TR "Big SEKI loop" Aug 19-Aug 30 2017

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jakelamson
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TR "Big SEKI loop" Aug 19-Aug 30 2017

Post by jakelamson »

The BSL or Big SEKI Loop is something I found here (http://doingmiles.com/route-big-seki-loop/) when my luck didn't come up in the JMT permit lottery. Shortly it is a loop route (imagine that) starting and ending in Roads End in Kings Canyon. You go up copper creek trail, through granite basin, over granite pass, eventually descend to Simpson Meadow, follow the Middle Fork Kings River, cross Palisade Creek, and hook up with the JMT. Then you take the JMT over Mather, Pinchot, and Glen passes and can decide how you want to come back to roads end from there. We ended up coming back on Bubbs Creek trail so we didn't actually do the BSL maybe we did the Little SEKI loop though-- come to think of it-- we weren't in Sequioa... I guess we did the Little Kings Canyon Loop (LKCL). Anyway I thought this info would be most useful to people doing the BSL so I got that in the subject for search reasons.

So on with the report! If you happen to come across this post later we did this hike in August 2017. Winter of 2016-2017 was a very high snow year for the sierra so there was lots of concern and very little info on the river crossings early on in this trip. That is what initially led me to HST and why I am writing this trip report now. Hope it's useful to somebody. I'll give coordinates in UTM where I have them and was using NAD83 for this trip since that is what the Tom Harrison maps are in.

We left San Diego at something like 5:30am on August 19th because if you live here you are always trying to gameplan around LA traffic, and we wanted to reach Roads End ranger station before they close at 3:30 so we wouldn't have to wait for them to open to start hiking the next day. After a quick breakfast for lunch at Dimples Diner in Visalia (recommended) we made it to the ranger station around 3 and managed to switch our permit to that day so we could break the hot relentless climb up copper creek trail into 2 days. Also recommended! We actually got to walking just around 4:30 pm just in time to get caught in a thunderstorm where we sheltered as best we could for 45 minutes and so couldn't even make it to Lower Tent Meadow (ostensibly the first place to camp) before dark. We did manage to find another campsite on top of a flat rock that was just big enough for our Copper Spur UL2 and had a creek nearby, it was maybe a mile short of lower tent meadow. I forgot to grab coordinates for it for this report but by looking at the map my best guess is about here: 11S 0358900E 4076108N. And here is a pic of the campsite: https://imgur.com/a/LDxu1

On the 20th we went over "the lip" and into granite basin. mosquitoes were about a 2-3 in granite basin (but reduced after granite pass). We elected not to go over granite pass that day since we were still ahead of schedule from leaving a day early and there was another thunderstorm brewing, so we backtracked and stayed near the monarch divide ranger station.

The 21st we made it on Granite pass in time to "see" the solar eclipse. It was cloudy. https://imgur.com/a/bB5qu. That day we descended all the way to where Horseshoe Creek crosses the trail before entering the middle fork kings. It involved a bit of night hiking but we were extra motivated because we ran out of water. The last water source before Horseshoe creek is the east fork Dougherty creek that you cross. If you didn't know this it could be easy to get into a bad situation especially if you were coming up (going the opposite direction as us) in the heat of the day-- its about a 7 mile stretch with no water. The next day we met a couple that would give us some info on Palisade Creek and we would tell them about this waterless stretch. https://imgur.com/a/XKwpp

The 22nd we would go from Simpson Meadow to just before Palisade Creek so we could try to cross it when the water was low. This section of trail was particularly hard- the trail was totally overgrown in places so it was more bushwacking that trail walking: https://imgur.com/a/T53r9 Where it wasn't that it was a lot of ups and downs in little side drainage to the MFK. To put it in perspective I had planned on 10 miles a day to be a leisurely stroll with lots of opportunity for side trips and long breaks, but from granite pass 10 miles a day was strenuous to the point where you get to your campsite and don't even want to make dinner just sleep. We are not athletes or ultralight backpackers, but for comparison when we got on the superhighway that is the JMT and were doing 15-20 miles days without as much effort. Just a thing to keep in mind when planning. Anyway the one creek crossing here that could present a challenge is I think called Dumbell creek (Cartridge creek has a bridge over it). I think this is listed as "very dangerous" on the SEKI website because of the consequence of the worlds worst waterslide directly into the MFK if you happen to go for a swim. https://imgur.com/a/xSdJV. We got to a nice campsite right before Palisade Creek that even has a firepit which we were too tired to use from the day (11S 0359653E 4101819N).

On the morning of the 23rd we ate what we presumed to be our final meal and prepared to cross palisade creek. We are both pretty cowardly and I am clumsy to boot, so we were determined to find a safe crossing spot and Palisade Creek was the scary looming threat in our minds from the previous 4 days. We checked out where the trail crosses- absolutely not. So we went upstream a bit to scout out where that couple we met said they crossed. It was described to us as an "s" bend in the rapids with a deep pool after (https://imgur.com/a/v69EV). We attempted to cross here but made it halfway and decided to turn back and look for somewhere safer. There is like a 95% chance that we would have been fine but like I said: cowardly. We bushwacked/followed deer trails upstream on the south side with the goal of reaching a flatter looking area on the map or finding a log crossing before that. It was tough going and we got cut up a bit on our legs (we were both stupidly wearing shorts). There was a potential log crossing here: 11S 0360516E 4101893N but there was lots of consequence if we slipped off and like I said- clumsy. Eventually we made it to here: 11S 0360955E 4101845N. The flat spot we saw on the map turned out to be a meadow and the water was calm and easy to cross. I would consider this the first reliable spot to cross Palisade creek coming from the south when the water is high. Logs move around and a little more water could make a doable section deadly, but the topagraphy of this crossing point should make it pretty stable. Here is a picture from the north side after we crossed. https://imgur.com/a/ft96y

From here we were on the JMT and there is plenty of info about that kicking around so I won't repeat it. I'll just say that most of the passes had some snow left on the north side but nothing that couldnt be climbed around or just walked across without spikes at this point in the season. I also wanted to get a couple of resupply options in for those trying to do the BSL. We ended up going to the Mt Williamson motel and basecamp which was really nice after 9-10 days out. It was $360 for the two of us (expensive but considerably cheaper than the other option which would have been a divorce ;) and we got to go to the Eastern Sierra Museum https://imgur.com/a/Cm2IV. We also got a ride with the people that run the Sequoia Kings mule pack station right out of onion valley (with pine creek packstation). They have zero internet presence because they are old school, but here is a couple of numbers (760)387-2797 or (760)920-5588. They would bring your resupply to where the JMT meets the trail over Kearsarge pass for around $400. Also not cheap but would save the time to come out and go over kearsarge twice. Anyway, seemed like good people when we got a ride with them.

Feel free to PM me any questions you got.
Thanks!
Jake
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AmyL
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Re: TR "Big SEKI loop" Aug 19-Aug 30 2017

Post by AmyL »

Jake, this is very useful information and we will incorporate some of it into the doing miles route guide. Thanks much, Amy and James
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jakelamson
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Re: TR "Big SEKI loop" Aug 19-Aug 30 2017

Post by jakelamson »

No problem, glad it is helpful and thank you for publishing the original guide. We had a great time overall, even if it sounds a little whiny in my trail report. I wanted to focus on things people might have problems with. Feel free to write me if you need any clarification when adding it to "Doing Miles"

Jake
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cgundersen
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Re: TR "Big SEKI loop" Aug 19-Aug 30 2017

Post by cgundersen »

Jake,
Really enjoyable read, and because I had not known what the "Big SEKI" loop was now it's appreciably clearer. It looks like sort of a northern version of the (semi-famous) circle of solitude. In fact, if you combined the two, you could achieve a pretty massive (and formally correct) Big SEKI loop. Just for the record, if you're as clumsy as you claimed, I'm pretty certain that the Palisade creek crossing would have been your last meal. It looked pretty dicey. Maybe it was less bad in person? And, did you manage a dip in the Devil's Washbowl? Cameron
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AmyL
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Re: TR "Big SEKI loop" Aug 19-Aug 30 2017

Post by AmyL »

Jake, I added a new folder called "Notes" to the CalTopo map https://caltopo.com/m/526C#
I added notes about the long dry stretch, and also marked the meadow where you were able to cross Palisade Creek.
I am not sure which creek is Dumbell Creek. The Dumbell Lakes drain into Cartridge Creek, which as you note has a bridge. There are several other drainages. Can you help me determine which is the one with the hazardous high water conditions?
Thanks, Amy
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jakelamson
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Re: TR "Big SEKI loop" Aug 19-Aug 30 2017

Post by jakelamson »

Sure thing Amy. I'm not totally positive the name of the potentially hazardous crossing was dumbell creek but at some point this season the SEKI trail conditions website said "Dumbell creek where it crosses the trail is impassable," so I assume that is the one (based on process of elimination!). But yes, Cartridge has a bridge which you can actually see on google maps which is kinda cool! https://goo.gl/maps/jnVu8jhrNdB2 The potentially bad crossing is here on google: https://goo.gl/maps/iqvcGVhke5M2 caltopo gives that as: 11S 0359763E 4098181N. I would actually bet this would be a more dangerous crossing than Palisade if the water was really high because there seemed to be no options to find a different place and if you slipped you were immediately in rapids! As it was we missed the big melt by a couple of weeks so it was no problem when we went through.

Cameron! It probably wasn't as bad as the lengths we went to find a different place to cross, just an overabundance of caution I suppose. Thanks for your suggestion of deer meadow in my original post-- that helped inspire the plan to search for other meadows upstream after we abandoned the first attempt. You should check out the doing miles guide I linked at the beginning of my TR for Big SEKI Loop info. I really like the idea of shifting more people off the main trails, but there are benefits to the relative lack of people now. After we left the Kings Canyon dayhikers behind at the lip we saw 3 people and 2 bears in the next 3 days! That basically made us celebrities on the JMT :) Surely you are joking about swimming in the Washbowl? People can get in that thing?!?
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slolift
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Re: TR "Big SEKI loop" Aug 19-Aug 30 2017

Post by slolift »

Congrats on completing the loop. FWIW I crossed the "dumbell creek" crossing over the 4th of July weekend, so probably at peak flow. I actually made the crossing 4 times, once back and forth to test without my pack, then once over, then on the way back after getting turned around by Palisade Creek. It was probably the scariest looking thing I encountered, but in reality wasn't that bad.(flooded trail pictures here http://imgur.com/a/tkuLS) The snow chutes leading down into the river were what really got my heart racing.
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cgundersen
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Re: TR "Big SEKI loop" Aug 19-Aug 30 2017

Post by cgundersen »

Jake,
The only time I think the Devil's washbowl is viable for humans is late season after 4-5 years of drought, or if you're roped in; at the same time, I have huge respect for high water and just as I'm not certain I'd have crossed Palisade creek where you did, I'm also pretty sure I'd have bailed on the crossing in slolift's photos. And, the detail in those latest google images is impressive. It would be great if the powers that be would reconstruct the bridge across Palisade creek and simplify everyone's life (and reduce the risk). Cameron
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