Bear Diversion Dam vs. Bear Creek Trail

[hawkfeather]

You can see I don't check posts very often, but, yup, it's me. And I remember that you had to hike that Bear Dam road twice. Ugh.

sssdave's description of the packer route to Marcella sounds pretty much like what they told me. We nosed around up there one time, but never did find a clear packer trail, which seemed weird considering that the trail to Hooper Lakes is so well-trodden. But maybe we were nosing around in the wrong place--it was a long time ago 8-}

Have you done your trip yet?

We're just throwing stuff together for a long weekend in the Bishop area, with any luck into Dusy Basin where I haven't been in 10 years. So it goes. Gotta keep moving.

[hawkfeather]

You can see I don't check posts very often, but, yup, it's me. And I remember that you had to hike that Bear Dam road twice. Ugh.

sssdave's description of the packer route to Marcella sounds pretty much like what they told me. We nosed around up there one time, but never did find a clear packer trail, which seemed weird considering that the trail to Hooper Lakes is so well-trodden. But maybe we were nosing around in the wrong place--it was a long time ago 8-}

Have you done your trip yet?

We're just throwing stuff together for a long weekend in the Bishop area, with any luck into Dusy Basin where I haven't been in 10 years. So it goes. Gotta keep moving.

[TehipiteTom]

You can see I don't check posts very often, but, yup, it's me. And I remember that you had to hike that Bear Dam road twice. Ugh.

Good to hear from you! Nice to know you're still doing the backpacking thing.

Have you done your trip yet?

Not yet--I'm going August 10-13. Slight glitch: couldn't get an advance reservation, so I have to get a permit the morning of August 10 at High Sierra. Kind of a pain, because they open really late in the morning--like 8 o'clock or so, which is an hour or more after I'd like to be on the trail. If the walk-in quota is full at that point, I have an alternate route planned up Bear Ridge to the Recess Peak lakes, First Recess, and One Halfth Recess.

[SSSdave]

http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=37. ... &layer=DRG

The above image shows a possible route that could be made between thye Kip Camp area of Bear Creek at ~8900 feet just off the PCT and Bear Creek trail junctions and Marcella Lake at ~9780. This image was taken from just north of where the trail passes through a saddle between domes at ~9000+ before dropping back down to the creek. One would need to ford Bear Creek in the Kip Camp area. The creek in early summer during larger snowpack years anywhere below 9600 feet can be quite difficult to cross however the Kip Camp zone does have a number of spots where the creek splits in multiple channels. Once across the creek, one would climb to the easy saddle north of dome 9181 at the left frame edge. From there the route drops slightly 100 feet then follows a traverse across the otherwise steep slope on a long narrow tree colonized shelf. The line of trees does in fact show up on the topo. The dense brighter green trees are stunted aspen that tend to colonize areas of frequent snow avalances. The distance of the red line shown across the face is about 0.7 miles with Marcella Lake another 0.9 miles through denser forest. From Marcella Lake, one could easily reach Cirque Lake at ~10400+ above.

Another more direct route from the Bear Diversion Dam trailhead would need to cross the creek somewhere above the Twin Falls area at ~8100 feet. That route would travel the low gradient south creek side slopes east until crossing the Cirque Creek stream junction at 8240. From there a route shown on the below image as a yellow line climbs southeast up an obvious sparsely treed glaciated rock rib. That route does include some moderate gradient friction slabs.

[TehipiteTom]

Wow, thanks, Dave! Those are really helpful. The yellow route is the one I was looking at on the map--I'm okay with (moderate) friction slabs, so that seems doable to me.

[windknot]

I've dayhiked up to Chamberlain Lake--exquisite--looping back via Hooper Lakes (another packer destination), where you can pick up a trail that goes down to Hooper Diversion Dam.

On your way up did you happen to stop by the unnamed lake a little over a mile due west of Chamberlain? I want to hit the Hooper Basin and Chamberlain later this summer and I was looking at that little lake wondering if it was worth a little side venture or even stopping by en route to a loop trip going straight up to or down from Chamberlain.

Matt

[SSSdave]

Wow, thanks, Dave! Those are really helpful. The yellow route is the one I was looking at on the map--I'm okay with (moderate) friction slabs, so that seems doable to me.

You ought not have much trouble crossing the creek. Between the topo ponds at ~8200 feet are a couple of places where the creek concentrates that one could jump across without getting wet. ...David

[johnwatkins]

Does anyone have a 2016 update on the 4 wheel road to Bear Diversion Dam? If not passable by low clearance 2 wheel drive, are there shuttles/ pickups one could hire from around Edison Lake/ Vermillion Lodge area? We can always walk out; probably not a huge issue to walk in, but maybe worth the time and distance saved? Your thoughts?

John