High Sierra Topix

Hello,
We are level 2-3 backpackers. Go out a lot but stay on trails, usually with my two teenage kids and two dogs.
We were considering a backpack out of the Maxson TH, near Courtright Reservoir. We would spend the first night at Post Corral, then Rae Lake, Devil's Punchbowl, Post Corral and out. Any help on trail, snow or mosquito conditions would be great.
Thanks!!

When is your trip planned for Aura?

Hi Maverick,
thanks for your answer. We are leaving tomorrow.

I suspect you will run into quite a bit of snow if you go much over 9000 feet...

We just got back on Saturday.
No snow whatsoever. We went in on Weds and didn't see a soul until Fri night. Sat a few groups packing in. The river is truly magnificent, thundering and roaring with LOTS of water. Also, lots of flowers blooming. The ford at Post Corral Creek is easy. However, right at the meadow, the SWARMING Mosquitos are THICK and voracious, unbearable and do not respond to repellent. If you are changing your footwear or need to prepare for fording, (we change from boots to trail runners and remove the bottom of our zip off pants, for example.) do it HALF A MILE FROM POST CORRAL MEADOW so as not to be eaten alive. Fleming Creek is running fast and had some rapids where it joins Kings River and where the trail continues on to Meadow Brook and on to either Devil's Punchbowl or Bench Valley.
I hope that this is helpful!

I will second the mosquitoes being nasty at Post Corral Creek. We were up there on our way to Fleming Lake on June 17, and back on June 19. We had permethrin treated clothing and upon arrival on way back had to put DEET on. Strangely enough, the first night, we arrived at the creek and decided before fording, to call it a night and slept on the granite about 200 yards from the crossing and there were no mosquitoes. Fleming Lake we had zero mosquitos.
My question for the original poster, did you go to Devil's Punchbowl out of Rae. I am curious, we were going to make our way up to the pass, but it was getting late in the day, this was our first backpacking trip of the season, and I tend to be kind of relaxed about itninary, so when we hit some snow packs in the trail going up from Fleming Creek, I decided to turn around. Maybe it was just the one, maybe it wasn't, so did you go to Devil's Punchbowl via Hell for Sure Pass trail, and how much more snow was there past that first couple of bunches in the trail. I was thinking because at that point, it was about 9200 feet or so, tree covered, I was going to run into more, so we said heck with it and went back and utilized the horse camp at Fleming Lake.

How many miles from Maxson TH to Flemming Lake?

How many miles from Maxson TH to Flemming Lake?

11.5

Thanks, Maverick!