High Sierra Topix

Amazing report!! Well documented. You guys earned every bit of that!

Looks like you went rather light on the gear. Can you post up a list of the main items you had? I'm curious to know what packs and sleeping bags you had and how you were able to keep everything dry.

Great trip and report. I always went to the sierra for fish.I thought of doing your trip MANY times and never even went to Tehipite Valley. I would have had to do your trip in August of a low snow year but I feard two things. One was that the hike down the river would be too dificult in August and two, a fear of rattlesnakes. I once hiked up from the bottem of your trip on a low snow year in Sept. "saint" Diane and I crossed the rivers solely rock hopping.

Thanks! We originally wanted to go in September and go even lighter but our schedules forced us into the middle of October with a chance of rain.

Gear:
-UL 2 person big agnes tent (only brought it because of rain forecast, only used one night)
-We each had roughly 35L roll-top dry bags. Mine was made by Seal Line, not sure about my brother's.
-Only brought the clothes we wore, plus socks, long johns and beanies to sleep. Oh, and rain shells.
-Snack food and bars, no cooking stuff.
-Steripens in our water bottles.
-Fannypacks with fishing gear.
-Emergency blankets (didn't need them since we had the tent)
-20 degree sleeping bags.
-REI flash sleeping pads with 99 cent panchos as ground cover.
-Minimal toiletries and first aid stuff.
-DeLorme inReach emergency beacon.
-Light hiking shoes for the approach, Astral kayaking shoes with wool socks for the river travel.
-Extra rod and reel.

We both felt like we used everything we had and didn't have anything extra so we were happy about that. I jumped in and swam a rapid with all of my gear when I dropped my rod and nothing in the backpack got wet so it worked well. Could have left behind the tent and brought lighter clothing and sleeping stuff if we did the trip in the heat of the summer, but I can't imagine the fishing being any better than it was this weekend.

WOW!
epic epic trip. amazing fish..holy cow.
thanks for sharing!

CrossCountry, you really should go to Tehipite! The trail down is annoying but nothing extreme, and a quick swim at the bottom makes up for the hot descent. If it was strictly a fishing trip and seeing Tehipite didn't matter then going up and then back down from the bottom would probably be just as good. We were just excited to see that whole section of river and we both like low/mid elevation rivers as much as we like the pretty alpine stuff.

Edit: Oh ya, after three trips to Tehipite there's only been one rattlesnake sighting! I've seen many more starting and ending hikes in Cedar Grove.

Wonderful report & pictures. Thanks for posting.

Great trip report, Daniel!!

limpingcrab wrote:Thanks! We originally wanted to go in September and go even lighter but our schedules forced us into the middle of October with a chance of rain.

Gear:
-UL 2 person big agnes tent (only brought it because of rain forecast, only used one night)
-We each had roughly 35L roll-top dry bags. Mine was made by Seal Line, not sure about my brother's.
-Only brought the clothes we wore, plus socks, long johns and beanies to sleep. Oh, and rain shells.
-Snack food and bars, no cooking stuff.
-Steripens in our water bottles.
-Fannypacks with fishing gear.
-Emergency blankets (didn't need them since we had the tent)
-20 degree sleeping bags.
-REI flash sleeping pads with 99 cent panchos as ground cover.
-Minimal toiletries and first aid stuff.
-DeLorme inReach emergency beacon.
-Light hiking shoes for the approach, Astral kayaking shoes with wool socks for the river travel.
-Extra rod and reel.

We both felt like we used everything we had and didn't have anything extra so we were happy about that. I jumped in and swam a rapid with all of my gear when I dropped my rod and nothing in the backpack got wet so it worked well. Could have left behind the tent and brought lighter clothing and sleeping stuff if we did the trip in the heat of the summer, but I can't imagine the fishing being any better than it was this weekend.

Thanks for the list. There is nothing worse than taking a bunch of stuff you don't need or don't end up using on a back packing trip. Sounds like you guys planned well.

This could be the TR that launched a dozen feet. I've played with the idea of hiking down from Simpson, so this could be the trigger.

Simpson down to Blue Canyon Falls is the only stretch of the river I haven't seen and one of my SAR teammates said he saw the biggest brown of his life on that stretch. So many places to check out!!!

I also figured I could share a fishing trip and include locations since it's not likely that hordes of people are going to show up on the river.