High Sierra Topix

I am planning my route for this summer.

Scenery and solitude is number one. fishing is number 2. Nothing over class 3. One in the group has never hiked in California so I would like some diversity. Length of hike is 7 days.

We enter and exit via convict creek, cross the silver divide west of red and white mountain, drop into mono creek drainage, head up the creek, then turn north somewhere east of red and white mountain. Hit red slate mountain, then exit via convict.

A concern I have about this route is packer traffic in mono creek.

Anyone have any comments, suggestions, must fish lakes, must see meadows, must climb mountains/passes? What route would you take given the criteria? Any suggestions for maintaining solitude?

Any pictures you can share is very welcome. I am hoping some can share pictures looking west of cloverleaf lake at the pass that drops to ram lake south of the peak. Anyone know if this pass is do-able? It looks very steep on the east side.

I share your fear of the Mono Creek trail. Dust and mule s***, basically.

If it were me, I'd avoid it by hopping over easy off-trail passes (no Class 3 involved) and doing a nice lake tour from Tully Lake to Big Horn to Rosy Finch to Grinnell (quite beautiful) to Hopkins, and then head down Hopkins Pass to the McGee Creek basin. On the map, it's looks fairly easy to get back to Convict from McGee Lake, but I've never done that part. Red Slate is a must climb. It's class 1, with a terrific view. Red & White is a more interesting climb, involving some not very difficult class 3. I've also climbed Isaac Walton, which was OK.

But then, I'm the one who was advising someone to avoid going down into Kern Canyon and everyone else seems to adore it, so you'll probably get lots of responses singing the praises of Mono Creek!

Here's my 2 cents and couple of pictures I took for future reference.

Using binoculars I spotted a primitive use trail going up and over the crest heading east from Franklin "1. Yes, it was very steep on the east side. I had my pack off for much of the descent, it was definitely loose class 3 and I did not enjoy myself. On any return trip I would explore the route heading NE from Upper Franklin towards Bunny. Large Talus on the East side.
Cloverleaf is a gem, and there is nothing wrong with any of the lakes above Purple. I prefer to enter from Laurel Creek when a 4x4 is available as an alternative to Convict. Head cross country directly toward Edith as you descend to Genevieve.

Anyways I just realized the system would not allow my scanner files with bmp extensions. Send me a PM with a direct e-mail address and I can forward the images.

EZHIKER wrote: Anyways I just realized the system would not allow my scanner files with bmp extensions. Send me a PM with a direct e-mail address and I can forward the images.

BMP files are uncompressed, i.e. large for what they show. Generally not a common format for online delivery. To post online, just open the BMP and save as JPEG in any decent editing application, and many times in the scanner application itself.

Hi sparky,
I think this is the pass west of Cloverleaf you wanted to see...The talus slopes just right of the low point of the pass seems to be class 2-ish.

Here's a view from the north looking across that same slope: One more view from the summit of Bloody: Note that these shots were taken in mid-July of another heavy snow year (1982) probably similar to this one. The snow was well consolidated and easy to climb. The crossing of Convict Creek may be of concern during this high water year. You may want to check ahead regarding this sometime before you head out.
I have other shots taken from around Cloverleaf if needed- I hope this helps with your planning!

My wife and I did the pass shown in gcj's photos in 1992: from Cloverleaf to the Franklin/Ram group. The very top of the eastern side is steep class 2--possibly a bit of very low 3rd if one wishes to go solid rock instead of loose talus. The west side is class 2 talus. This was an extremely enjoyable route in our estimation. Of course our route also included the Genevieve outlet up from Convict Canyon which is stunningly beautiful.

The route up the Genevieve outlet stream was indeed beautiful. I'd originally planned to go up Convict Canyon and climb Red Slate or Baldwin, but there was no bridge across a very swollen and turbulent Convict Creek. I wanted to try and go X-country up the west side of the canyon, but couldn't even get across the outlet stream. I decided to follow the stream up to Genevieve, but it looked like a lost cause. The topo map seemed to show high cliffs that drop straight into the stream on the north side where I needed to travel. The cliffs were very sheer, but didn't quite reach the edge of the stream. In fact there was a use trail that followed the stream all the way up to Lake Genevieve. Once there, I was easily able to cross on a log jam at the lake outlet. I forgot all about continuing up to Red Slate and decided to explore this small beautiful region which I probably never would have visited if it hadn't been for my fear of drowning .