Ropers High Route logistics
Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 11:51 am
I am doing Roper's High Route August 3- Sept 4 in three approx 10-day sections. I have purposely chosen to do this route slowly (7-8 miles per day) to really enjoy it. My husband will join me for the middle section from North Lake to Mammoth and we will hike this section much slower (only averaging 5 miles a day) so we can fish. Here's the problem.
Husband does not want to consider public transportation therefore we need two cars to shuttle between trailheads when he joins me. Husband prefers to stay in motels at beginning and end of our middle section and south to north is best for him because North Lake entry is easy and we can nearly camp anywhere first night. Husband is doing hunting trip first week in Aug so I have to get myself to the first trailhead. We can quite efficiently do this if I leap-frog the High Route sections instead of doing the route as a contiguous south-to-north hike. We save 900 miles of travel and an extra day and half requiring one to two more nights in motels. This amounts to nearly $300 savings!
So here is my tentative plan. 1) Drive to Mammoth Lake dropping off food North Lake, and solo hike to Mammoth to Twin Lakes (6 days to Tioga, 4 days to Twin Lakes), 2) hubby picks me up at Twin Lakes we drive to Mammoth, park his car here, take my car to North Lake, and hike North Lake to at Mammoth (11 days), 3) At Mammoth, we take his car and drive over Tioga Pass -Wawona-Fresno-Cedar Grove. He drops me off and drives home (to Sacramento) and I do the south section (10 days) back to my car at North lake. Then I drive home.
I have already done about 75% of this route as parts of other trips. I really want to do the route as a "Through Hike". Does leap-frogging the route like this really detract from the concept of a "through hike"? Other than go out and re-supply and shower and two nights in a motel I am not taking more than a day's break. However, I will not do the route exactly in contiguous miles.
I can also reverse this plan and go north-to-south with the same driving savings. The only problem with this is that Day 1 on trip wtih hubby is committing - no water sources until Deer Lakes. We plan to use Lake George as the trailhead to avoid the Reds Meadow bus hassles. I will be aclimated, but he will not! Advantage is that I also prefer to do the passes north (hard side) going up and south side (easier) going down. In this case I would do 1) North Lake to Cedear Grove, 2) Mammoth to North Lake, 3) Twin Lake to Mammoth.
Any comments on these plans? Am I missing something?
PS if anyone is interested in joining me, send me a personal message.
Husband does not want to consider public transportation therefore we need two cars to shuttle between trailheads when he joins me. Husband prefers to stay in motels at beginning and end of our middle section and south to north is best for him because North Lake entry is easy and we can nearly camp anywhere first night. Husband is doing hunting trip first week in Aug so I have to get myself to the first trailhead. We can quite efficiently do this if I leap-frog the High Route sections instead of doing the route as a contiguous south-to-north hike. We save 900 miles of travel and an extra day and half requiring one to two more nights in motels. This amounts to nearly $300 savings!
So here is my tentative plan. 1) Drive to Mammoth Lake dropping off food North Lake, and solo hike to Mammoth to Twin Lakes (6 days to Tioga, 4 days to Twin Lakes), 2) hubby picks me up at Twin Lakes we drive to Mammoth, park his car here, take my car to North Lake, and hike North Lake to at Mammoth (11 days), 3) At Mammoth, we take his car and drive over Tioga Pass -Wawona-Fresno-Cedar Grove. He drops me off and drives home (to Sacramento) and I do the south section (10 days) back to my car at North lake. Then I drive home.
I have already done about 75% of this route as parts of other trips. I really want to do the route as a "Through Hike". Does leap-frogging the route like this really detract from the concept of a "through hike"? Other than go out and re-supply and shower and two nights in a motel I am not taking more than a day's break. However, I will not do the route exactly in contiguous miles.
I can also reverse this plan and go north-to-south with the same driving savings. The only problem with this is that Day 1 on trip wtih hubby is committing - no water sources until Deer Lakes. We plan to use Lake George as the trailhead to avoid the Reds Meadow bus hassles. I will be aclimated, but he will not! Advantage is that I also prefer to do the passes north (hard side) going up and south side (easier) going down. In this case I would do 1) North Lake to Cedear Grove, 2) Mammoth to North Lake, 3) Twin Lake to Mammoth.
Any comments on these plans? Am I missing something?
PS if anyone is interested in joining me, send me a personal message.