Good places + passes for beginner x-country

[maiathebee]

Hey y'all,

Some recent posts plus the fact that I'm taking some less-experienced backpackers on trips this summer had me thinking it might be good to compile a list of areas and passes that are good for experienced trail hikers looking to explore off trail to get better at navigation and cross country travel. Some places that come to mind for me are:

-Dusy basin / Knapsack pass
-Thousand Island backside round to Garnet / Whitebark pass
-Humphreys Basin
-Granite Park
-Bighorn Plateau
-Tablelands

What places would you add?

[TehipiteTom]

Good question. I like the northern end of the LeConte Divide--Red Rock Basin is great for easy cross-country, and the pass southeast of Mt. Shinn Lake is one of the easiest X-C passes I know. (I led a beginner X-C trip in this area once.)

The Monarch Divide is also great for relatively easy cross-country, with a whole network of low-class-2 passes that can be linked up into any number of route variations.

For introducing children to cross-country travel, the part of Mokelumne out of Blue Lakes is great. Devil's Corral and Evergreen Lake are both satisfying but easy off-trail destinations.

[dave54]

Further north than what you propose is the east half of Lassen Volcanic NP. The terrain is more gentle, with a more open understory. There is giant landmark in the west part of the Park visible from everywhere to orient yourself for travel. Many have said maintained trails here are superfluous because cross country travel is so easy. That is an exaggeration, but not by much.

[cslaght]

I like the northern end of the LeConte Divide--Red Rock Basin is great for easy cross-country.

I'd second this area as well. Hell for Sure Lake/Pass and the surrounding areas has some good easy cross country stuff with easy bail out areas to test one's skill. I'd imagine this is true as you head south on the western slope of the LeConte Divide as well. But we didn't have time to really explore there personally.

[Tom_H]

Here is an extremely easy one. Follow the stream down the pluton from Fontinilis until you hit forrest. Continue following the stream until you run into the trail just SW of Upper Velma. You can also XC between Upper Velma and the unnamed pond just downstream of it. IIRC, that area is flat with a fair amount of 5-6' manzanita.

https://caltopo.com/m/2U2M

On this next map, everything in red is cross country, while purple is unmarked use trail. The pass between Helen and Tower Lakes is pretty easy, but at Helen, your participants need to be able to shoot azimuths well with map and compass to choose the correct pass. From Tower Lake you XC through a forrest sidehilling while very slightly losing elevation as you follow map contour lines until you arrive at the headwaters of the W Walker River where there is unmarked use trail. Don't camp at the tarns at the headwaters, as mosquitoes will eat you alive. Use trail continues to the top of the pass into Thompson Canyon, then fades out. You can XC to the upper end of a giant meadow in Thompson Canyon where you will find a table overlooking this beautiful meadow. I do believe there was an enormous landslide into the meadow since the last time I was there in 1985. I did see one bear in the meadow. From there, go back upstream a short distance and find a col over the ridge to the east. Ascend east XC over a gap and downhill to intersect the Rancheria Creek Trail in Kerrick Meadow. You can camp nearby at Peeler Lake. There are several trailheads and numerous trail combinations to ingress and egress this area, so the next map shows just the area suited for XC and orienteering and the nearby THs. This leaves you free to choose the TH and trails you want to use.

https://caltopo.com/m/6T1I

Now, if you want a XC-pass experience that is a pure hell of a challenge, look on this same map and find Cirque Mtn., just under 1 mi. NNE of Peeler. Follow the ridge downhill to the NE until you see a pass. Back before World War II there was no trail at Peeler Lake descending to Barney Lake. The very earliest USGS paper maps of this area show a very old trail that took off from the pack trail along the South Fork of Buckeye Creek and ascended this pass, going in a SE direction. When I took this route in 1981, the no longer maintained trail was barely discernible, and even worse on the east side descending toward Robinson Creek upstream of Barney Lake. If you lose the trail, you wind up hopping between VW sized boulders that shift and pivot, with dense 10' high manzanita that you have to fight through, all while descending a fairly steep grade. This old trail had much more elevation gain than going in/out at Peeler, but it is not as steep as the drop out of Peeler was at the time. After WWII, the new trail via Peeler was built with its well cut switchbacks for handling the steep terrain, and this old trail abandoned and erased from maps. I would only use this as a training experience to challenge advanced orienteering students because, as I said, it is a pure hell of a XC experience.

[wildhiker]

A few comments on Tom_H's cross-country routes in the upper West Walker River watershed.

In 2015, I went from Tilden Lake up past Mary Lake and over Tower Pass down to Tower Lake, and then over to Rainbow Canyon. In previous trips (2009 and earlier), I have been in and out of Thompson canyon by several routes.

It is very easy class 1 cross-country, with quite a bit of obvious use trail, from the outlet of Tilden Lake all the way to Mary Lake. Tower Pass is easy class 2, with micro-route finding needed to avoid nasty brush and talus.

There is another way from Tower Lake to Rainbow Canyon that I used and is probably easier. Take the trail down from Tower Lake to about the 8600 feet elevation, just before it starts heading down steeply along the creek (this is at the "r" in "Tower" on the map Tom_H referenced). Contour over cross-country from here, gaining a bit of elevation to avoid a gorge, to where you can cross the Rainbow Canyon creek easily to the east side, where you will find traces of a use trail. The trail is pretty sketchy, but it is easy class 1 cross-country up the valley if you miss the trail.

Thompson Canyon itself is easy class 1 cross-country on open meadows, but the route over to Kerrick Canyon is class 2 with some micro-route finding needed to avoid little cliffs.

-Phil

[Tom_H]

Thanks, Phil. My route from Tower Lake to Rainbow Canyon is gentle downhill all the way. I like the route because it is a good challenge for following contour lines on map and navigating with a compass. If you are teaching students to use an altimeter as well, it makes a great teaching route. (Calibrate altimeter at Tower Lake.) You have to follow the contours in and out, all while losing just a slight bit of elevation. Your route, in all likelihood, is easier. I liked this route because there is no elevation gain and because it pushed my participants to improve their orienteering skills in a forest with no visibility to shoot azimuths. Physically, it was easy Class 1. The challenge was mental because of the navigational skills required. The participants had to constantly know approximately how far they had walked, what direction the contour of the hill was currently facing, what elevation they were at, how steep the hillside seemed to be at any moment, and compare all those things to what they are seeing on the map (and a fun part of that is estimating your slope gradient compared to how close together elevation lines seem to be on the map). It's impossible to get truly lost, because you're eventually going to reach the West Walker. The challenge is, how close can you come out in the meadow just below those tarns at the headwaters, not having to go uphill at any point. It really was a fun educational experience! Your route may also be faster, because those who haven't done this one before have to stop and think a lot.

[Goat]

My first cross country, also my first backpacking trip, was up to Pear lake then x-country over to Moose Lake, looping around Alta Meadows. Maybe not the easiest area to navigate, but a good experience nonetheless.

[csc]

Thanks for starting this topic, maiathebee. As an inexperienced off-trailer, this is helpful.

[SSSdave]

Some of the areas mentioned are not easy though would be good challenging learning experiences. Will add:
Cottonwood Basin
Upper Kern River Basin
Tyndall Creek Basin
French Canyon headwaters
Granite Park
Upper Basin (MF Kings River)
Blackcap Basin
upper Dana Fork of the Tuolumne River
Emigrant Basin between the West Fork Cherry Creek, North Fork Cherry Cherry, and Buck Meadow Creek
20 Lakes Basin

Easy cross country zones are those without difficult to step and move through open timberline areas where one can easily view surrounding high landform features to correlate your path against a topographic map.

Difficult areas to navigate through would include heavy forest where visuals of features are blocked, flat featureless terrain, areas where one is often down in ravines, canyons, or hollows difficult to view what is beyond or down about flats between a jumble of blocking ridges. And difficult areas to step and move through could be brushy areas, dense forest with lots of fallen logs, avalanche debris, recent forest fire zones, swampy areas, glaciate granite landscapes with abrupt small cliffs below topo map granularity, steep slopes, areas with large streams difficult to ford, talus, geologies with unstable footing, seasonally mosquito infested areas.