Blackcap Basin Advice

[AlmostThere]

The one and only time I left because the mosquitoes were so miserable we couldn't stand it, we were at Guest lake, ready to go over Blackcap Pass -- we backtracked and lost 1000 feet of elevation, camped at the Kings. No mosquitoes at that elevation at that time....

I may yet do this -- I've done multiple 3-4 day trips out that way and never quite been able to get my act together to do the full monte.

I would get the permit left in the night box at the Prather station, pick it up at 5 am, get to the trailhead by 6-6:30, do the warmer part from the TH at Maxson to Post Corral before 10-11 am. Get to the North Fork and at least to Maxson Meadow by evening. Hike to the lower part of Blackcap the next day. Do a little exploring the following morning then go over Blackcap Pass and camp at Guest Lake. Go up into Bench and spend the night at one of the lakes, fishing as I go. The next day go over Lucifer's Saddle -- have done this a few times each way. Spend the night in Red Mountain at one of the lakes, maybe Horseshoe. Descend to Post Corral and spend the night at Hobler Lake, which has in the past proven to have adequate fishing as well. Finish that last few miles to the trailhead, go dive into Courtright, put on the clean clothes from the car and head to Shaver for a bleu cheese and bacon burger with a heap of garlic fries and an 805. Drive home.

But I would do it in September, so there's no snow or mosquitoes.

[sekihiker]

A couple of years ago, I took a trip to Blackcap Basin starting from the Rancheria Trailhead via Chuck Pass and stayed the first night at Crown Lake.
On day two (2) I went over Crown Pass, past Halfmoon Lake and arrived at Portal Lake in the afternoon.
On day three (3) I explored the Blackcap Basin, visiting Pearl, Division, and Regiment Lakes. Then I got halfway to Crown Basin before deciding to leave its exploration for another day. I continued back toward my next destination, Maxson Basin/Maxson Lake but had to settle for camping near the North Fork Kings on night three (3).
Day four (4) I ascended to Maxson Lake then began my return home, going cross country from Crown Pass to Woodchuck Lake where I stayed the night at its south end.
Day five (5) I made my return cross country via Chimney Lake and hiked south cross country to the Woodchuck/Little Rancheria divide. I was back at the Rancheria Trailhead at 1:15.

The trip was rainy for the first couple of days and I spent a lot of time making wildflower observations. I guess the point of this message is to let you know that if you want to spend five days on a Blackcap Basin trip, you should have the time to get a good feel for that area. I was 70 years old when I made the trip.

For a more complete trip report go to:
http://www.inaturalist.org/journal/seki ... -july-2015

Wildflower observation for day one can be found at:
http://www.inaturalist.org/calendar/sekihiker/2015/7/21
Select "next" at the top of the page to see the next day's observations. If you choose "Map" instead of "Grid" you can get an idea of my route each day.

I've spent a lot of time in the country east of Courtright and Wishon Reservoirs and trip reports for those areas are found at:
http://www.sierrahiker.com

By the way, I returned from a trip to Woodchuck Country last week and the snow is melting rapidly. Streams are high, but not life threatening. For a few photos, visit: http://www.inaturalist.org/calendar/sekihiker/2017/7/18 where you can see some landscape photos among the flower observations.

[ischenck]

We think we have someone to watch our cats an extra day, so we are probably going to leave on the 30th, giving us 6 days to explore!

SSSDave: Thank you for that snow report. I hope there is a good amount of melting before we get out there! Otherwise we'll just soak in the views from below and hike out the way we came.

I have cut off a couple days of most routes I've done from Sierra South, so I am not too worried while on a trail. My base weight is around 13-15 lb and my girlfriends is around 9-11 lb. Wandering Daisy is correct to point out that we might not be very quick off trail though. We are both fast hikers on trail, but take things very slowly x-country because we have not done too much of it so far. We are both very cautious, so we are more likely to turn around than push ahead if things look beyond our skill level. I like to have a few different routes planned out, so we won't be too set on pushing over the x-country passes into different basins but I will have that option planned out.

Sekihiker: Thanks for the trip report, and the recent pictures! We don't have permits yet, so I want to have an itinerary for the trip from each trailhead, so this is good to know.

[SSSdave]

Makes more sense if carrying such a low weight. Less than my camera day pack haha. In the future if posting on web boards, noting you are UL is useful because those asking for advice if not familiar with hiking in mountains with vertical up and down several k feet and typical awkward rocky trails, sometimes unrealistically relate high daily mileages.

We backpacked in there in 2001. Search on "Hoffman". If there is still quite a bit of snow, you might aim for Lightning Corral Meadow. See this late season satellite view link below. Then switch to the Topo tab to view the topo map. That bench area is lower than the above lake basins and more importantly has a south facing sunny aspect so is certain to be melted out and likely to be nicely green with early wildflowers. The meadow area has a beautiful stream meander with good views to all higher peaks of the basin. From that centrail position, one can easily day hike up to most of the higher lake basins. I often camp in such view sites that more often show few signs of any others siting because most Sierra backpacking visitors only camp at lakes with fishing or trailside.

http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=37.06579,-118.77392&z=18&t=H

David

[ischenck]

I will do so in the future. Thanks for the tip on Lightning Corral Meadows, we will look for campsites around there. We don't fish and we like to camp far off the trail so that sounds like a good fit.

[giantbrookie]

The Hoffman Mtn take off is my preferred entry point (got the idea for going that way from SSSDave years ago) but the route finding coming off of it (and returning) is, in my opinion, for seasoned off trail hikers.

When I last visited Blackcap (2007) I didn't go out of Hoffman Mtn but went out of Rancheria, similar to what sekihiker suggests but with one key twist that cuts off a lot of time. This is to go up from Scepter Lake then cross the divide east of the named Scepter Pass. This is easy class 2 and chops a lot of distance off the trail-bound route. Even if you do Scepter Pass I suspect it saves time, but the eastern saddle makes it even better.

If I wanted to get to Blackcap most efficiently without using Hoffman Mtn, I'd go out of Rancheria and stay at Crown or Scepter L. on day 1 and could easily get into Blackcap on day 2 via the pass noted above. My own route in 2007 was a bit more circuitous in that day 1 went from Rancheria to Woodchuck L. because we wanted to go this loop where we returned via Duck L. to Rancheria (didn't know fish were so small in Duck). On Day 2 we went by Crown and Scepter lakes jumped over the divide to the trail (ie the pass noted above) and camped at Pearl L.

[Zarka]

I have been twice and the fastest easiest route is to go from Rancheria (upper Rancheria old obsolete TH saves a couple miles is accessible with 4wd but have to use bearboxes at lower TH). Go to Chuck Pass, then go x-country north via tarn to the crown pass trail@(37.03157, -118.86051) very easy off-trail, then crown pass, down to Halfmoon Lake and blackcap trail to Portal lake.