High Sierra Topix

I'm planning a late July hike for this summer. I'd like to spend some time exploring off-trail along the SHR and I'm wondering what kind of mileage I will likely cover daily off-trail. How does on-trail mileage compare to off-trail mileage?

Some pertinent details:
• I'm currently looking at the SHR north of Piute Pass (Puppet Pass > French Canyon > Merriam Lake > Bear Lakes > Lake Italy > JMT SOBO > Piute Pass).
• I have almost no off-trail experience.
• I'm confident in my map reading skills.
• I covered ~12 miles/day on the JMT back in 2015. I'm confident I'd comfortably cover 15+ miles/day on the JMT now because of much lower pack weight, fitness and experience. I've learned how to set up and break down camp efficiently and I realize now that I like hiking slower but more continuously all day long.

All of that said, I'm not out to win any races and I understand this is an unanswerable question but for planning purposes, should I be thinking about like 8 mile days? Less than that?

Thanks in advance for any answers.

Andrew Skurka has some good information on his website about the SHR. Of course it depends on you, but he says you should plan to do 50-70% of your normal trail mileage. Since you have no off-trail experience you might be looking at the lower end of that range.

I’ve spent the last couple hours studying Skurka’s SHR mapset but I haven’t read that webpage since I bought the maps a couple years ago. Thanks for referring me back there.

I think my estimate is probably ballpark accurate at maybe 50% of my normal mileage.

It varies. The SHR also has some long stretches of trail and easier off-trail. A big issue is getting off route, particularly if you do not have lots of off-trail experience. You may be able to walk 60-70% the speed as on the trail, but you will be stopping a lot to navigate, go into dead ends and have to back out and perhaps get outright lost for hours. So you need to plan on some contingency. When I did the SHR, had already done a good 70% of it as bits and pieces of other trips, so it was on a whole, very familiar to me. It somewhat miffs me that there are GPS tracks of the route, because the route finding is half the fun of the route. You still have to do the micro-route finding even with a GPS track.

The section you are doing is one of the easier of the SHR, but still a challenge for someone who has never done off-trail travel. The passes you are going over increasing in difficulty slightly, going from Bear Lakes to Lake Italy the most difficult (very steep and exposed). Quite a bit of large talus blocks to walk through. Good trails out from Lake Italy.

Also, off-trail travel is more weather-dependent. You cannot just truck on with a raincoat. Some passes are downright dangerous in lightning storms. Try to get over major passes before the afternoon storms.

A good reason for slowing down on the SHR, has nothing to do with difficulty. The scenery is just spectacular and going slower will give you more time to explore and soak in the scenery. You could easily spend a day just poking around Bear Basin or the lakes north of Puppet Lake.

In general, 7 miles a day in moderate off-trail terrain is a good day, figuring in 2-3000 feet elevation gain.

Yep. We average 1 moh off trail, unless we hit ugly bushwhacking g or something.

Hi Matthew. If you did 12 mpd on the JMT and think you could now do 15, I think that 7-8 mpd on the SHR is about right. As mentioned, trail times will be normal, but a variety of other factors slow you down when you go offtrail on the SHR, navigation, weather, bushwhacking, altitude, etc.

Lots of helpful replies here. Thanks everyone.

It sounds like the area I’m thinking about is a reasonable one. To be honest, I don’t have a permit for Piute Pass. I’ve got a permit for Sabrina Basin. I’m hoping I can get a walk up permit for Piute. If I don’t get it, I’m wondering what people think of going over Haeckel Col is for a first time off-trail experience? I’m tempted to go for it and if it doesn’t work out we can do offtrail exploring within Sabrina (Blue Heaven Lake, the approach to Haeckel Col, Hell Diver Lakes, etc). If we do get over the Col then we either head north on the JMT and noodle around Humphreys (maybe stopping at Darwin Bench) or head south to Dusy Basin and poke around on the SHR heading South.

So, Haeckel Col: Yay/nay?

Daisy, regarding your comment about GPS tracks, I hear you. I’ve made a conscious decision to not load any of those onto my phone. I want to explore and react to what’s in front of me and figuring it out. I’m planning on using Skurka’s mapset. I will have my phone with and can use that to verify that I am where I think I am if necessary.

You might consider loading the track on your phone and then turning off its visibility. If you really need it, its there, but its not in your face if you don't need it. Sometimes things don't work out right, and an inconvenient situation becomes a dangerous one (e.g., its the end of the day, you guessed wrong and things are clearly not right, you're tired, the weather turns, its getting dark, the torch stops functioning, etc.) Why not be armed with everything that can offer you more safety? Besides, I actually enjoy the tracks of others in part because when I make a decisions I enjoy comparing how others decided to do it.

I used whatever .gpx tracks I could find/imagine on the SHR and was glad I did.

I travelled at around 10-12mpd but was in good shape - nowadays I think I'd be at the lower end of that and as a yardstick for you would expect to do around 17 on-trail miles in JMT-like territory; I will find out as I am across to do a 300 mile PCT section through the Sierra this summer (sadly no off-trail, but hey...the Sierra )