TR Kibbie Lake 6/20-6/21

[sgottlie]

Made the trek to Kibbie Lake from Lake Eleanor TH, given road to Shingle Springs TH is closed due to storm damage. Eleanor TH starts add about an extra 2 miles - all moderate uphill. Good amount of brush in places, some with healthy thorns....wearing pants was a plus. Also number of downed trees, some requiring brief off-trail circumvention, but pretty easy keeping with the trail. Area is recovering nicely from burn a few years back, so good amount of sun exposure for about half the trek. Camped on the west shore which was reached by going left before the Kibbie creek crossing and walking briefly up then down the long granite slopes to the lake. Few nice campsites on that side of the lake. Took about 3.5 hrs to make the trek with a couple short breaks. GPS showed about 6.5 miles one way and about 1500ft of climbing.

Did some fishing, casting lures. I caught 2 rainbows, my buddy about 7, but nothing more than 13". Funny thing was fishing was most productive during middle of the day versus morning or night. West side shore is pretty shallow and virtually impossible to reach deeper east side without a boat or brutal bushwack.

And mosquitoes not too bad at all. Just a bit in the evening and morning.

[c9h13no3]

Welcome Thanks for the early season intel.

How did the snow up on Kibbie Ridge look?

[windknot]

Thanks for the report!

[sgottlie]

Didn't see any snow anywhere. Didn't look like there was any atop the ridges anywhere around Kibbie. Styx pass trail going left from Kibbie trail looked like it was fading and wondered if it would be easy to navigate right now.

[c9h13no3]

Styx pass trail going left from Kibbie trail looked like it was fading and wondered if it would be easy to navigate right now.

When I went up it last year early May, it was fine. There are a few spots where it gets brushy & hard to follow in the burn zones, but navigation was never really an issue. On the other hand, my wife wore one of her favorite pairs of running tights, and was super pissed after the thorny brush had picked them for the 10,000th time. It's not yet a Ventana Wilderness trail, but it's not the easiest either.

[kpeter]

My experience last year in May was the same as c9's. That first stretch on Kibbie Ridge after the turnoff looks worse than it is. And your description of the trail from Eleanor to Shingle Springs sounds exactly as it was a year ago.

Did the Shingle Springs trailhead ever open last year at all? It seems as if they have to reconstruct it on an annual basis, and I wonder if some day they are just going to close it and turn Eleanor into the main trailhead.