First trip to Sierra's (Bishop Pass)

[bjpm]

@Wandering Daisy: very helpful post, thank you for that level of detail, @wsp_scott yes the CalTopo map is broken up into segments that I need to define further @stevet thanks for the reminder on the questionnaire and your level of detail.

What level of backpacking experience do you have?
Level 2- Some backpacking trips, using trails

What terrain are you comfortable/uncomfortable with?
- Class 2 terrain/pass/x-country
- Class 3 terrain/pass/x-country

What is your main interest?
- Lakes
- Big Mountain scenery
- Fishing

When is your trip? August 2024

How many days/nights is your trip, not including travel to trailhead? 7 days 8 nights

How many miles did you want to do a day, any layovers? 8-15 miles depending on trail vs x-country

Have you hiked at elevation before? Any prior issues with Altitude Sickness? Yes and no

Do you have a route logistics preference: loop, out and back, point to point (which may require 2 vehicles or hitchhiking)? my first inclination was a loop but if shuttles are an option that may change the route for me.

Is there a particular area in the Sierra that your most interested in (Yosemite, SEKI, western sierra start or eastern start ect.)? Palisades area and anywhere with a high route, mostly within or around SEKI, permit is for entry at South Lake Trailhead

Have you hiked in the Sierra Nevada before, if yes, where? Please list a few of your more difficult hikes, so we can then recommend routes based on your experience level. First time to the Sierra's

Will you be hiking with a dog? No

[stevet]

The big loop you opened with will max beyond the 8-15 miles per day. Taking time to look around a bit, a South Lake to North Lake route can meet your needs. "High Route" options can include Palisades Basin, Davis Lakes/McGee Lakes, Darwin Bench/Darwin Lakes/Lamarck Col and even more adventurously can include the eastern Ionian Basin, Snow Tongue Pass, or Alpine Col. Most likely not all of the options listed, but enough to sate your taste for high routes and your listed interests. And given the loop's "compactness" you can make some day by day decisions to add or delete any of the off trail sections.

Plus there is the ESTA shuttle, enough fisherman traffic, and "off shift" folk from either Parchers or Cardinal Village in that area to navigate back to your car.

[Wandering Daisy]

Thanks for answering the experience questions. The biggest issues I see is lack of off-trail experience and on-trail experience on multi-day hikes carrying a full pack. Carrying a pack 15 miles a day, day after day, is quite different than day-hiking. Also, you will have to setup camp every night, and break down camp every morning and cook meals. I find it takes about 1.5-2 hours in the morning to get packed up and gone. Night depends on how extensively you plan to cook. Off trail travel time is very dependent on micro-route finding as well as navigation. A GPS helps with navigation but it takes experience to get good at micro-route finding.

You could shorten the loop by leaving the PCT at the SF Kings River, go downstream about a mile or so and over to Lakes Basin on the old Cartridge Pass trail. This "trail" over Cartridge Pass as sections wiped out but it is fairly easy to find most of it. Once in Lakes Basin you are back on the High Route and can continue over Frozen Lake Pass (this is a difficult steep pass with a somewhat unstable moraine to have to descend after you reach the lake). Then over Mather Pass to Palisades Lake. Basically, it is a loop from Palisades Lake, which you can go in or out either via the PCT or the High Route by Barrett Lakes. Once you return to Palisade Lakes, if you are ahead of schedule, you could even stay on the PCT to Evolution Lake and then up to Darwin Bench and over Lamark Col to North Lake. In that case you want to do the High Route on the way in so not to miss it if you decide to continue to North Lake. Easy to hitch from North Lake back to South Lake. I like to plan a conservative route, then have an add-on if I am ahead of schedule and feel like doing more.

[bjpm]

@stevet & @Wandering Daisy... Thank you for the options on the route, my original intent with the post was to make sure I wasn't biting off more than I could chew and while I am not afraid of the miles and would like to see as much as I can, I would like to avoid a set schedule or itinerary that may be a "death march" and would stifle open exploration. There are enough schedules and itineraries at home and work, looking to escape these here. The feedback here has me thinking a bit different about the trip planning and making sure there is time to explore.

[c9h13no3]

@stevet & @Wandering Daisy... Thank you for the options on the route, my original intent with the post was to make sure I wasn't biting off more than I could chew and while I am not afraid of the miles and would like to see as much as I can, I would like to avoid a set schedule or itinerary that may be a "death march" and would stifle open exploration. There are enough schedules and itineraries at home and work, looking to escape these here. The feedback here has me thinking a bit different about the trip planning and making sure there is time to explore.

Yeah, for your first trip, pick a much shorter itinerary than you can comfortably do, and then fill in the rest of the time day hiking without your pack on.

Actually do that for every trip, hiking with an overnight pack sucks.

[sparky]

It would be wise to dial this back. Are you doing this solo?

[LMBSGV]

I think you should put your first night’s stay as Dusy Basin and then follow your whims. (You don't need to tell Recreation.gov where you are going next.) Go to one of the off-trail lakes (not the first one by the trail that most people head for) in Dusy and see how you’re feeling. From Dusy, decide where you now want to go. You may feel like taking another day in Dusy, heading over Knapsack Pass to Palisade Basin, heading down to meet the JMT in LeConte Canyon and from there go to Palisade Lakes and over Mather Pass. I wouldn’t advise going from Palisade Basin to Palisade Lakes by the SHR unless you feel confident doing a lot of micro route finding over Potluck Pass and Cirque Pass.

Once you’re over Mather Pass, you can either do the longer route of following Wandering Daisy’s suggestion of Lakes Basin or spend a couple of days wandering around the off-trail lakes in Upper Basin. You can keep cross-country travel in Upper Basin to essentially class 1 unless you are feeling more ambitious at that point.

For more specific ideas about where to go, use the Search function to check out specific locations and pertinent trip reports.

[bjpm]

@sparky - I will be doing this trip with two others

@LMBSGV - thank you for the recco's. I am looking to dial back the total miles and look for more exploration within a smaller area.

[papercup]

Sounds like you're moving in the right direction. There are plenty of beautiful places to explore in this area. I'd divide it up more or less as follows.

The first place to think about is the area right over Bishop Pass -- essentially Dusy Basin and Palisade Basin. Dusy is beautiful and allows for plenty of beautiful off-trail wandering. You can get beautiful views up toward the Palisades. Palisade Basin is just over the ridge to the south, and has two easy access points at Thunderbolt Pass or Knapsack Pass. I think it would make a ton of sense to start your trip by going over Bishop Pass to Dusy Basin, crossing one of the passes into Palisade Basin, and looping through the Basin and heading back to Dusy via the other pass. You can then drop on-trail down to LeConte Canyon. As LMBSGV notes, you could also head south from Palisade Basin instead of looping back to Dusy, but the navigation is trickier.

Once you're down in LeConte, you have a choice: Whether to head north or south. If you head north, you can put together a trip much like the one stevet suggests, ultimately exiting at North Lake. As he notes, there are lots of high / off-trail options in this area -- Ionian Basin, Davis Lakes, Darwin Bench, Lamarck Col, Alpine Col, etc. If you head south, you can do something like what Wandering Daisy suggests and incorporate Upper Basin, Lakes Basin, or plenty of other options. You could loop back and out Bishop Pass, or you could potentially exit via Taboose or Sawmill Passes further south, although setting up a shuttle from South Lake to those trailheads would be more complicated than the easy logistics of North Lake / South Lake.

If you head north, you could make a pretty coherent itinerary by going over Bishop Pass to Dusy Basin, over Thunderbolt Pass to Palisade Basin, over Knapsack Pass back to Dusy Basin, taking the trail down to LeConte Canyon and then heading north, taking a few side trips off the trail to explore off-trail areas (Black Giant, Ionian Basin, Davis Lakes, whatever strikes your fancy), and then going up through Darwin Bench and over Lamarck Col to exit at North Lake.

Going south, you could choose to start in a similar way (ie, a loop through Palisade Basin, back to Dusy, and down to LeConte, but heading south instead of north from there), or you could choose to keep heading south from Palisade Basin and going over Potluck and Cirque to rejoin the trail. Either way you'd then cross over Mather Pass. You could then do the loop that Wandering Daisy suggests, or you could consider checking out other stuff in the area -- climbing Split Mountain, exploring Upper Basin generally, heading toward Amphitheatre Lake or Dumbbell Lakes, checking out Bench Lake and the Arrow Peak area beyond, etc.

I very much endorse Wandering Daisy's approach of planning a conservative route, but with plenty of space to improvise and add-on. That allows you to be flexible when you're out there, depending on how you're feeling. Do I want to go all the way in and out of the Ionian Basin, or do I feel more comfortable doing a lower-impact trip over to Davis Lake? Do I want to brave Frozen Lake Pass, or would I prefer to just explore within Upper Basin? Giving yourself that flexibility gives you space to be wildly adventurous and to push yourself, but doesn't require it.

[wsp_scott]

I agree with the flexibility part that others have suggested. There are tons of special places if you are willing to go off-trail which means you don't need to do a trip like your original Caltopo map.

A couple years ago the flexible plans paid off when I got creamed by the monsoons. You can also see Dusy and Palisade Basins as well as some of the JMT in this trip report. viewtopic.php?p=179290

Also, in case you have not see it, the HST map is super useful for cross country passes. It is centered on South Lake and if you click the "cross country passes" box there are links for Knapsack and other passes
https://www.highsierratopix.com/high-si ... &cat=&mt=3