High Sierra Topix

Tom,

You can do a loop from sunset but it would eliminate a lot of time on the Tablelands. Sunset to Rowell Meadow, Seville, Lost, Ranger, Beville, Crescent, Silliman Crest, down to Box Canyon lakes, over to wf Ferguson lakes. Down wf ferguson to Ellis Meadow down old trail to mouth of box Canyon to Sugarloaf trail and out trail to Sunset meadow.

Downside of this trip is potential for god awful dust on Sugarloaf trail unless there has been recent rain but you don't really want that because of where you would be when the recent rain falls.

Your originial Idea of LP to Silliman and across the upper canyons and back across the Tablelands is not bad except my knees hurt just thinking of all the downhill the last day. Wait, what am I talking about? I did "down" over Taboose last summer!

Happy hiking

Mike

Also long as its not 4th of July or Labor Day, you should be fine permit-wise. It seems like trailhead quotas are always at like 2 out of 12 at noon on Friday or Saturday when I'm getting my permit.

oldranger wrote:You can do a loop from sunset but it would eliminate a lot of time on the Tablelands.

Yeah, that's what I figured. Not keen on all the forest walking...

Your originial Idea of LP to Silliman and across the upper canyons and back across the Tablelands is not bad except my knees hurt just thinking of all the downhill the last day.

Yeah...so far, my knees haven't been a problem at all, knock Formica, but I do feel the descent more than I used to.

Also long as its not 4th of July or Labor Day, you should be fine permit-wise. It seems like trailhead quotas are always at like 2 out of 12 at noon on Friday or Saturday when I'm getting my permit.

Good to know, thanks. Sounds like I'll be fine.

Just to throw in another wrinkle...I'm wondering now about traveling up the Silliman Lake drainage, which looks eminently doable...but the big question is whether there's a reasonable pass over to the Crowley Creek (looks cliffed out) or Horse Creek (looke more feasible) drainage. Has anyone done this? Any idea whether it would be workable?

TehipiteTom wrote: Box Canyon looks doable on the topo and in Google Earth--looks like there are gentler slopes west of the big headwall. I have a friend who's leading a Sierra Club trip there in July, so I can see how he fares.

By any chance is this Andy? I have been looking at doing his July trip route in September provided the route is not worse than Class 2 with maybe just a couple of spots of Class three where packs could be lowered/raise with a piece of webbing.

Yes, Andy's the one. Looks like an exciting route; I'm just going to be doing a portion of the cross-country he's doing.

Tom, you should easily be able to work your way up from Silliman lakes to the N of Silliman Peak then down the ridge to the trail to Ranger/Beville or ??? check out this link-- http://www.karpel.org/Ron/Reports1998/S ... 81998.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mike

TehipiteTom wrote:Yes, Andy's the one. Looks like an exciting route; I'm just going to be doing a portion of the cross-country he's doing.

I have read Andy's writeup and it looks like a lot of fun. It definitely off the beaten path in an area that I have always wanted to visit for the past 30 years. I will e-mail him directly and ask for more details. Thank you.