2023 River/Stream Crossing Reports

[Nozmo King]

West Walker River, Hoover Wilderness, September 7 - 11, 2023

Crossing the river was easy, with calf-deep water, although the level further downriver seemed to be rising with the heavy rain over the weekend

[jbinsb]

With all the road closures, we are considering Taboose Pass TH and wondered about crossing Taboose Creek this year with all the high water levels. Any recent updates would be appreciated.

Hello, this may be a little late, but we did Taboose to South Lake two weeks ago, starting Wed after Labor Day. I'm 68, one friend 60, another 58. The road to the trail is passable in a car with good clearance. My friend didn't feel comfortable gutting it out in his van, so we pulled over about 2 miles and 1,000 feet below the trailhead and left the car. So that made 7K of climbing to the pass. We did that in two days (4k the first and 3k the second) and planned to spend Nite 2 at Bench Lake but got a report from a downhiking duo that it was very cold and full of mosquitoes, so, instead, fairly gassed after the pass, we hiked down to the JMT and camped along the south fork of the Kings about a mile or so north of the intersection with the JMT, to head over Mather next day, then to Dusy Basin and over Bishop. There was plenty of water in Taboose Creek but crossings weren't bad. I was able to rock-hop with dry shoes across the first one. My friends chose to wade in water shoes, which seemed far dicier to me, as they were about thigh deep. Btw, reading reports before I went, I was not entirely clear where the camp site was I'd heard about near the first crossing. You can't miss it. It's maybe 1/4 to 1/3 mile and 200 vertical feet from the crossing at right about 8,400 feet elev. There are a couple of switchbacks (you can get water about 50 feet from the trail as you get to one of the last ones) and then the trail suddenly flattens out amid large boulders and some big trees with really nice camping and views up the basin and down to the Owens Valley. The second crossing was washed out, leaving a drop of maybe 7 feet to the creek, so we looked upriver about 50-100 feet and found an easy crossing, again just rockhopping. Again, my friends waded. The last 3,000 feet of vert happen in less than 3 miles, so it's steep. There are a couple of more good, but smaller campsites higher up toward around 10K. If you haven't been up Taboose before, note that while you are never far from the creek, access is difficult down a very steep slope, so it's good to fill up on water when you can. Weather was pretty mild for us, but it can be 100 degrees in there in July and August. Anyway, I'm glad I now know the Taboose Pass trail, but I'm not sure I need to do it again! Also, we were going to camp at or near the trailhead but decided instead to stay at the Taboose Creek campground, which is basic but nice, with clean toilets. So we were able to have some food and leave all of our trash in the cans there and start fresh in the morning.

Mather had some snow on the north side and sun cups, but nothing too difficult. Fine with poles and just edging with trail runners. One partner was hesitant on a steep slope, so we just talus-hopped 50 or so feet farther down the slope and cut our own steps into the snow where it was only about 10 or so feet wide. All passed safely. The Dusy Basin trail bridge was bent but sturdy. Mosquitoes were present but never terrible. Wildflowers looked like they thought it was July. So much water! The Sierra again did its thing.

[shampeon]

Everyone was wading across the South Fork San Joaquin. It was up to my knees (I'm 6'0"). There's a crossing point just downstream from the removed bridge.

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