Davis Lk => Goddard Crk

[wanderin.jack]

Hi Folks,
Looking for route info from Davis Lk west down to Goddard Crk trail. Planning a trip in north end of SEKI through Davis Lk from Wanda Lk and down to Goddard Crk trail. Know some of the area and have a few questions:
1) suggested route around Davis Lk (assume north side)?
2) suggested route from Davis Lk outlet down to Goddard creek trail above the pig chute? On the topos the south side of the creek looks pretty clean all the way down to the trail.

Thanks!

[Wandering Daisy]

I once went around the south side of Davis Lake. NOT RECOMMENDED!! It was really sketchy. Never dropped to Goddard from Davis outlet, but I have traversed the bench south past many small lakes/ponds and dropped to Martha Lake. Martha Lake is quite impressive (fish too) if you have time to go that longer way. There is a good trail all the way down from Martha Lake, so once to Martha Lake, it is quick to get down. By the way, I failed to catch the largest fish I have ever seen in Davis Lake.

[alpinemike]

I've gone up North Goddard Creek to Davis Lake and don't remember anything special about dropping down the outlet. One thing to note though is dropping down the actual outlet goes around the large hump directly to the North of the outlet. This is assuming you're coming from the North shore of Davis lake which is what I did. When I did this the climbing to get around the shore and over the hump was stiff Class 3 and challenging with a full pack. It may be easier to just drop down the North side of the hump where there's a few tarns indicated on the topo map. I have not gone this way but from what I remember it is doable and will save you the trouble of going around the hump.

[LMBSGV]

I went from Davis Lake to Goddard Creek in August 2008. The best route, which Alpine Mike mentions, is to go north of the hump by cutting over at the small bay before the hump then through a small meadow and past a tiny lake (look for the low point north of the hump on the topo map). From there, it’s easy walking down to intersect Goddard Creek. I went down the north side of Goddard Creek, following a use trail much of the time. The waterfall above Goddard Canyon is spectacular.

[wanderin.jack]

Got it, makes complete sense on the topo. Thank you!

[sekihiker]

Here's a link for a report for a trip through Davis Lakes I took in 1998: http://www.sierrahiker.com/DavisLakes/index.html

[SSSdave]

Did that route late August 1980 and as WD noted, do not take the south side of Davis Lake as I was barely able to cross a steep snow ravine where a fall would end up with a slide into the cold lake waters without easy shores to climb out. Recall the cross country route from the Davis outlet to Martha being one requiring expert topo map work lest one waste effort.

[Lumbergh21]

Here's a link for a report for a trip through Davis Lakes I took in 1998: http://www.sierrahiker.com/DavisLakes/index.html

Wow, that is one nice trip report. I've wanted to visit Davis Lakes after seeing them from Wanda Pass in 2017. Your trip report confirms it. There must have been a lot of snow in 1998. While there was snow on Wanda Pass in late August 2017, I don't remember it being all the way down to the lake.

[wildhiker]

Here's my writeup of an Evolution Valley - Goddard Canyon loop we did in 2004 that went cross-country around Davis Lakes and down North Goddard Creek:
http://www.wildhiker.com/evolutiongoddard04/
We had easy going on the south side of the eastern Davis Lake and then used the peninsula in the middle to get to the north side of the western lake (crossing the stream between the two lakes). I don't recall any problems working around that north side of the western lake down to North Goddard Creek. As others have mentioned, we went up from the north side to the low saddle (the "hump") past a small tarn and then down to North Goddard Creek. We even found some use trail on this section. We had to alternate sides at times going down North Goddard Creek to avoid sections of gorge, ending up on the west side. The map below shows our cross-country route as a dotted line.
-Phil

DavisLakesNorthGoddardCreekXC.png

[oleander]

The most southwesterly of the Davis Lakes is one truly spectacular place. Don't rush through there. Camp there if you can.

I had a hard time locating the use trail supposedly going down Goddard Creek. The going was slower and more truly cross-country-ish than I might have expected. Leave a lot of time.