High Sierra Trail and off trail
Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2014 10:00 am
Hello,
I'm leaving for the HST 6/21-6/28 so that gives me 8 days/7nights backpacking and I'm going solo. I've planned for 8 days so I can do more exploring off trail, I can easily backpack 15+ miles a day so with the trail down to Whitney portal only being about 70 miles I have some extra time. last year I did the jmt solo 20 days as well and most of my backpacking Is solo which is the way I prefer it. I haven't done much off trail or cross country and on this trip I would like to:
1) explore 9 lakes basin off trail, seems easy enough to follow the lake stream outlet up to the first lake and explore beyond to other lakes.
2) head up to the kern river head waters, explore the area there, loop around up to lake South America and then hop on the jmt south instead of heading west at the trail junction out from the kern river valley.
3) if time permits I also want to head up to lake Wallace off trail. looking at the map seems straight forward enough just follow the lake stream outlet up and down. is this about right?
is there anything else I should consider seeing off trail? am I correct in saying this off trail stuff shouldn't be too difficult? I'll be bring map+compass and gps as backup. I would like to practice map and compass off trail in these locations.
thanks
I'm leaving for the HST 6/21-6/28 so that gives me 8 days/7nights backpacking and I'm going solo. I've planned for 8 days so I can do more exploring off trail, I can easily backpack 15+ miles a day so with the trail down to Whitney portal only being about 70 miles I have some extra time. last year I did the jmt solo 20 days as well and most of my backpacking Is solo which is the way I prefer it. I haven't done much off trail or cross country and on this trip I would like to:
1) explore 9 lakes basin off trail, seems easy enough to follow the lake stream outlet up to the first lake and explore beyond to other lakes.
2) head up to the kern river head waters, explore the area there, loop around up to lake South America and then hop on the jmt south instead of heading west at the trail junction out from the kern river valley.
3) if time permits I also want to head up to lake Wallace off trail. looking at the map seems straight forward enough just follow the lake stream outlet up and down. is this about right?
is there anything else I should consider seeing off trail? am I correct in saying this off trail stuff shouldn't be too difficult? I'll be bring map+compass and gps as backup. I would like to practice map and compass off trail in these locations.
thanks