Trip Advice: HST Late June

[Lenier]

I recently backed out of a meetup group for Yosemite North Rim, and have settled on a walk-up for the HST sometime in late June. I live in Visalia, so scoring one should be simple.

I've researched this trail enough to not need much assistance with planning, with the exception of anticipated snow conditions in late June.

Will I need an ice axe, or even microspikes by the last week of June in a year like this?

[c9h13no3]

Highly unlikely to need snow gear in late June. I wouldn't bring any. Bring your mosquito armor.

[grampy]

@CentralCalHiker -
The SEKI Wilderness Permit website
https://www.nps.gov/seki/planyourvisit/ ... ermits.htm
mentions they are planning to resume in-person walk-in permits, but they haven’t announced when this might happen. You might not want to bet on this happening before late June.
Also note that the wilderness office has removed using an Alta permit as a viable (legal) option (to a HST permit) for travel heading east beyond Bearpaw Meadow, so plan accordingly.

[balzaccom]

We talked to a pair of hikers on their way to Hamilton Lake two days ago on the HST--we were day-hiking out of Crescent Meadow--and they told us that someone on the way out confirmed that Hamilton Lake was pretty much melted out now. So third hand information... but LOW snow year.

[Lenier]

@CentralCalHiker -
The SEKI Wilderness Permit website
https://www.nps.gov/seki/planyourvisit/ ... ermits.htm
mentions they are planning to resume in-person walk-in permits, but they haven’t announced when this might happen. You might not want to bet on this happening before late June.
Also note that the wilderness office has removed using an Alta permit as a viable (legal) option (to a HST permit) for travel heading east beyond Bearpaw Meadow, so plan accordingly.

I have read that paragraph, and honestly didn't even give it a second thought that walk-ups wouldn't be available starting 5/27. I'll make some alternate plans for sure, just in case. Thanks

[Lenier]

I just scored a permit for 2 starting June 21, so I'm good to go!

[yuks]

I live in Visalia, so scoring one should be simple.

How do you plan on getting to the trailhead without a Visalia shuttle running this year?

[Lenier]

I live in Visalia, so scoring one should be simple.

How do you plan on getting to the trailhead without a Visalia shuttle running this year?

My wife will be dropping me off Others are using pre-arranged uber rides afaik.

[wulfman]

How well does the Uber/Lyft solution work? We scored permits for later in August, and are planning to pick up a day rental in Visalia, drop our own car at the exit point (recommended parking spots/solutions?), and then somehow get from Visalia to the start.

If anyone has two spare seats on the 19th (Visalia to SequoiaNP) , we'd be happy to hear it.

Also, if anyone needs a ride from the Whitney exit on the 18th, we could take people.

[wulfman]

I'll answer my own question: not that great.

We spent a whole day positioning our car(s): drove south from home, picked up a rental at Visalia, drove both cars to Whitney Portal (dropped a hitchhiker in Lone Pine), returned the rental to Visalia, and stayed the night. We dropped the rental in the morning (pre-hours), and had a pre-scheduled Lyft to get us to the Sequoia NP. So far so good.

But not a single driver showed up on the map. We opened a second ride with Uber, but the same problem: two drivers in Visalia, none of which seemed keen on a 40-60$ 90min one-way ride. Fair enough.

After half an hour we folded, and decided to get a shorter ride to Lemon Cove, and then try to hitchhike. Now this actually worked within minutes, and once we were in the car with the driver he was open to changing the ride to go straight into the NP. Which was awesome, and I can't thank him enough. We promised to top up the Uber fare with a substantial tip, which he had to wait for until we returned into mobile phone range a week later. I had gotten his email address in case there were problems with the Uber tip, and he seemed quite happy to offer that ride to other hikers. I have to check with him to see if I can share his email address, but do reach out if interested.

The HST was amazing, flat out gorgeous.