Trip Report Woodchuck Country and Tunemah 6-18
Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2018 7:14 am
Well, I have always wanted to get to Tunemah Lake. In the 70's, my brother and I would circle lakes on maps and basically say we gotta get there some day.
Tunemah is one of those lakes. I tried for the first time in 2015 with a 11 day trip that started at Courtright, went over Hell for Sure and Reinstein passes and I had a decision to make in West Goddard canyon...a one day long day hike to Tunemah or a full day in Blackcap Basin fishing ( once over Finger Col) and I chose Blackcap. Then last year in July I was at Martha Lake and just looked up at Reinstein Pass from a frozen Martha Lake and said forget it. So I decided that the best way to get to Tunemah is just to make it the single priority for a trip.
I did a tremendous amount of research for this trip, mostly on HST. I had a lot of fun reading old trip reports and a specific mention of SSSdave, Giantbrookie, and WanderingDaisy is called for as they very helpful, but there were many more. I had decided on a 7 day trip and for personal reasons I had to be back by 6/22.
I have done a June trip in each of the last 6 years and I consider it sort of a specialty to try time getting to some high mountain lakes at iceout. But I knew the probability of Tunemah being ice free was uncertain. My comparable trip was 2015 ( similar snow amounts) when I wandered around northern Kings Canyon, and most of the lakes were ice free mid June. So I equated Tunemah probability as 50/50... but I thought that the rest of the trip (Woodchuck/Blue Canyon/Alpine Canyon) would be no problem. I wound up "cheating" a little bit. I stretched the trip to 10 days in order to go down the old Tunemah trail to Simpson meadow,
go down to Tehipte Valley and back up. In my research on this extension, I was only worried about one stream crossing, that of Crown Creek below Silver Spray falls, but there was one trip report that showed in from 2015, and I felt that it would not be a problem. I pulled out my trusty 1968 version of Sierra South and it had a cross country route from Alpine Canyon to Simpson Meadow....and I thought this should be no problem. The short form of the trip...no problem with getting to Tunemah--snow not too bad, Tunemah partially frozen, and I didn't make the route to Simpson meadow and had a long slow slog to return via an alternative low route.
I normally write short and sweet posts...but for some reason this will be a little longer. Perhaps because on a nine day trip, I did not see a single person for the first eight days.. a new record for me. ( previous six). On the ninth day I saw one trail maintenance person, and then I saw one father/son team. No one else.
I have told people that the only one I had to talk to was myself and after the fifth day I was pretty bored with my company.
So without further adieu, here goes. Day 1 June 13th. I got up at 4am, got my permit at Prather, and made my way to Wishon. I indicated I had read a lot of trip reports and I decided to try the Hoffman trailhead (thanks to SSSdave for this tip). I wasn't sure my sedan would make it and Rancheria trailhead was my backup, but I found no issue driving up to Hoffman. 2 cars in Rancheria and no one parked at Hoffman mountain. What a great find! It saved 2.6 miles of walking and almost 1000 feet of elevation gain! I did the easy cross country east to the trail without any issues. I wound up making it to Woodchuck Lake the first day, pretty tired. I dont think I would have made it if I had started at Rancheria. I saw one set of footprints going up to Woodchuck.. A very nice lake. Day 2 was meant to be an easy day. A short day to Crown Lake with a little fishing at both Woodchuck and Crown. Mosquitoes were ok at Woodchuck and miserable at Crown ( marshy meadowy). Day 3 I had to make a decision. How to get to Blue Canyon? I had four options. 1) go via the trail and Half Moon Lake, 2)go over Scepter Pass, 3)go over the pass east of Scepter Pass, or 4) contour around to Crown Valley. All options were referenced in various trip reports. I decided that the fastest/least risky way to get there was option 3. So I headed for the obvious pass just east of Scepter Pass.
Here is Scepter Lake.. And the pass turned out to be pretty easy. (Class one on the west side, easy class two on the east). A very quick way to get to the north fork of the Kings.
A view east toward Blackcap Basin. After some very marshy hiking up the Kings river, I headed toward Mantle Pass. After reading several reports, I decided to go direct from upper Crown Valley rather than descending and passing Hummingbird Lake. This proved very easy. There was some snow but not bad on Mantle Pass. A look back at the pass from the east side. The snow was easier than it looks. And finally made it around to Blue Canyon. I camped at the first lake ( 10,400). A very nice setting. Lots of rings in the lake. Day 4
My first layover day. I wanted to fish every lake in the basin and climb Finger Peak. I was torn between "you are on vacation--you dont have to do anything!" vs, "you are on vacation...you must do everything!". I decided to climb Finger Peak first and then do as much as I felt like.
A mostly class 2 climb. Finger Peak is a special peak to me..and have wanted to climb it for years. You can see it from a many angles.
Always nice to see some fellow HST members from the summit register! Not that many people climb this one. A shot toward Mount Goddard. I climbed Goddard 6/16/15. So on 6/16/18, I compared snow levels. I would say there is just a little bit more snow in 2018 than 2015. I dont remember the snow on the shoulder of Goddard. And a shot of the Palisades and Whitney and lastly a shot looking down at Finger Col and Cathedral Lake. In the last year I met a second person who told me he couldn't find a route to get over Finger Col from the east. I did it 2015 and went right up without issue...dont remember even any thought of route finding. Oh well. Finger Peak ... a delightful peak. Part 2 of this trip coming up...
Tunemah is one of those lakes. I tried for the first time in 2015 with a 11 day trip that started at Courtright, went over Hell for Sure and Reinstein passes and I had a decision to make in West Goddard canyon...a one day long day hike to Tunemah or a full day in Blackcap Basin fishing ( once over Finger Col) and I chose Blackcap. Then last year in July I was at Martha Lake and just looked up at Reinstein Pass from a frozen Martha Lake and said forget it. So I decided that the best way to get to Tunemah is just to make it the single priority for a trip.
I did a tremendous amount of research for this trip, mostly on HST. I had a lot of fun reading old trip reports and a specific mention of SSSdave, Giantbrookie, and WanderingDaisy is called for as they very helpful, but there were many more. I had decided on a 7 day trip and for personal reasons I had to be back by 6/22.
I have done a June trip in each of the last 6 years and I consider it sort of a specialty to try time getting to some high mountain lakes at iceout. But I knew the probability of Tunemah being ice free was uncertain. My comparable trip was 2015 ( similar snow amounts) when I wandered around northern Kings Canyon, and most of the lakes were ice free mid June. So I equated Tunemah probability as 50/50... but I thought that the rest of the trip (Woodchuck/Blue Canyon/Alpine Canyon) would be no problem. I wound up "cheating" a little bit. I stretched the trip to 10 days in order to go down the old Tunemah trail to Simpson meadow,
go down to Tehipte Valley and back up. In my research on this extension, I was only worried about one stream crossing, that of Crown Creek below Silver Spray falls, but there was one trip report that showed in from 2015, and I felt that it would not be a problem. I pulled out my trusty 1968 version of Sierra South and it had a cross country route from Alpine Canyon to Simpson Meadow....and I thought this should be no problem. The short form of the trip...no problem with getting to Tunemah--snow not too bad, Tunemah partially frozen, and I didn't make the route to Simpson meadow and had a long slow slog to return via an alternative low route.
I normally write short and sweet posts...but for some reason this will be a little longer. Perhaps because on a nine day trip, I did not see a single person for the first eight days.. a new record for me. ( previous six). On the ninth day I saw one trail maintenance person, and then I saw one father/son team. No one else.
I have told people that the only one I had to talk to was myself and after the fifth day I was pretty bored with my company.
So without further adieu, here goes. Day 1 June 13th. I got up at 4am, got my permit at Prather, and made my way to Wishon. I indicated I had read a lot of trip reports and I decided to try the Hoffman trailhead (thanks to SSSdave for this tip). I wasn't sure my sedan would make it and Rancheria trailhead was my backup, but I found no issue driving up to Hoffman. 2 cars in Rancheria and no one parked at Hoffman mountain. What a great find! It saved 2.6 miles of walking and almost 1000 feet of elevation gain! I did the easy cross country east to the trail without any issues. I wound up making it to Woodchuck Lake the first day, pretty tired. I dont think I would have made it if I had started at Rancheria. I saw one set of footprints going up to Woodchuck.. A very nice lake. Day 2 was meant to be an easy day. A short day to Crown Lake with a little fishing at both Woodchuck and Crown. Mosquitoes were ok at Woodchuck and miserable at Crown ( marshy meadowy). Day 3 I had to make a decision. How to get to Blue Canyon? I had four options. 1) go via the trail and Half Moon Lake, 2)go over Scepter Pass, 3)go over the pass east of Scepter Pass, or 4) contour around to Crown Valley. All options were referenced in various trip reports. I decided that the fastest/least risky way to get there was option 3. So I headed for the obvious pass just east of Scepter Pass.
Here is Scepter Lake.. And the pass turned out to be pretty easy. (Class one on the west side, easy class two on the east). A very quick way to get to the north fork of the Kings.
A view east toward Blackcap Basin. After some very marshy hiking up the Kings river, I headed toward Mantle Pass. After reading several reports, I decided to go direct from upper Crown Valley rather than descending and passing Hummingbird Lake. This proved very easy. There was some snow but not bad on Mantle Pass. A look back at the pass from the east side. The snow was easier than it looks. And finally made it around to Blue Canyon. I camped at the first lake ( 10,400). A very nice setting. Lots of rings in the lake. Day 4
My first layover day. I wanted to fish every lake in the basin and climb Finger Peak. I was torn between "you are on vacation--you dont have to do anything!" vs, "you are on vacation...you must do everything!". I decided to climb Finger Peak first and then do as much as I felt like.
A mostly class 2 climb. Finger Peak is a special peak to me..and have wanted to climb it for years. You can see it from a many angles.
Always nice to see some fellow HST members from the summit register! Not that many people climb this one. A shot toward Mount Goddard. I climbed Goddard 6/16/15. So on 6/16/18, I compared snow levels. I would say there is just a little bit more snow in 2018 than 2015. I dont remember the snow on the shoulder of Goddard. And a shot of the Palisades and Whitney and lastly a shot looking down at Finger Col and Cathedral Lake. In the last year I met a second person who told me he couldn't find a route to get over Finger Col from the east. I did it 2015 and went right up without issue...dont remember even any thought of route finding. Oh well. Finger Peak ... a delightful peak. Part 2 of this trip coming up...