Hiking advice for July 5-9 your suggestions please!!!

[rusticandy]

Hello all,

Im a newbie on this forum but I have my yearly pilgrimages up to the Sierras since backpacking as a child in the desolation wilderness. I turned 50 a few years back and hiked to 50 lakes through the Crown/Blackcap/Red Mtn areas with my brother to commemorate 50 trips around the sun. Ive crawled all over the John muir and northern Kings canyon areas. Im hoping to head up July 5-9, but am concerned about where to go due to high water. I like to hike the west side, but am up for anywhere. It seems that given the conditions, I may need to look smaller watersheds, such as Dinkey Lakes area, Kaiser mtn. etc. Maybe Wishon/woodchuck country????

Im looking to those more experienced for suggestions on where to go for 5 days 8-10 miles a day. Id prefer limited postholing through the snow, but I'll take anything just to get a mountain fix!

I will post a trail report when I get back if I can find a suitable place!

Andy

[Harlen]

Welcome Andy, we love the sound of your "50 Lakes" birthday party! Now when you turn 80 you'll have do that again, and then drop over "Finger Col" and on into Ionian Basin, upper Evo. Valley, and back through Davis Lakes Basin to get your 80 trips around the sun covered by lakes. Best Wishes.

With regard to your upcoming trip, check out this recent trip by "tearex" : ["HST June 25th conditions" by tearex]
It sure appeals to us, but we're hiking with dogs this time. You might ask for more details about the route over Kaweah Gap, because that would add a beautiful highlight to the trip- love that place!

[AlmostThere]

https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/?p ... 8130345114

There's lots of road damage. Can't get to Dinkey trailheads yet, even though Courtright road opened yesterday, due to road damage. Maxson trailhead is open. Thrus are rerouting from Florence to road walking around to Edison to avoid crossing Bear Creek. Definitely call for updates, though the rangers have precious little information about the backcountry they'll tell you about the roads. Twin Lakes in Kaiser is still under snow, if that makes any difference -- above 9000 is stil melting out.

[giantbrookie]

As of July 5-9 you'll still find a lot of snow everywhere, as well as high runoff, so your options for a 5 day trip are a bit thin and it will be difficult to put together a 5 day trip where you actually cover a lot of distance. The NW part of Desolation out of Loon will be fine, although I don't know if that's enough to keep you occupied for 5 days. The same can be said for the Grouse Ridge area N of I80 (highly dependent on road conditions, though, and even with good conditions this area is best accessed with a high clearance vehicle). Lakes Basin will also have some areas open too, but these are not really amenable for stringing out a 5 day backpack trip (I myself will be in that area Jul. 7-9 but doing a series of short dayhikes). You can also go out of Hetch Hetchy to Laurel and Vernon, but then again, this isn't really a 5 day sort of trip. The lakes of Woodchuck country may still be frozen over, although some of them are very open exposure such as Woodchuck (note that Woodchuck's elev is 9800' though).

Jeez I never thought about that 50 lakes theme. Should have done that. I've done 105 lakes in one season but never 50 on one trip (most I've ever fished on one trip is something like 26).

[Dave_Ayers]

I think you could head out from Wolverton or Crescent Meadow. There are several trails branching off from Bearpaw that are in the 7,000-9,000 feet elevation range that should be passable. Probably enough to string together a decent outing, though a lot of it would be out-and-back, turning around when the snow gets deeper than you like. The latest NOAA NOHRSC snow model (http://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/earth/) shows little or no snow coverage in that area.

You also may be able to do some convoluted routes starting at either Granite Creek or Mammoth trailheads. Elevations are lower and the snow model looks clear below ~8,000. Should work as long as you are flexible in turning around when the snow gets too thick.

The flow looks too high for the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne at present. But it's dropping fast and if it drops a few more feet, that might be doable (though its probably hot down in Pate Valley).

[cgundersen]

Hi Andy,
If you're not averse to a bit of snow, heading in on the High Sierra Trail (Wolverton or Crescent Meadow) and then figuring out some kind of loop along lines like: Bearpaw Meadow on day 1; Hamilton Lake on day 2; backtrack to Tamarack Lake on day 3; head over Elizabeth Pass on day 4 and aim for Big Bird Lake; then go cross country over the Tablelands to Moose Lake or one of the Pear/Heather/Aster group. The climb out of Big Bird is not nearly as tough as it looks on the maps, but route-finding on the Tablelands can be tricky. Thus, a plan B would be to go over Kaweah Gap and mess around in the Big Arroyo for a day or two, and then backtrack. Another option would be to do a loop out of Mineral King, but there you have to worry about the nutty marmots eating the innards of your vehicle. Good luck, Cameron

[SSSdave]

A good choice for 5 days sure to be out of the snow would be the Bear Creek Trail from the diversion dam because the elevation is at the current lower forest snow elevation while the whole lower canyon is within a morning sunny west to east by slightly northeast orientation, and the trail is on the sunny north side of Bear Creek with much dark lichened covered granite tending to make that canyon rather warm. Between Twin Falls at 8120 and where the trail returns to the creek beyond the canyon dogleg at 8800 are superb stream areas for savvy cross country visitors to venture into including the chain of big pools on the topo at:

http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=37.36435,-118.92502&z=15&t=T

The puzzle is those areas are guarded by marsh areas, willow thickets, and higher up a steep entry gorge. One clue is to start a traverse at 8320 and NOT try hiking up the creek from Twin Falls haha.

Another zone I enjoy camping at where almost no others do, is about the canyon dogleg pass at 9000+. The trail there routes down within a joint crack. Climb up out that crack that has no views up onto the knob just south where magnificent Sierra juniper grow and camp about gruss sand flats where one has excellent views up canyon towards Seven Gables or down canyon towards the trailhead. From the knob there are class 2 ways to climb down to the creek areas at 8600 that have some teacup pools and waterwheel slabs.

I'd expect reaching Kip Camp would also be little issue. Above there the north-south trending canyon is more sun blocked except at mid day so will start to see areas of snow. And you might go further as far as the Italy Branch. In any case the sure to be high and thundering with whitewater creek will be far more interesting and exciting than visiting some higher elevation frozen timberline lake with a popular name in a sea of blinding white where one will be trying to hide from the skin broiling sun most of the day.

David