High Sierra Topix

The Pearl Lake route is Class 1. It is longer but depending on logistics, it may not matter. If you plan on camping at Portal Lake, it is only a half hour up to Pearl Lake. Finger Pass is about the same distance from Pearl Lake as Portal Lake. If on the other hand, you are hiking through, it would be shorter to use the Portal Lake direct route. The route looked a lot harder than easy class 2 when I looked at it (I was dead tired when I looked at it so my brain may have not been working very well). One look and it was "no way, Jose" and decided to figure out a better route later. Good to know that it is not as hard as it looks. However, being short and small, I find that some "easy" class 2 stuff is really harder for me if blocks or little cliffs have to be climbed.

The Portal to Midway route is definitely easier than it looks but only if you can use both sides of the stream.

jmherrell wrote:I have done the direct route from Portal Lake to Midway Lake several times -- easy class 2, much shorter.

So have I and this is a low water year so it should be easy.

Headed out tomorrow, thanks for the information everyone.