Styx Pass water works

[AlmostThere]

The snow is not the issue. I did not go as I planned to because the streams are so very swollen and the area so low in elevation that it's likely I would have turned around early, after sweating my brains out to get to the stream crossing. I remember the stream on the trail uphill from Eleanor being quite full in a drought year -- would not cross it right now. It was HOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTT this weekend and it will be hotter next weekend. I'm either going higher with some microspikes or going really, really easy next weekend. It's easier to deal with hypothermia than it is to deal with hyperthermia.

Cross country in this area is not so straightforward. I suggest searching in the forum for tales of people who have striven to reach Edith -- not easy to do.

[maverick]

Can I just hike upstream on Eleanor creek from Lake Eleanor until I get into the lakes you describe? The lakes N.W. of Kendrick creek, and Edith Lake beyond?

Is this something I could access next weekend? I have a permit to go into N.W. Desolation, through Rockbound. Considering doing this instead.

PM sent

Do not want to piggyback off the OP post.

[SSSdave]

Monday evening June 19 back home. Was out 7 days and had to improvise as conditions were not as expected. Carrying a bit over 60#, managed to reach Styx Pass zone, about 14 miles, late on day 2 Wednesday.

That MODIS snow satellite image I posted above that is from a link on the Stanislaus National Forest site, was inaccurate as there was a whole lot of snow depending on exposure above 7.5k. Thus large areas showing no snow on the satellite image actually had at a minimum patchy snow thus beware on using that information as it is apparently too new to be trusted. To reach Styx Pass one must climb to about 7950 feet on Kibbie Ridge. I walked about a mile unpleasantly through 90% snow. The lake 7777 basin that I expected would have no snow at all, was 95% snow covered with the lake frozen and snow covered. One look from below Mercur Peak towards the Boundary Lake area was all it took to know I was not going there per my above plan.

So where was snow along the Kibbie Ridge Trail? First patches showed at 7.4k and at 7.8k snow covered most of the ground. About Styx Pass and Mercur Peak, only the south facing aspect of Mercur Peak and the ridge west were mostly snow free. The shown trail and everything south of that trail in the basin west of the pass was 80% snow covered. The most difficult trail section was east of Styx Pass at 7650 feet at the top where it drops steeply on the descent to Cherry Creek. Many Island Lake at 7325 feet had no snow. Saw someone else's footprints on the trail at least to Lookout Point at 7.1k while there were no signs of anyone else going through the snowy areas further east.

Now here is the good news for any others that in the near term might have a notion to use that trail. Four days later on my hike out Sunday, I had to walk through only about 200 yards of snow total as the considerable heat wave melted out huge areas. And the only mosquitoes encountered on Kibbie Ridge were below 6.8k and then rated just a 1 or 2 on Eric's scale. Most are lower down along seeps streams by Cherry Lake. East of that including down on Cherry Creek, I never saw a single squeet so left my tent mosquito net door unzipped over 4 nights. So yeah that cold spell just before my trip was magic!

As to Stanislaus NF not opening the gate before the dam, that is something suspicious. Forest Service people are driving all the way to and parking at the Shingle Springs Trailhead. Those crews have been working their way up Kibble Ridge and Kibbie Lake trails sawing through lots of logs blocking trails. There is a nasty eroded area of the road between the Eleanor Trailhead parking and Shingle Springs, dump trucks were working on. So there is no reason at all for backpackers and fishermen to at least be allowed to drive to the Eleanor Trailhead that is 3.0 miles beyond the dam gate. Although Shingle Springs Trailhead (4.5 miles beyond dam gate) access may not open this summer, my suspicion is they may be waiting till Cherry Creek flows drop before allowing access to the Eleanor Trailhead, lest kayakers smash their bodies up against rock in the high flows.

I have over 40 each 1080p videos files totaling about 6gb of powerful whitewater and about 1400 still image files totaling about 14gb that I will be working on this next while that will eventually be added to my 2017 Trip Chronicles pages.

David

[kpeter]

Thank you for the detailed report, Dave. The solitude must have been sublime. I will look forward to seeing some of your superb images. Your Point Lobos tidewater pics were stunning. I also loved your iris and lupine slide from your Yosemite trip.

[SSSdave]

Thanks kpeter, yeah those tidal images are incredibly colorful. A heads up is this coming Saturday and Sunday just after sunrise will have about the lowest tides this whole year, for example -1.6 feet at Carmel Bay. Thus worth a trip to the coast Saturday morning. Also Saturday forecast along the Moneterey coast is forecast to be foggy with very light breezes that will provide good diffuse light for such subjects.

balzaccom my camera daypack plus tripod not including extras like clothes, water, food are about 16#. And yes the whole carrying weight is a horribly crushing painful weight for little old me but about 10# less than just a decade ago when I was still lugging the 4x5 view camera.

Ok, so last couple days have made some headway on processing images and below have loaded up 3 token images since it looks like it may be quite some time before the trip gets up into my 2017 Trip Chronicles as I am simply going to be too busy in the field for quite some time thus processing will back up. Thinking of driving over Sonora Pass maybe Monday for several days including a visit to bristlecones in the White Mtns.

This basin of lake 7777 west of Mercur Peak is where I thought I would be camping at on day 3 and making reflection photos haha. (mouse select to expand rimg view)



And down on Cherry Creek my main target of all the effort, big water. Last night figured out a way to blend process with masking such images with such a combination of still elements I can focus stack and highly variable shot to shot whitewater elements that need to be from a single shot. Both the below are single frame 6000x4000 pixel images downsized below for web display at 16%.





David

[phoenix2000]

As to Stanislaus NF not opening the gate before the dam, that is something suspicious. Forest Service people are driving all the way to and parking at the Shingle Springs Trailhead. Those crews have been working their way up Kibble Ridge and Kibbie Lake trails sawing through lots of logs blocking trails. There is a nasty eroded area of the road between the Eleanor Trailhead parking and Shingle Springs, dump trucks were working on. So there is no reason at all for backpackers and fishermen to at least be allowed to drive to the Eleanor Trailhead that is 3.0 miles beyond the dam gate. Although Shingle Springs Trailhead (4.5 miles beyond dam gate) access may not open this summer, my suspicion is they may be waiting till Cherry Creek flows drop before allowing access to the Eleanor Trailhead, lest kayakers smash their bodies up against rock in the high flows.

I just called the Groveland ranger office and asked about the gate at Cherry Lake and they reported that they opened the gate last Friday (6/7/17). They added that you can only drive to the Eleanor Lake trailhead, the road to the Shingle Springs trailhead is still closed.

This works for me as my trip is going to start at the Eleanor Lake trailhead in August. Now I just have to worry about how hot it will be at Eleanor Lake at 5pm in August, crossing Frog Creek the 1st day and snow once I get above 8,500 feet.