Looking For Extremely Low Mile Overnighter?

[InsaneBoost]

Another easy hike would be to park at the gate on the Brewer Lake OHV route and walk it to Brewer Lake. Not shown on the map is Tocher and Beryl Lakes, which are between Brewer and Coyote Lake. Short hiking, though there are some areas of rocky loose terrain. Not many people in this area and no wilderness permit needed, and the 4WD clubs have an outhouse and established campsites at Brewer.

There are areas where you don't need a wilderness permit? Or are those more like established campgrounds in a sense?

[AlmostThere]

Both Brewer and Coyote have OHV roads that go to them. There are established campgrounds with outhouses maintained by the local four wheel drive clubs. They are in national forest, outside designated wilderness, therefore you need no permits to use campsites.

We impressed the OHVers so much walking in there with our gear that they gave us beer.

[InsaneBoost]

Makes sense lol. Got both those maps downloaded and will look into where you drive. If we have to walk the rest of the way, how long is that by chance?

[AlmostThere]

You might get within a mile before the road starts to really get rough and goofy. Or you might be better at navigating rough roads... I just flinch away from getting the mazda high-centered on that one switchback.

[InsaneBoost]

Yeah I'm smart enough to turn around if I don't feel I can do something. I guess I'm trying to pinpoint the area on the map, but can't figure out where Willow Meadow would be. That white box area where the road forks?

[AlmostThere]

https://caltopo.com/l/MLFK

Trailhead is in the center - old maps show the trail being a road for a little farther.

[InsaneBoost]

Thanks. Pretty close to where I thought.

[Ska-T]

Although the interface is a bit archaic, you can find detailed travel descriptions including GPS waypoints for many trailheads at climber.org.
http://climber.org/driving/index.html

[wildhiker]

I second the idea of the Twin Lakes area in the Kaiser Wilderness, but starting from the trailhead by Badger Flat on the Kaiser Pass Road, just a few miles up from Huntington Lake, not from Sample Meadow on the north side. The Kaiser Pass Road is paved and in good condition on this stretch. The trail gains about 700 feet elevation in about 2 miles to Potter Pass - then you drop about 400 feet to the Twin Lakes area. The lakes are very pretty and you get some expansive views from the Potter Pass area or high points around the Twin Lakes. I was just thinking of this trail, because our 38 year daughter and our 5 month old granddaughter were visiting today and I remembered how we took this daughter at age 6 months for a week backpack trip into these Twin Lakes in the Kaiser Wilderness. We camped for 6 nights and I think it was the happiest time of her infancy. Of course, we carried her in and lots of gear - so much, that after hiking in, I had to turn right around and go back to the car to get another 50 pounds of gear. That's when I appreciated that the hike was only 3 miles each way.

-Phil

[Dave_Ayers]

Is there anyway to find the exact locations of these trailheads? Normally I can find some info on some of the hikes via alltrails and what not, but not coming up with anything.

My Sierra Trailheads listing is at https://beta.groups.yahoo.com/neo/group ... railheads/ along with a KMZ file that will allow you to add them to Google Earth. I have 231 TH's in the list. Please report any errors or omissions to me via PM or email as I'd like to keep it as accurate a possible. (Yahoo registration is required for access since it's posted in the Yahoo JMT Group.)