High Sierra Topix

Maverick,
Just to confirm the Meet-up is 7/22-7/27 THIS YEAR....2014?
Bravevanla

Hi Bravefania,

Yes, it looks like most everyone will be arriving on the 23rd or the 24th, staying
a day (overnight) and then moving on to there next location. A few, myself included
will arrive on the 23rd and stay 2-3 days. Are you considering attending it?

Yes, but I'm wondering which trailhead to take. I live in Pasadena so I enter the Sierras from the East Side, usually Kearsarge Pass via the Onion Valley parking lot. But looking at the map I wonder if I should there is another starting point beside the Whitney Portal. Your thoughts and advice would be appreciate. Thanks
Bravefan

Shepherd Pass is the most direct, another would be to come from Horseshoe
area, which is what Jim and Hobbes are using, may want to contact them
about ride sharing. You could also use this as part of a longer hike, High Sierra
Trail from Cresent Meadow or Mineral King from the west.

bravefanla wrote:Yes, but I'm wondering which trailhead to take. I live in Pasadena so I enter the Sierras from the East Side, usually Kearsarge Pass via the Onion Valley parking lot. But looking at the map I wonder if I should there is another starting point beside the Whitney Portal. Your thoughts and advice would be appreciate. Thanks
Bravefan

By my calculations, it's 25 miles from Horseshoe, and 17 miles from Shepherd via Rockwell pass. Jim & I are (separately) hiking Horseshoe to Shepherd. The way I figure it (and I assume Jim is in agreement), for around $50-100 to shuttle a car, plus 8 more miles, you can pull off a great little mini-thru hike without the need to backtrack.

Alternatively, if you like going over Kearsarge, you could still cut over Rockwell (you can beeline it from Diamond mesa), and then return the same way down Shepherd. I've done that before - it was easy hiking out to Onion valley road along the dirt fire road from Symmes and catching a ride back up to the Onion TH.

The third alternative is going out of Portal, but that means dealing with the Whitney zone, which means in turn hanging out for a cancellation. However, you could leave out of Kearsarge, take a quick detour up to Wallace/Wales to say hi, then exit out of Portal. That's a bit of dunkshot - especially if you're solo - so there's no waiting around. In other words, you walk in, get your permit, and go.

That fits my style to a 'T'. So much so, that my son & I are doing that hike - sans the detour - in 4 weeks.

I have a shortcut worked out from onion valley to the northside of forrester in a fairly easy day. Easy is all realative I guess. It involves first a class 3 pass, then a traverse over car sized boulders to a sand slog ascent to university shoulder, to a 1600ft descent with tricky routefinding to avoid cliffs. It is a moderately difficult cross country route, but not highly strenuous, and the setting is spectacular.

I dont know if I can go or not. I wont know until the week I leave. I figure I will throw this out there if anyone is looking for an interesting way to the meet via onion valley. I may shine that whole deal and just use russle/carillon col.

SHEPHERD PASS: HEADS UP!

Saw an advisory on the NPS SEKI website (http://www.nps.gov/seki/planyourvisit/trailcond.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;):

"A flash flood has created several gullies 20-30 ft. deep with near-vertical faces along the trail between Mahogany Flat and the Pothole on the east side (Inyo NF) side of Shepherd Pass. Symmes Creek near the eastern end of the trail is also scoured out...in places up to 50-60 ft wide and 20 ft deep. Hikers attempting to cross the gullies are at risk of dislodging rocks and causing severe injuries."

Hi Steve,
Yep, after the reports from last summer and some of the impressive photos right after the storm, I was wondering whether it was still a bit of a mess up there. Guess so!
cg

Crossing the gully was not a major problem last summer - you have to go up to cross it; so it adds a little bit of elevation gain to the trip.

There were a few members who went thru that area after the storm and reported here
that is fine to do it.
viewtopic.php?f=34&t=9680&hilit=shepherd+pass#p72672" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;