There were more folks camping than we had expected this late in the season. We squeezed into a spot away from most of the campers. We were lucky again with nobody in the sites beside us.
After setting up camp, we headed off to Crabtree trailhead to hike up to Chewing Gum Lake. Yes, that is the name of the lake. It has been on my bucket list of hikes after seeing its name.
This is the start of the trail over the Bell Creek. Meeks enjoyed a good long drink from the creek before heading off.
We had a slow and steady climb that took us up out of the canyon.
The 4.4 mile hike to the lake is about a gain of 2,000 ft. It felt like we would never reach an area that would leveled off.
After a good hour climb we came to the Emigrant Wilderness sign. We still had a long way to go.
After some period of time we came to a level area where the trail crosses the Bell Creek. We had gotten a late start in the day for this hike, sometime after 2 pm. After realizing that we had another 1-1.5 miles to go, we decided to turn around and head back down to the car since we wanted to be off the trail and back at camp before dark.
The trail was under the canopy of pine and was easy to follow. We were happy for the shade since the day got hotter than what was predicted for that day.
Luckily we were smart enough to turn back when we did on our hike. By the time we got back to camp and get the grill ready for dinner, the sun started to set.
In the morning, we hiked up to the aqueduct and then explored other areas close to the campground along the river. This area is such a beautiful area that on our next trip here we plan to hike from the campground to Strawberry by way of the forest road close to the campground.
