High Sierra Topix

Homers Nose and a few other peaks via the east side of Salt Creek Ridge
http://peaksforfreaks.blogspot.com/2014 ... omers.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Nice adventure! Thanks for sharing the trip report and photos. I respect your gnarliness. This brought back fond memories - I worked for NPS as the Hockett Meadow ranger for 2 years in the 1980's.

Nice December adventure while most of us have settled down for our "off season".

I want to do this trip so bad! I look up at Homers Nose daily.. Please let me know if you ever go again.

Great pics & peaks.....

Appreciate the trip report.

Going to take a gamble and bet that with the dry winter that there is limited snow on the East Salt Creek ridge and try this same route this weekend. I hope to make it to Cahoon Rock at a minimum. Has anyone been up to Hockett this winter? I scouted Homer's Nose from the grassy area on Ladybug Trail and could not tell what the snow conditions were like on the ridge. The south faces were completely void of snow; but if I use the Farewell Gap webcam as a gauge, I am not too optimistic as it looks like the forested slopes in MK have a good chunk of snow in the 8-9k range I would be traveling.

Ideally I would like to start from South Fork CG on Sat. at about 6am, drop my pack at the last stream below Cahoon Rock, and hope to make it to Homer's Nose by 3pm and then back to my pack and set up camp by 5:30. Not sure if this is doable, but I read another report of a team making it to Homer's Nose in 2 hours from Cahoon Rock. Any thoughts if a 4 hour roundtrip from Cahoon Rock-Homer's Brow-Homer's Nose-Cahoon Rock is too optimistic in good conditions? I've read mixed reports on the ease of travel on/around the ridge, and I've also read of a use trail in the area, but I think it heads off the ridge to Cahoon Meadow where NPS has been studying some meadow restoration.

cb83 wrote:Appreciate the trip report.

Going to take a gamble and bet that with the dry winter that there is limited snow on the East Salt Creek ridge and try this same route this weekend. I hope to make it to Cahoon Rock at a minimum. Has anyone been up to Hockett this winter? I scouted Homer's Nose from the grassy area on Ladybug Trail and could not tell what the snow conditions were like on the ridge. The south faces were completely void of snow; but if I use the Farewell Gap webcam as a gauge, I am not too optimistic as it looks like the forested slopes in MK have a good chunk of snow in the 8-9k range I would be traveling.

Ideally I would like to start from South Fork CG on Sat. at about 6am, drop my pack at the last stream below Cahoon Rock, and hope to make it to Homer's Nose by 3pm and then back to my pack and set up camp by 5:30. Not sure if this is doable, but I read another report of a team making it to Homer's Nose in 2 hours from Cahoon Rock. Any thoughts if a 4 hour roundtrip from Cahoon Rock-Homer's Brow-Homer's Nose-Cahoon Rock is too optimistic in good conditions? I've read mixed reports on the ease of travel on/around the ridge, and I've also read of a use trail in the area, but I think it heads off the ridge to Cahoon Meadow where NPS has been studying some meadow restoration.

How did it go? I live in Visalia and would love to join you on this trip if you haven't already gone. You can email me at willchart@gmail.com

iHartMK wrote:

cb83 wrote:Appreciate the trip report.

Going to take a gamble and bet that with the dry winter that there is limited snow on the East Salt Creek ridge and try this same route this weekend. I hope to make it to Cahoon Rock at a minimum. Has anyone been up to Hockett this winter? I scouted Homer's Nose from the grassy area on Ladybug Trail and could not tell what the snow conditions were like on the ridge. The south faces were completely void of snow; but if I use the Farewell Gap webcam as a gauge, I am not too optimistic as it looks like the forested slopes in MK have a good chunk of snow in the 8-9k range I would be traveling.

Ideally I would like to start from South Fork CG on Sat. at about 6am, drop my pack at the last stream below Cahoon Rock, and hope to make it to Homer's Nose by 3pm and then back to my pack and set up camp by 5:30. Not sure if this is doable, but I read another report of a team making it to Homer's Nose in 2 hours from Cahoon Rock. Any thoughts if a 4 hour roundtrip from Cahoon Rock-Homer's Brow-Homer's Nose-Cahoon Rock is too optimistic in good conditions? I've read mixed reports on the ease of travel on/around the ridge, and I've also read of a use trail in the area, but I think it heads off the ridge to Cahoon Meadow where NPS has been studying some meadow restoration.

How did it go? I live in Visalia and would love to join you on this trip if you haven't already gone. You can email me at willchart@gmail.com

I started from South Fork at first light and didn't make it to Hockett Meadow until about noon. The ice after the S. Fork crossing slowed me down a bit and was too lazy to stop and put on my spikes which probably would have only netted me a few minutes anyways. Not feeling too confident in the timing, I dropped my pack at Hockett, put on my spikes and headed up to Cahoon Rock, getting there around 1pm. The ridge looked really good for travel - free from snow - but I elected to not move past Cahoon Rock as I would have only had about 4 hours of light left for the 6 miles RT of XC bushwhacking and scrambling. If I didn't have obligations on Sunday afternoon I definitely would have been able to travel the ridge cleanly the next morning. Instead I went down to explore Evelyn Lake and then back to Hockett for a very cold night as a mild cold front began that night.

Did not see anyone the entire trip, but did follow boot prints up to Hockett, and I'm pretty sure I was the first person to travel past Hockett Meadow this year - which is pretty cool.

I think this spring I'm going to try to take a mountain bike out of the Skyline Salt Creek BLM area up to the West Salt Creek Ridge and then take the approach that the Oak Grove Bridge trespass route follows.

I read on the Sequoia website that there used to be a trail that must have ran over the Salt Creek Ridge and on to the Lookout Point ranger residence.
https://www.nps.gov/seki/planyourvisit/ ... -trail.htm
"0.33miles: Unmarked trail junction. An old trail here goes north and at one time went all the way to Lookout Point Ranger Station (now closed) on the Mineral King Road."

The North side of that old trail would be an awesome route to rediscover as well, as it would be even shorter than the Oak Grove Bridge trespass route and perfectly legal too as there is BLM land that goes all the way down to the East Fork just outside of Lookout Point and the fire road at that point is all BLM to the ridge as well. I've always been curious about that fire road on my drives back from MK; but it looks super brushy on the slope between the East Fork and it. I wonder if any remnants of that old trail exists at all. It looks like the north side of it up from the river to Lookout Point is maintained by fisherman - I'll have to travel down it one of these days.

I don't think I'll be doing any more low-elevation overnighters this spring, but will hit you up if any other ideas and, more importantly, time pops up. I'm also in the Visalia area.

What a great trip report! Making me jealous over here! That sounds like a great future trip.
Your in laws own the house down the street from me on Kaweah, right?

cb83 wrote:The North side of that old trail would be an awesome route to rediscover as well, as it would be even shorter than the Oak Grove Bridge trespass route and perfectly legal too as there is BLM land that goes all the way down to the East Fork just outside of Lookout Point and the fire road at that point is all BLM to the ridge as well. I've always been curious about that fire road on my drives back from MK; but it looks super brushy on the slope between the East Fork and it. I wonder if any remnants of that old trail exists at all. It looks like the north side of it up from the river to Lookout Point is maintained by fisherman - I'll have to travel down it one of these days.

It's been a few years, but I've been down that trail from LP to the East Fork. Yes, it was overgrown and a partial bushwack, but a shorter distance to the river than I thought it would be. Cool spot! I had hoped to fish but it was late in the season and the water was on the warm side, plus travel up and downstream was a little dicey where the trail hit the river so I didn't bother to string up the rod--it was fun just to explore. Found some interesting "flotsam and jetsam" washed up at the river high water mark. It was obvious nobody had been down there in a long time...