Trip advice, Wishon to Goddard. What else?

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tomba
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Re: Trip advice, Wishon to Goddard. What else?

Post by tomba »

I used this route to hike out of Ionian Basin. I didn't go down to Lk 10232' but one could use this route.
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Re: Trip advice, Wishon to Goddard. What else?

Post by AaronRDavis »

That is very helpful. Thank you.
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Re: Trip advice, Wishon to Goddard. What else?

Post by AaronRDavis »

route.jpg
I found this route from Rancheria to the Portal lake area. Anyone have any thoughts on it?

link to map: http://www.flickr.com/photos/becht/7569 ... 575306646/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;





Wishon Reservoir (trail & cross-country): As more than half of this route is off trail, good navigation skills are a must. Follow the Rancheria trail first east and then north. About ½ mile north of the junction with Duck Lake (~9000’), look for a use trail (cairns and blazed) that short cuts to the Chuck Pass trail northeast to hit Chuck Pass. From Chuck Pass, traverse (~9600) and descend cross-county northeast towards Crown Pass. You should hit the Crown Pass trail just below 9400’ but instead of taking the trail, turn east and hike cross-country up to the saddle (9740’) between Pt 9818 and Pt 10,738. From the saddle, hike up roughly NE almost 1000’ to just under the 10,600 contour line (do not contour at a lower level as the traverse and climb out is strenuous.) Contour east through the saddle created by Pt 10,776 and a small pinnacle. With the exception of two small talus fields, this cross-country is all forested duff or good granite slabs. From this saddle, contour to the saddle just east of Pt 10,776 and follow the ridge (all slabs) slowly descending to 10,400’ to a point just west of the lake in Crown Basin. Don’t descend too soon to the lake as cliffs bar your way, instead of good slabs slightly further north. The lake makes an excellent multi-night basecamp for multiple peaks or if continuing, it’s an easy hike to Portal Lake and Mt Reinstein. Detailed map
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tomba
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Re: Trip advice, Wishon to Goddard. What else?

Post by tomba »

Thanks for the route. I may use it some time. Source for reference.
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Re: Trip advice, Wishon to Goddard. What else?

Post by sekihiker »

I have found it fun and easy to plan trips out of Wishon and Courtright. Here are a few links to some trips I have taken out of these trailheads.
http://sierrahiker.home.comcast.net/Con ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://sierrahiker.home.comcast.net/ELe ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://sierrahiker.home.comcast.net/Red ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://sierrahiker.home.comcast.net/WLe ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://sierrahiker.home.comcast.net/Bla ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Trip advice, Wishon to Goddard. What else?

Post by AaronRDavis »

My plan is to follow that xcountry route from Wishon(Rancheria) to Portal lake on day 1.
day 2 follow Finger pass into goddard creek, camp at lake 10232.
day 3 explore ionian basin
day 4 climb goddard, then head west over valor/confusion pass and into blackcap.
day 5 return to wishon via xcountry trail.
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Re: Trip advice, Wishon to Goddard. What else?

Post by sekihiker »

AaronRDavis wrote:My plan is to follow that xcountry route from Wishon(Rancheria) to Portal lake on day 1.
day 2 follow Finger pass into goddard creek, camp at lake 10232.
day 3 explore ionian basin
day 4 climb goddard, then head west over valor/confusion pass and into blackcap.
day 5 return to wishon via xcountry trail.
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Re: Trip advice, Wishon to Goddard. What else?

Post by Wandering Daisy »

The terrain in the Ionian Basin has no trees so no bushwhacking but it has complex micro-terrain. The best thing is to look at the satellite photos on Google Earth or Google Maps to see what it is like. These satellite images are "flat" thus you do not get a good idea of elevations but you do get a good idea of the joint trends and you can clearly pick up talus where it occurs. Unfortunately, if the image is too early in the year and covered in snow it is not very useful. I went from the unnamed lake north of Scylla to the unnamed lake 0.8 mi northeast of Finger Peak in one day. The valley south of Lake 10232 is easy travel. The valley continuing southwest towards Finger Peak has some tricky route finding but is not hard. The terrain north of Lake 10232 has lots of little canyons and cliffs that do not show up on the map. The flat at 10,700 feet above Lk10232 is a lovely meadow with waterfalls and wildflowers. You could camp there. Lk 11818 is difficult go get around. You may have to go up 200 feet to get around it. Every time I have been there the south shore has had a steep snowfield that blocks walking along the shoreline. Travel in upper Blackcap Basin is very easy.
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Re: Trip advice, Wishon to Goddard. What else?

Post by AaronRDavis »

sekihiker wrote:
AaronRDavis wrote:My plan is to follow that xcountry route from Wishon(Rancheria) to Portal lake on day 1.
day 2 follow Finger pass into goddard creek, camp at lake 10232.
day 3 explore ionian basin
day 4 climb goddard, then head west over valor/confusion pass and into blackcap.
day 5 return to wishon via xcountry trail.
Wow! Studly!

Does this sound a little too ambitious? We have "ultralight" packs so the mileage is pretty doable, especially cutting out a lot of trail on the first and last days. I suppose as an alternative we could just take Reinstein pass out of lk 10232 and then traverse over to Valor and back over into blackcap and just do a lot more fishing. From what everyone says I feel I would regret not seeing Ionian.
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Re: Trip advice, Wishon to Goddard. What else?

Post by Wandering Daisy »

"numerous backpack trips and some x-country experience" is probably not enough experience to achieve the ambitious goals you have set. If you had said "extensive" off-trail experience I would say OK. You need to be an expert micro-navigator/route finder to quickly get through the tricky terrain in the Ionian Basin. It is not heavy packs, rather the nature of the off-trail travel that will slow you down. I find it better to plan for more days, giving me some contingency. Then if I go faster, great, but if weather, or whatever happens I have some cushion of safety. If you go during thunder storm season, you need to hit the passes before afternoon storms. None are safe places to be during storms. I do not know what your situation is, but I have come back to work a day late due to a backpack trip and never got fired. I never feel compelled to finish a trip exactly on time. Safety always comes first. I would stick to your original route plan and just add a day or two.

By the way, I was just up at Portal Lake. Do not go up to Cathedral Lake and Finger Pass directly from Portal Lake. Go up to Pearl Lake (there is a use-trail) and then do a short traverse. There is a huge rock cairn on the "pass". There is a faint use-trail on this route too. See map. Also, you cannot drop directly to the lake on the east side of Finger Pass due to cliffs. The map shows a route that works.

[rimg]http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg23 ... routes.jpg[/rimg]
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