TR 5/20-23: Edyth Redux, Kendrick Creek Falls

[fourputt]

Forgive my mspaint skills, but pretty close. I actually found ducks passing the largest tarn on the NE slipping between two knobs to Frog Creek.

I included the ducked route above the campsite with my visit to the inlet in green. The crack heading NE from the inlet was easier going than coming down but required getting by some cliffs from the shore.



And I removed this signpost at the rim heading to the tarns.

[murphtron]

@fourputt thanks for the map and intel. Much appreciated. Is there good camping near the bottom of Kendrick falls?

[giantbrookie]

I don't know fourputt's exact route but I can tell you that the route you've shown on the topo is almost on the best route except that I would put it precisely through the low point in the ridge and then descend, dodging various thickets of brush and small cliffs.

@giantbrookie, to which ridge to you refer? The low point from Moraine Ridge @7800ft down to the tarn? Or the ridge NW of Frog Creek (just SW of the route shown on the topo)?

I remember years ago you gave me advice on getting to Edyth via Cherry Creek. We bailed while looking down upon Edyth from Nance Peak after scrambling up from Spotted Fawn.

All of a sudden I'm considering bailing on my planned loop route to follow the W Fork of Cherry Creek north to Hyatt Lake and then down the main fork of Cherry and back out. Instead going to Edyth Lake up Kendrick to Upper Peninsula Lake and then somehow scrambling out to Otter Lake and a forced march back down the PCT to the trailhead @ Hetch Hetchy. Hmmm... not sure I can do that in 4 days.

The saddle I refer to is on the Frog-Kendrick divide. I suspect the line missing the optimal route is more of an electronic drafting thing than anything else. As for the Moraine Ridge cutover the western part of that route through the gap is fine, but as you get above those unnamed lakes don't descend directly but stay above the cliffs by continuing north a bit so as to get easier slopes to descend to Frog Creek by. In other words you want to come down upstream or east of the highest and more easterly of the unnamed lakes. Your planned Edyth-Peninsula etc. loop sounds pretty extreme for 4 days. The loop I did with my wife and a friend back in '92 went to 5680+ on day 1 Edyth on day 2 unnamed lake S of Bearup on day 3 and out on day 4. That was a moderately paced trip, at least for days 2 and 3 (1 and 4 were fairly strenuous). Stretching such a 4-day loop all the way up to Peninsula is doable, certainly, but you would have little time to relax and take it in.

[fourputt]

There's what looks like an old small campsite at the falls. If I'd known about it I'd have gone there on Day 2 and dropped back down to Edyth on Day 3.