Tuesday, June 26th, 2007...11:15 pm
Chewing Gum Lake in Emigrant Wilderness A Dead Beauty
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On my trip to the Emigrant Wilderness in Northern California (not far from Sonora), we hiked to Chewing Gum Lake, a gain of nearly 2,000 feet over 4.4 miles from the Crabtree Trailhead. You may note that I call it dead. That’s because two biologists surveying the lake’s wildlife said there were no fish. Hard to believe in such a pristine environment. If this photo tempts you to go on this trip, hold off for about six weeks until the mosquitos are gone. We got murdered. I only got 50 bites, my friend the Duke, a 100, just on his shoulders.
Be light. Be safe. Be one with the pack.
4 Comments
September 17th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
I just found your site today and started reading when I noticed that you were talking about a trip near the Dardenelles. I was especially interested at the mention of Chewing Gum Lake since that was the destination of my very first backpack trip in September of 2007. I am 58 years old and am preparing for my third trip. The first was Chewing Gum, the second was Bowron canoe curcuit in British Columbia, and this week my sons and I are hiking into the Golden Trout Wilderness in Sequoia. On my Chewing Gum trip, some of the guys I was with have been packing in that area for 30-40 years and told us that there were never fish in those lakes until packers brought them in buckets on horseback so there would be fish. Unfortunately, the forest service was convinced that everything must revert back to its natural ‘dead’ state, so no fish.
January 24th, 2010 at 9:21 am
At one time these lakes were even stocked by plane (they literally just dropped fish fry from a plane). The reason they no longer stock these lakes is that the fish are well known to be eating food that many amphibians (Yellow legged frog and yosemite toad) depend on. These lakes are not dead, they simply are not stocked because fish don’t belong there. If you want fishing in the Emigrant, there are many lakes that have fish populations that became self sustaining (these fish are not native, there are no native fish in the area).
June 14th, 2010 at 9:18 pm
Unfortunately Charlie is misinformed. The historic range of the yellow legged frog is 600-7500 feet in elevation. Chewing Gum Lake is at 8800 feet. Therefore, this is not a valid reason for not stocking trout. Strike one. Furthermore, the Yosemite Toad rarely spends time in lakes or streams, preferring to reside in moist meadows and bogs. No competition here either. Strike two. Lastly, the rainbow trout (in many variants) is native to this part of the Sierra. Strike three. It was unfortunately impacted by heavy fishing in the post World War 2 era. Reintroduction extended its range beyond the original. It is amazing how many people will repeat the things they hear without an accurate frame of reference. By the way, humans were not native to California either. I suggest we all leave. Charlie can go first.
July 22nd, 2011 at 10:46 pm
Unfortunately, Mike is misinformed. He is confusing the foothill yellow-legged frog with the mountain yellow-legged frog. The former rarely occurs above 6500 feet, but the latter regularly occurs up to 10,500 feet and even higher. I think part of what we all appreciate about the wilderness is that it provides an escape from the heavily impacted developed world. The native fauna is part of that wilderness. Do you want your intact wilderness or do you want your introduced fish? Hard to have it both ways.
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