Tough Hikes

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giantbrookie
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Re: Tough Hikes

Post by giantbrookie »

The idea of 3-5 day difficult hikes at face value sounds like an exercise in brute force, but many of us are in fact forced to get creative like this owing to the lack of time. Below I mention a few hard backpack trips that are either taken from or revised from experience (to make them shorter and tougher) or trips I've planned and haven't done.

The craziest short backpack I ever did was an overnighter in 1980 (with my dad) to do Split Mtn via the conventional route. It is a shorter version of WD's trip: day 1 over Taboose Pass to lower part of Upper Basin. day 2 climb Split and Prater and hike out to Taboose trailhead (reached car by light of very thin moon).

Here is a truncated and accelerated version of a longer trip I took in 2001 on which I was slowed by a bad cold and much worse blisters (w other members of the Death March Trio: Todd, Cliff):
day 1 Wolverton over Tableland to Ferguson Creek Lakes.
day 2 Ferguson Creek Lakes back over Tablelands, past Big Bird, down Deadman Cyn to unnamed lakes on Glacier Divide
day 3 Past Josephine Lake, descend into Cloud Canyon, then up to Colby Lake (didn't happen because I was very ill--stopped at Josephine L)
day 4 Colby L. over Colby Pass, Triple Divide Pass, and Lion Lake Pass to Lion L (Tamarack preferred if fishing desired).
day 5 To trailhead (works a bit better if you have two cars and do this as Wolverton-Crescent Mdw shuttle).
I don't like this itinerary because this sacrifices some of the better spots (such as not camping at Josephine L) in the interest of hiking more per day and completing the loop in 5 days

Here's a fantasy accelerated version of a late 90's trip I took with my wife Judy:
day 1: to Sphinx Lakes
day 2: over Longley w short detour to Big Brewer L. to East L (fish small at Reflection)
day 3: to trailhead
(original trip was d1 to Sphinxes, d2 to fishless S. Guard L.w short detour to Big Brewer d3 back to Sphinxes w super long dayhike to N Guard L (fishless) and d4 out.

Here's my own favorite 5-day backpack trip of all time ("Tunechuck 2008" w Todd). Virtually none of this hike was on trail (something like 1 mi out of 50 mi)
d1 Hoffman Mtn roadend(gate) to upper Crown Basin (just below Hummingbird L)
d2 to Upper Blue Canyon w side dayhikes to Finger Pk and Lower Blue Canyon lakes
d3 dayhike to Tunemah L and basin below, return and move camp to Hummingbird L.
d4 to Woodchuck L following ridge w stopover at Maxon L. and Crown L.
d5 from Woodchuck L via Chimney L to Hoffman Mtn roadend.

Here's an archival 5-day trip I did in 1997 "Astride the Glacier Divide" (w Judy and Todd). It can be turned into a "tougher" hike by eliminating the layover day
d1 North L. to Darwin Cyn via Lamarck Col
d2 along S flank Glacier divide past 11106 to 11236.
d3 11236 over whatever pass is N of 11236 (don't know name) descend to Piute Creek, thence up trail, but turn off to Knob L. (would re-route this now that Knob is fishless)
d4 layover (climb Pilot Knob and explore French Cyn including Puppet L.)
d5 Knob L to North L. via Tomahawk L.

Now here's a shortened version of our (me with Judy) 1997 Sawboose trip (since nobody mentioned a Sawmill Pass entry): this is a Sawmill-Taboose shuttle trip.
d1 to Sawmill L.
d2 over Sawmill and Pinchot Passes to either Bench L or Striped Mtn Lakes
d3 hike over Taboose Pass to car.
(actual trip went like this: d1 to Sawmill L. d2 to Woods L and exploration of many lakes in basin d3 to Twin Lakes with exploration of neighboring lakes d4 (layover) dayhike to Window Pk Lake, d5 over Pinchot P to Marjorie with explorations of basins to E and additional snooping en route to Marjorie, d6 to Bench L w stopover at Striped Mtn Lakes. d7 layover (dayhike to Arrow P) d8 dayhike to some lakes above Bench L then break camp head toward Taboose, 2nd detour to Striped Mtn Lks, to lake S of Taboose Pass but can't find decent place to camp so hike to Taboose trailhead (reaching there in pitch darkness similar to 1980).

Here's a "concept" trip, some variant of which I may do someday with the start on the Copper Creek Trail (Kings Cyn). First the shortest version
d1 to Grouse L.
d2 to Kid Lks but on to the Glacier Lakes
d3 to Volcanic Lakes.
d4 out
I would probably do this adding one day so as to camp at Kid Lks.

Here's a trip that modifies a trip to the Dumbbell Lakes I did with Judy in 1993 (designed as Bishop-Taboose shuttle)
d1 South L to Dusy 11393
d2 over Knapsack Pass down the slot to Palisade Creek and then up to Amphitheater L.
d3 to Dumbell Lakes and on to Lakes Basin
d4 Lakes Basin to Striped Mtn Lakes
d5 Striped Mtn Lakes to trailhead
(actual 1993 Dumbell Lakes trip was d1 to 11393 d2 to Palisade Creek (late start from 11393) d3 to Dumbell Lks d4 layover 1 around Dumbbell basin day d5 layover 2 climb Observation Pk explore other parts of basin d6 dayhike to basin to N (the lake with all those islands and frogs in it) and move camp to Amphitheater. d7 (most extreme single day of backpacking for me and Judy) all the way to South L. via Cataract C ascent of Barrett C. slot, Knapsack and Bishop Passes.)
If I do a version of the shuttle trip above, my actual plan will be d1 S Lake to Dusy 11393, d2 Dusy 11393 to Amphitheater (not so great because it no longer has fish but would rather cut down my hiking time to Dumbbells) d3 to Dumbbell Lks, d4 to Lakes Basin d5 layover in Lakes Basin d6 to Striped Mtn Lakes d7 to Taboose trailhead.

Here is a concept trip I'd like to do that requires a very widely spaced shuttle (many hours to set up) since it runs Fernandez/Norris to Tuolumne Mdws
d1 Fernandez or Norris trailhead to Slab Lakes
d2 Slab Lakes to Edna L.
d3 Edna L to Harriet Lks
d4 Harriet Lakes to Florence L (w side climb of Mt Florence)
d5 Florence L to Tuolumne Mdws
This itinerary has been a leading candidate for my annual death march for some time. d2 is a bit short on this "actual" plan to qualify as "tough trip" I guess so to make it "tough" (not the way I'd do it) one could try for Edna on d1.

Anyhow those are just a few that come to mind.
Since my fishing (etc.) website is still down, you can be distracted by geology stuff at: http://www.fresnostate.edu/csm/ees/facu ... ayshi.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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tie
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Re: Tough Hikes

Post by tie »

Hillbasher wrote:
tie wrote:This might meet your standards, or it might be too short.

Onion Valley -> University Pass -> Center Basin (cross country)
-> Forester Pass (JMT)
-> Lake South America -> Little Joe's Pass -> Reflection Lake (cross country)
-> Kearsarge Pass -> Onion Valley (trail).
I can't seem to find any reference to Little Joe's Pass. Can you give me a clue? Thanks
In addition to Maverick's reply, I wrote a trip report about this route here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=13239

Scaruffi calls it "Weyman's Chute", and describes it here: http://www.scaruffi.com/travel/ericsson.html
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Re: Tough Hikes

Post by sekihiker »

giantbrookie wrote: Here's a "concept" trip, some variant of which I may do someday with the start on the Copper Creek Trail (Kings Cyn). First the shortest version
d1 to Grouse L.
d2 to Kid Lks but on to the Glacier Lakes
d3 to Volcanic Lakes.
d4 out
I would probably do this adding one day so as to camp at Kid Lks.
Check out http://www.sierrahiker.com/MonarchDivide/index.html if you want to see what this trip looks like.
Last edited by sekihiker on Tue Sep 07, 2021 10:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Tough Hikes

Post by sekihiker »

Kaweah Basin can be visited from the west side (Crescent Meadow Trailhead) with a three day trip.
See: http://www.sierrahiker.com/KaweahBasin/index.html
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