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Re: Lyell Canyon to Emeric Lake question

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g6t6o
Lyell Canyon to Emeric Lake question
August 06, 2012 11:31AM
Doing this loop this weekend, in from Lyell to Emeric, out via Rafferty and just had a quick question. Are there any good campsites between where you leave the JMT and before you hit 9600+ feet, around the Ireland creek area? Campfires are a must so we want to camp our first night in that location, out second night will be at Emeric Lake.

Thanks allsmiling smiley
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avatar Re: Lyell Canyon to Emeric Lake question
August 07, 2012 06:19AM
OK, not sure why no one replies.

The answer to your question is... not really.

But the underlying response is... this year... the park is really encouraging you to not
have a campfire. And places like Inyo are point blank saying "no fires".
Last weekend the issuing ranger at Big Oak Flat was simply saying to please not
have a campfire. It's just too dry.
Still, a ranger I ran into at Ten Lakes spent 2 days removing 8 new fire rings and
putting out a smoldering pit someone had left behind.

Something to think about.

If you still need to have a fire... then perhaps at the Jct. is the best camp spot.

Have fun


Chick-on is looking at you!
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Ohnivy-Drak
Re: Lyell Canyon to Emeric Lake question
August 08, 2012 10:32PM
It's not particularly cold at night up there, at least I didn't think so. Plus the smoke isn't healthy for you. I've grown to dislike campfires.
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avatar Re: Lyell Canyon to Emeric Lake question
August 09, 2012 06:09AM
I don't mind campfires at developed campgrounds, especially if it's a cold evening. (During many summer nights I don't really see the point though.)

But while backpacking I find a campfire much more of a nuisance. Why waste time and energy trying to find a campsite with a suitable fire ring, then waste more time and engergy collecting firewood, and finally spend additional time and waste perfectly good water to thoroughly extinguish it?

I much rather spend my time and engergy while backpacking on other activities.

Just my two cents on the matter...
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avatar Re: Lyell Canyon to Emeric Lake question
August 08, 2012 05:33PM
They pretty much told me to do it, "Only if I needed to" last weekend in TM.
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avatar Re: Lyell Canyon to Emeric Lake question
August 09, 2012 12:02PM
It's possible lots of folks think open fire concerns are mostly to do with fire safety issues. An equal concern is the denuding of the surrounding habitat of every semblance of dry wood, an integral part of the local ecology. I think Yosemite picked 9600' as the cut-off point simply because tree growth becomes stunted above that and the ability of the surrounding habitat to recover from stripping of dry wood is exceedingly more difficult if not impossible. It is essential that all of us be aware of the full impact whenever an open fire is used, regardless at what legal altitude it may be. Best to avoid it entirely if possible. My two cents.
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balzaccom
Re: Lyell Canyon to Emeric Lake question
August 09, 2012 02:38PM
I agree. And I don't like to think how long it must take a tree at 10,000 feet to produce the firewood that can be burned in 2 hours in a campfire.


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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/2012 02:39PM by balzaccom.
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g6t6o
Re: Lyell Canyon to Emeric Lake question
August 09, 2012 06:05PM
Relax everyone, we aren't doing burning man out there. We are talking about a small fire a couple hours a night. They had no problem with it when we picked up our permit this morning, just asked that we keep them small and make sure to soak the pit when we were done, which of course we do.

Thanks chick for the response to my actual question.
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avatar Re: Lyell Canyon to Emeric Lake question
August 11, 2012 06:27AM
I disagree as well. I'm a big fan of campfires, the main reason being that I do a lot of cooking by campfires and they keep me warm when its cold. As for Plawrence's point of the time, its rare that it takes me more than 15 minutes to have enough wood for the night and to get a fire going, especially if you are in a group that works together.

On another note, does anyone see the hypocrisy in the Park service's policy of not allowing you to build a new fire ring, yet taking down ones that are already existing? For instance, there was/is a legal fire ring at Wegner back in 2009, which was there the first time I made it to the lake back in 2006. My buddy went there in Sept of 09 and its still intact, yet I go there a month later in mid October and its been demolished. According to the rules, I can't build a firering, even if it is on a legal site where there was one less than a month ago.
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avatar Re: Lyell Canyon to Emeric Lake question
August 11, 2012 07:55AM
Quote
oakroscoe
I disagree as well. I'm a big fan of campfires, the main reason being that I do a lot of cooking by campfires and they keep me warm when its cold. As for Plawrence's point of the time, its rare that it takes me more than 15 minutes to have enough wood for the night and to get a fire going, especially if you are in a group that works together.

On another note, does anyone see the hypocrisy in the Park service's policy of not allowing you to build a new fire ring, yet taking down ones that are already existing? For instance, there was/is a legal fire ring at Wegner back in 2009, which was there the first time I made it to the lake back in 2006. My buddy went there in Sept of 09 and its still intact, yet I go there a month later in mid October and its been demolished. According to the rules, I can't build a firering, even if it is on a legal site where there was one less than a month ago.

A year or two ago Craig at TM Wilderness Office said there were over 3,000 fire rings recorded via GPS in Yosemite. Many of them were not legal. I would think it difficult for every ranger to remember precisely which fire rings were legal and which were not. Also, rangers are not the only people who destroy old fire rings.
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avatar Re: Lyell Canyon to Emeric Lake question
August 11, 2012 10:57AM
Quote
tomdisco
Quote
oakroscoe

I disagree as well. I'm a big fan of campfires, the main reason being that I do a lot of cooking by campfires and they keep me warm when its cold. As for Plawrence's point of the time, its rare that it takes me more than 15 minutes to have enough wood for the night and to get a fire going, especially if you are in a group that works together.

On another note, does anyone see the hypocrisy in the Park service's policy of not allowing you to build a new fire ring, yet taking down ones that are already existing? For instance, there was/is a legal fire ring at Wegner back in 2009, which was there the first time I made it to the lake back in 2006. My buddy went there in Sept of 09 and its still intact, yet I go there a month later in mid October and its been demolished. According to the rules, I can't build a firering, even if it is on a legal site where there was one less than a month ago.

A year or two ago Craig at TM Wilderness Office said there were over 3,000 fire rings recorded via GPS in Yosemite. Many of them were not legal. I would think it difficult for every ranger to remember precisely which fire rings were legal and which were not. Also, rangers are not the only people who destroy old fire rings.


As far as I know, the rangers DO NOT destroy all the fire rings that they find, but will demolish the illegal ones and also demolish some in areas where they think there are too many rings (even if they were technically legal) and also those they find in sensitive but otherwise legal areas.

The rangers understand that a lot of backpackers do enjoy building a fire at night and in most parts of the backcountry of Yosemite below 9,600 feet there are plenty of existing fire rings to build campfires to one's heart's desire. There really isn't a great need to ever build a new one in Yosemite.

.
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LVRAY
Re: Lyell Canyon to Emeric Lake question
August 12, 2012 04:16PM
When I worked as a backcountry ranger in Yosemite way back in the early 80's, we we had a standing order to remove all illegal firerings we found and we had a specified procedure for doing so. We did not remove legal firerings unless instructed to by a superior. This most often occurred when an area had multiple legal firerings in very close proximity to each other. But again, this was back in the early 80's and things may have changed.
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avatar Re: Lyell Canyon to Emeric Lake question
August 14, 2012 09:08AM
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LVRAY
When I worked as a backcountry ranger in Yosemite way back in the early 80's, we we had a standing order to remove all illegal firerings we found and we had a specified procedure for doing so. We did not remove legal firerings unless instructed to by a superior. This most often occurred when an area had multiple legal firerings in very close proximity to each other. But again, this was back in the early 80's and things may have changed.

Given the shear number of firerings out there how did you know which were legal and which were not? Or were you covering the same ground over and over and simply noticed any new ones that popped up?
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Half Dome Hiker
Re: Lyell Canyon to Emeric Lake question
August 14, 2012 09:07AM
Quote
tomdisco

A year or two ago Craig at TM Wilderness Office said there were over 3,000 fire rings recorded via GPS in Yosemite. Many of them were not legal.

3,000 fire rings??! That is just a sick number.
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avatar Re: Lyell Canyon to Emeric Lake question
August 14, 2012 11:34AM
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Half Dome Hiker
Quote
tomdisco

A year or two ago Craig at TM Wilderness Office said there were over 3,000 fire rings recorded via GPS in Yosemite. Many of them were not legal.

3,000 fire rings??! That is just a sick number.
I think the number is more around 5000.


Old Dude
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avatar Re: Lyell Canyon to Emeric Lake question
August 12, 2012 12:47PM
Even where fire rings are legal, its not legal to construct new fire rings. This last week at Lou Beverly Lake I saw about 3 fire rings within a 50 foot distance, they can't be separate camp sites for different parties at the same time (plus, there should have been no fire rings there, its above 10,000 in the northern John Muir WIlderness, no fires).
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g6t6o
Re: Lyell Canyon to Emeric Lake question
August 14, 2012 05:26AM
What a great trip! Got hit by a bear our first night on Ireland Creek, woke up to one not 10 feet away, checking out my pack. Scared him off but he took my pack with him! We had all our food in bear cans on the other side of camp, the bear opened up my top zippered compartment and chewed up a book, map and netting so not sure what he was going for. We found my pack about 75 yards away, only had a little damage to it.



Couple other pics from the trip.











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Half Dome Hiker
Re: Lyell Canyon to Emeric Lake question
August 14, 2012 09:08AM
Quote
g6t6o

What a great trip! Got hit by a bear our first night on Ireland Creek, woke up to one not 10 feet away, checking out my pack.

Wow! Sounds like a great trip. Luckily no one got harmed (except the pack that is winking smiley).
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avatar Re: Lyell Canyon to Emeric Lake question
August 14, 2012 10:27AM
Thanks for posting the photos. They're nice!

In regards to your pack, possibly the problem could be that someone else with a similar looking backpack to yours foolishly left some food in it that this bear successfully raided. Hence, this bear might now think that similar looking packs also contain food. It would be a bummer if that's now the case.

By any chance, did you notice if this bear had been already tagged by the park rangers?

.
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avatar Re: Lyell Canyon to Emeric Lake question
August 14, 2012 04:33PM
Quote
plawrence
Thanks for posting the photos. They're nice!

In regards to your pack, possibly the problem could be that someone else with a similar looking backpack to yours foolishly left some food in it that this bear successfully raided. Hence, this bear might now think that similar looking packs also contain food. It would be a bummer if that's now the case.

By any chance, did you notice if this bear had been already tagged by the park rangers?

.

Reminds me of Yosemite's "Camero Bear" who only broke into Cameros. Apparently the first car he broke into and found good pickins was a Camero so he associated that model with food!
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