High Sierra Topix

Actually that seems to be a very fun itinerary for a 5 day trip. I thought about that area a lot because before I found out about that Marcella trail, I had a big loop planned as the no. 2 option for this year (no.1 being the Tunepite turned Tunechuck trip). The loop I had planned was a death march and I think raising the fishing time to hiking time ratio makes sense--I would do that if I had more than one trip alloted to me (may be zero in 2009 hence the "trip to end all trips" approach to 2008). My fantasy plan was a Bear Creek-Hooper Diversion Dam shuttle, but it can be done out of Hooper Diversion with the aid of both trails, much along the lines you've conceived above. In my game plan day 1 would hit Marcella and end at Cirque, day 2 would do Apollo and Orchid and end up at Three Island. day 3 would go to Lower Turret, day 4 would head back westward, cross the JMT head west of Chamberlain (to avoid cliffs) passing above the mysterious lake W of Chamberlain before ending up at Chamberlain for the final night. Owing to the existence of the trail and desire to hit trailless destinations, I am thinking of retargeting so that I focus on the Lower Turret and Pinnacles Creek area, but I haven't worked out too many of the details. I'm guessing the most I'll be allowed will probably be a 3 day trip in 2009 (payback for all the work-related travel I do: multiple field trips, one week in Houston, one and half weeks gone to Greece, more than a week in Japan, etc) and this isn't very doable in less than 4 or 5, so I haven't thought through the details.