High Sierra Topix

Carne_DelMuerto wrote:mediauras, mileage below:

Day 1: Kennedy Meadows to Summit Creek, 7.5 miles
Day 2: Summit Creek to Iceland Lake with summit of Granite Dome, 7.1 miles
Day 3: Iceland Lake to Relief Creek/Summit Creek confluence, 2.8 miles
Day 4: Confluence to Kennedy Meadows, 6.9 miles
Total: 24.3

Edit: Forgot my GPS died on day 4, amended mileage to compensate.

Excellent, thank you! I may give this a go over 3 days. I don't fish (they hate me) so I'm happy to just keep my boots on the ground.

I've been eyeing your topo and giving this trip some serious thought. I've spent quite a bit of time in other parts of Emigrant, but have never gone out of Kennedy Meadows. I know people complain about the pack use it sees, but how bad is it? From the TH, for how many miles are you walking in horseshit?

I should preface this by saying I have a pretty high tolerance for horse droppings as I've been around horses a lot. That said, you will probably encounter a good amount of it from the resort to the fork in the trail after Grouse Creek (one way leading to Lunch Meadow, the other to Relief Valley). I think we benefitted by going in late in the day this trip as the packers must have gone through early in the day, giving the droppings time to dry out. It really gets better the farther in one goes.

What bothered us more was how dusty the trail is after being pulverized by the hooves. Definitely have a good amount of water when you leave the resort...I think the next easy water access was Grouse Creek. You will want to take a dip after hiking that dusty trail.

Honestly, it's not terrible and the payoff is well worth it. Once you get off trail above Summit Creek, you'll be happy.

Thanks. I actually have a fairly high tolerance too. I'm from Texas, you're born into the stuff there. :-)

Carne, nice report, thanks! After you turn off of Summit Creek, everything is cross-country, not any non-maintained trails at all, correct?

Tom_H, welcome to HST! You are correct, once we left the trail and crossed Summit Creek, all of it was off trail until we reached Lower Relief Valley. I would find the occasional use trail around a lake, but nothing other than that.

Beautiful pics and great TR! Did I read that correctly that you are not going up Pine Creek in about a week? I was so hoping that you were going to have a TR for that one. We are leaving on Aug. 2nd for our loop trail from Pine Creek TH over Italy Pass, Selden Pass and then back over Pine Creek Pass.

Bill, sorry to disappoint, but I won't be making the trip to Bear Lakes Basin (via Italy Pass) this year. It was tough to accept after planning it for so long, but necessary as I am needed here. Have a great trip! I look forward to your TR and living vicariously.

Bill Morell wrote:
Did I read that correctly that you are not going up Pine Creek in about a week? I
was so hoping that you were going to have a TR for that one. We are leaving on
Aug. 2nd for our loop trail from Pine Creek TH over Italy Pass, Selden Pass and
then back over Pine Creek Pass.

Bill did you see this report it should give you some 411: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7912&p=57507" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

maverick wrote:

Bill Morell wrote:
Did I read that correctly that you are not going up Pine Creek in about a week? I
was so hoping that you were going to have a TR for that one. We are leaving on
Aug. 2nd for our loop trail from Pine Creek TH over Italy Pass, Selden Pass and
then back over Pine Creek Pass.

Bill did you see this report it should give you some 411: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7912&p=57507" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Maverick, yes I did but thank you. I was hoping for pics from the other side of Italy Pass.This will be new territory from Granite Park to the bridge at the Piute trail jct. New again from Hutchison Meadow back down to Upper Pine Creek Lake. We are hoping we make Muir Ranch during operating hours to have a cold beer. We'll see!