orbitor wrote:Hi mshields,
A great trip, thank you for sharing some of your photos. I will be doing the HST in about two weeks and am still debating the location of the camps. Reading your TR, it seems like your breakdown makes a lot of sense. Would you be able to provide me your daily mileages between stops? A GPS track would be most useful, if available.
Thank you,
Mihai
Orbitor,
Day 1 Mileage To Buck Creek - 10.9
Day 2 Mileage To Upper Hamilton Lake -5.8
Day 3 Mileage To Moraine Lake - 14.3
Day 4 Mileage To Kern Hot Springs - 7.4
Day 5 Mileage To Wallace Creek(JMT/HST Junction) - 11.8
Day 6 Mileage To Guitar Lake - 6.6
Day 7 Mileage Up To Whitney/Down To Outpost Camp - 12.2
Day 8 Mileage Down To Whitney Portal - 3.6
Here are a some comments on why I chose these campsites:
Buck Creek - more space/easier to access water/ less mosquitos than nine mile creek. It is only an extra 1.5 miles to get here from nine mile creek and worth it. This site is achievable as long as you don't start out too late from Crescent Meadows.
Upper Hamilton Lake - gorgeous lake/lots of sites/good swimming/good fishing. I would hate to bypass this site. In the event you do decide to bypass it, you will most likely be dealing with a hot steep south facing slope in the afternoon sun. Incidentally there a a couple very small sites near the outlet of Precipice Lake if you choose to press on..
Moraine Lake - the third day was the most mileage and physical exertion. Workable as long as you get a relatively early start; it was very pleasant climbing up and over the Kaweah Gap in the morning hours when it was cool. Precipice Lake is quite the site. I definitely recommend it as a break spot and/or lunch location (a one of a kind lake) The Kaweah Gap is a short distance (.7 miles) from here. Once you reach the Gap, it is 3 miles downhill to Big Arroyo Junction. Overall I did not experience many mosquitos on the trip, but this was the worst of the 8 days. If you are going to continue on to Moraine Lake this is a good spot to fill up on water. From here it is a fairly steep 1,000ft. climb (about 3 miles) up to the Chagoopa Plateau. From here continue another 4 miles and gradually descend to Moraine Lake. This was a very nice spot; the lake though fishless, provided excellent swimming. Another reason we pushed to Moraine Lake on this day was we planned on enjoying Kern Hot Springs to the fullest the following day.
Kern Hot Springs - doesn't get much better than this; your own personal hot spring in the middle of the Sierra's. (the real deal) It is just my opinion, but I think it would be very foolish for anyone to pass this site up without spending any time there. Works wonders on the sore muscles!!!
Wallace Creek - The climb up the Kern River Valley from Kern Hot Springs to Junction Meadow (7.2 miles) is a very gentle gradient that goes by very quickly. From here it is another 4.6 miles to Wallace Creek a very beautiful spot with nice vistas/meadow. In the event you don't make it this far there is a small site near the Wallace Creek trail junction 3.4 miler back
Guitar Lake - ample sites in a scenic setting (above treeline) By camping here you can get an early start the next morning for you 3000 ft push to Whitney. As many other hikers do, we left our packs
just before trail crest; it was a nice break to hike 3.8 miles without the pack.
Outpost - Good spot to wind down and soak in the the success of the day. We could have went all the way to the Portal the prior day. If we would have done this the hamburger stand would have been shut down by the time we made it. What is the point in doing that?
Sorry, I don't have any GPS tracks for you. Not to worry, the trail and campsites are very prominent and would be hard to miss. I hope this info helps. If you have any more questions feel free to fire away. As a side note, I had originally planned for different sites, but received input from other High Sierra Topix members. I was very grateful for this and inlooking back would choose the same sites again.
Take Care