It did not take long for the mosquitoes to find me after I got up and out of my tent. Maybe one minute. They were horrendous. Swarming around me. Ugh!
I was not sure what I wanted to do this day. I could hike back on the trail about half way and camp another night, beside another waterfall that I still wanted to see. Or I could hike back the entire 17 miles and drive home. There were pluses and minuses to both options. Obviously I would miss the other waterfall if I hiked back the entire way and also I did not think I would have the energy to do a second 17 mile day in a row. On the other hand, the mosquitoes! I did not really want to camp a second night if the mosquitoes were so bad and I might even consider giving up the chance to see a waterfall. I decided to play it by ear and make a decision once I got to the second campsite.
First things first. I had two waterfalls to see this morning on North Fork Cherry Creek below Emigrant Lake. It was a short hike from my camp to the waterfalls, about a half mile or so, and it was easy getting down to them. They were both just over 30 ft. high and both outstanding. There was a bonus 19 ft. waterfall as well (I love bonus waterfalls). I ate my breakfast at the bonus waterfall where the mosquitoes had left me alone for a moment.
The picture shown here is the upper of the two main waterfalls on North Fork Cherry Creek. It is 34 ft. high. It is a bit smaller than expected but I think I must have included the bonus waterfall just above it in my calculations, which turned out to be a separate waterfall. Either way it is spectacular.
I returned to camp and started my hike back. Along the way I dropped my GPS on the rocks and it broke. Ugh. I feel that it should not have broken on a short drop like this but it did nonetheless. This is a good lesson for everyone and something I have said many times before: ALWAYS HAVE A BACKUP NAVIGATION DEVICE. I did have a backup although I did not need it because this entire hike is on-trail and easy to follow. However, that may not have been the case if it was a different hike.
There is a 600 ft. climb from Emigrant Lake up Mosquito Pass and then the rest of the hike is downhill. It wasn’t easy but it wasn’t too hard and I made good time. I arrived at camp at 2PM. It was clear to me well before I arrived that I did not have the energy to continue my hike all the way back to the trailhead. It was still another 4 hours. I needed to camp another night. Fortunately, there were no mosquitoes here but would they come out in the evening?
I had a lovely afternoon at camp, trying to hide in the shade from the sun. I saw quite a few people that came by on the trail (in both directions). These were people mostly going to either Sheep camp (a couple miles up the trail) or to Emigrant Lake (where I had just been). I was actually kinda surprised there were so many people this far up in the wilderness. I thought I would see very few, if any. I also saw some people on pack horses going up to Emigrant Lake. I wondered how the horses would do going over the snow on Mosquito Pass. I don’t know anything about horses (I should ask my sister), but wouldn’t it be very dangerous for them? It seems to me (since they are much heavier than me) that they are going to posthole and potentially break their leg. In addition there were a couple possible dangerous sections on steep slopes that were not difficult for me, but for a horse? I hope those people knew what they were doing. Anyhow, I had to figure out a way to make my dinner without my pan that I stupidly left at home. I melted the cheese in my pot and made a sandwich. It burned the bottom of my pot but it worked well enough. It was now late in the day and still no mosquitoes. A few came out at sunset but not many. I climbed into my tent and went to bed. I would have to see the waterfall in the morning (see next post for the reason).
