lower Shepherd Pass water ?
Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 10:36 pm
Have a question about water sources on the lower section of the Shepherd Pass Trail.
This is the time of year I usually work on topos and spreadsheets for future trips before snow changes my interest to all things skiing. Thus worked on a 9-day trip I'd started analyzing last fall that I'd rejected for this summer because of the droughty conditions. So will be near the top of my list for the summer of 2013 after I have reached mid summer strength. Have most of the core hour to hour details for each day worked out. My main interest with most trips is large format view camera photography, so figure out various promising locations I can shoot from within the limited periods when light will likely be acceptable. The upper Kern Basin has some of the best areas of foxtail pines in the Southern Sierra and most of those areas are ignored because where they are best tends to be below many of the lakes which are more common above timberline especially near crest areas and places 95% of visitors tend to gravitate about.
Since I'll be hefting my usual 65 to 70 pounds I've decided to break up the horrendous 6400 foot vertical climb into the basin from the 6300 foot elevation hot sagebrush Symmes Creek trailhead into 3 smaller chunks in my poky style. Although I could probably manage two 3200 foot slow all day efforts to reach Shepherd Pass, that would likely leave me so weary I would not be able to reach anywhere beyond that which is interesting to me anyway. That might also leave me sore for the rest of the trip thus is a doubly bad idea.
As it is a 380 mile drive from San Jose, after I leave work say at 4pm some Friday night, I'm not going to want to spend 9 hours driving all that way anyway. So will likely drive over and disperse camp after 6 hours. Then will drive to Bishop to pick up the permit and could be down near the trailhead south of Independence later in the morning. I'm likely to start up the trail between 2pm and 4pm and am nominally planning to just do about 2100 to 2700 feet or just reach the ridge crossover notch into Shepherd drainage at 9080 feet (2760+ meters). The hotter the day the more likely a later start and even some night hiking. The second day will hope to reach somewhere below the pass between Anvil Camp and The Pothole. That way on day 3, I can zip over the pass in the cool dawn and get way down to lower Tyndall Creek areas by late morning.
http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=36.71051,-11 ... lakes%20WY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
My question here is, the topo shows a seasonal stream just west of where switchbacks climb up from Symmes Creek at 2100 meters to the ridge notch. It drains northern slopes as high as 11k. Is there likely to be water in that stream course, at least below say the 2600 meter level at 2.5 miles, early August after normal winters? I would expect so but knowing with more certainty has value as a last spot to vector off from the trail to fill bottles before continuing higher into waterless zones. Another small seasonal stream draining east facing slopes shown crossing at 2700 meters 4.3 miles from the trailhead I would not expect to have water. Otherwise at 5.3 miles at 2690 meters a more likely east facing stream holding water drains from way up on Mt Kieth. I would definitely not get that far after starting mid afternoon.
This is the time of year I usually work on topos and spreadsheets for future trips before snow changes my interest to all things skiing. Thus worked on a 9-day trip I'd started analyzing last fall that I'd rejected for this summer because of the droughty conditions. So will be near the top of my list for the summer of 2013 after I have reached mid summer strength. Have most of the core hour to hour details for each day worked out. My main interest with most trips is large format view camera photography, so figure out various promising locations I can shoot from within the limited periods when light will likely be acceptable. The upper Kern Basin has some of the best areas of foxtail pines in the Southern Sierra and most of those areas are ignored because where they are best tends to be below many of the lakes which are more common above timberline especially near crest areas and places 95% of visitors tend to gravitate about.
Since I'll be hefting my usual 65 to 70 pounds I've decided to break up the horrendous 6400 foot vertical climb into the basin from the 6300 foot elevation hot sagebrush Symmes Creek trailhead into 3 smaller chunks in my poky style. Although I could probably manage two 3200 foot slow all day efforts to reach Shepherd Pass, that would likely leave me so weary I would not be able to reach anywhere beyond that which is interesting to me anyway. That might also leave me sore for the rest of the trip thus is a doubly bad idea.
As it is a 380 mile drive from San Jose, after I leave work say at 4pm some Friday night, I'm not going to want to spend 9 hours driving all that way anyway. So will likely drive over and disperse camp after 6 hours. Then will drive to Bishop to pick up the permit and could be down near the trailhead south of Independence later in the morning. I'm likely to start up the trail between 2pm and 4pm and am nominally planning to just do about 2100 to 2700 feet or just reach the ridge crossover notch into Shepherd drainage at 9080 feet (2760+ meters). The hotter the day the more likely a later start and even some night hiking. The second day will hope to reach somewhere below the pass between Anvil Camp and The Pothole. That way on day 3, I can zip over the pass in the cool dawn and get way down to lower Tyndall Creek areas by late morning.
http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=36.71051,-11 ... lakes%20WY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
My question here is, the topo shows a seasonal stream just west of where switchbacks climb up from Symmes Creek at 2100 meters to the ridge notch. It drains northern slopes as high as 11k. Is there likely to be water in that stream course, at least below say the 2600 meter level at 2.5 miles, early August after normal winters? I would expect so but knowing with more certainty has value as a last spot to vector off from the trail to fill bottles before continuing higher into waterless zones. Another small seasonal stream draining east facing slopes shown crossing at 2700 meters 4.3 miles from the trailhead I would not expect to have water. Otherwise at 5.3 miles at 2690 meters a more likely east facing stream holding water drains from way up on Mt Kieth. I would definitely not get that far after starting mid afternoon.