrin says to ascend at its saddle, to get around an impassable canyon. We scrambled up the northwest-facing slope of the rib toward the saddle northeast of Peak 5278, and came upon the first real trail we'd seen in two days, a use trail that began at the saddle and winded down the other side of the rib. The gnats on the descent here were notably intense, making it hard to imagine keeping sane on this trek without a headnet. We passed an unnamed pond as we headed south to rejoin Cherry Creek; the pond was almost dried out completely, and most likely the source of the bugs. The creek turns into a large set of pools where it changes direction from east to south, and offers up the most amazing swimming hole and camping area I've seen in Emigrant Wilderness. This will certainly be a destination next time we come through these parts. This was our last chance to filter water, and then we bid farewell to Cherry Creek and headed straight up and east into the forest to engage in an intense bushwhack
This was the most challenging routefinding portion of the trip. Visibility was very poor due to the thick brush, so we were running blind; we decided to follow an ascending south-southeast bearing that should eventually take us over Dead Horse Gulch, and ideally plop us out onto Forest Service Road 1N04, that runs between Cherry Lake spillway and the Shingle Springs lot. If we went too low, we figured we'd eventually hit one of the other forest service roads (1N04C or 1N04D); and if we went too high, we'd eventually cross back over Kibbie Ridge Trail. As it turns out, we hadn't climbed quite as high up as necessary, and we came upon the very northmost tip of Forest Service Road 1N04D. This road had not seen use in at least a dozen years, and was terribly overgrown to the point where it was near impossible to discern it from the rest of the forest brush. To make matters worse, the sun had just set and it was getting dark quickly, and in pushing through thick brush for the past 2.5 miles, my compass fell out of my pocket and was gone! For the most part, we managed to keep our cool: We had another night's supplies, but we really weren't looking forward to camping in this thick brush when we knew Forest Service Road 1N04 was so close!
We kept pushing south through the thickest bushes we'd seen yet, until we came upon the Shingle Springs drainage -- fortunately for us, it was impossible to miss even in near dark, as the well-watered trees and bushes that lined it became impassably thick and taller than all of the rest of the nearby bushes, and the forest floor eerily dropped straight down fifteen feet to the drainage. In a final hail-mary to beat the night, we raced uphill, bashing through bushes and trees, keeping about 20 yards from the immense drainage ditch to our right, as the darkness started to close in all around us. Suddenly, we ascended upon a flat portion that was temporarily without bushes, and immediately recognized it as Forest Service Road 1N04. I couldn't believe it at first, but we had made it -- the drainage had led us up to the road leading back to our truck! We hugged each other with joy, and took a moment to appreciate the amazing luck we had finding this road just as it was too dark to see. Overflowing with renewed energy and hope, the five-mile moon-lit walk south on Forest Service Road 1N04 back to our truck was an enchanting end to an amazing adventure.
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