Ultimate Sierra Trip?

[Mike M.]

CG:

Regarding Southfork Pass, I have been up to the pass twice (on solo hikes) on the western side but chickened out both times. Just too steep and icy for my blood.

Mike

[giantbrookie]

My buddy and I left Edyth by heading southwest up to the obvious saddle and into the Frog Creek drainage; that would be yet another relatively brush-free way in. We continued up to Moraine Ridge from Lake 7385, and caught the trail there...but heading in, I bet you could head up the Frog Creek drainage and get to the saddle over to Edyth more directly.

Yes, I would agree that this is the easiest way into (or out of) Edyth. We exited via this route on our last trip in and the brush isn't bad at all. I suspect going up Frog Creek from Laurel is just fine, but you can also reach that saddle easily from the Moraine Ridge trail. We left Edyth via this saddle, then turned upstream to Bearup and vicinity where we stayed before cutting across to the trail to get out. While this is the easiest way in, it does cut off some of the grand adventure associated with parts of the Kendrick Creek canyon. A compromise way in (the way we went on the same trip that we used the gap noted above), that includes some more adventure but isn't horrendously brushy like the north side of the canyon, is to go to Laurel, then head to the divide, contour a bit on benches before friction walking down to the lake that is downstream of Edyth (on the trunk stream in the area of those beautiful lakes on the bench north of the stream). That area is itself a great destination which one misses if one takes the express route directly in via Frog Creek. The trek up canyon from this lake to Edyth is a nice hike in which most brush can be avoided with good route finding. Another comment on routes into Edyth is that the south side routes (Frog Creek/Laurel) can be done even in early season when the runoff make Kendrick uncrossable (in fact even Bartlett can be a hairy crossing). An early season hike up the easier (S) side of Kendrick is really fun because there will be a ton of water in the creek, and all that cascading water really adds to the visual appeal of the place.

[fishmonger]

I've always been dreaming of a mix of Sierra High Route with some areas changed to go to where I want to go (i.e. include Ionian Basin and the Sierra crest around Koip Peak and Mount Dana instead of the eastern route the "official" High Route takes. May do that in a few years when my kids are older and more capable.

Meanwhile, I'll be doing their dream trip this summer, and the more I look at it, it's something I should have been dreaming about, but it took their suggestion to do it for me to realize that I, too, REALLY wanted to do this all along:

see my signature link below for details - we hope to hit the trail in 23 days....