How crowded is the North/South Lake Loop? Can I find solitude?

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hisdudeness47
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How crowded is the North/South Lake Loop? Can I find solitude?

Post by hisdudeness47 »

Hey there, I'm thinking about doing a North/South Lake loop later this summer, but it seems to be pretty popular. I like solitude as much as possible so I'm wondering, how packed does this loop really get? I'd likely do the loop mostly on weekdays (5-6 nights starting on a Sunday) and I'd like to camp off-trail as much as possible to get away from the interstate (Maybe Lower Honeymoon Lake night 1, maybe down Franklin Meadow night 2, as examples). How are the options for camping away from the main trail? Can I get the solitude on this hike or should I look for something else? I'm not 100% anti-human but I do like getting away from the hubbub!
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Re: How crowded is the North/South Lake Loop? Can I find solitude?

Post by Flamingo »

Hi @hisdudeness47

> how packed does this loop really get?
I've done this loop several times (and variations of it). You will almost certainly encounter other groups along the trail, but I think solitude is easy to find. If you venture off the main route--even like 1/4 mile--you'll probably be totally alone.

>How are the options for camping away from the main trail?
The options are almost infinite. The landscape is wide open along this route, and you can easily walk away from the trail and find isolated camping.
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Re: How crowded is the North/South Lake Loop? Can I find solitude?

Post by hisdudeness47 »

Flamingo wrote: Mon Jun 15, 2020 12:16 pm Hi @hisdudeness47

> how packed does this loop really get?
I've done this loop several times (and variations of it). You will almost certainly encounter other groups along the trail, but I think solitude is easy to find. If you venture off the main route--even like 1/4 mile--you'll probably be totally alone.

>How are the options for camping away from the main trail?
The options are almost infinite. The landscape is wide open along this route, and you can easily walk away from the trail and find isolated camping.
Perfect! Should I avoid camping in the obvious areas like Hutchinson Meadow, Evolution Meadow, Big Pete Meadow, etc if I want solitude?
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Re: How crowded is the North/South Lake Loop? Can I find solitude?

Post by maverick »

Since the majority of your trip is mostly on the weekdays, hitting the most popular spots in the middle of the week, you shouldn't encounter the usual big weekend crowds, plus the new reservation system may cut back on the usual crowds, and if there are a lot of people at any given location, you can easily find alternate spots to camp giving you solitude.
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Re: How crowded is the North/South Lake Loop? Can I find solitude?

Post by kpeter »

Whether you can find solitude will depend almost entirely on how quickly you wish to do the loop. If you want to do it in a speedy fashion, you will not have the time required to leave the trail and seek out destinations a bit off the beaten track. If you allow yourself plenty of time, you can afford to spend part of each day leaving the main trail and finding camp (and sights!) away from the crowds.

I found the Tyee Lakes part of my complete N/S loop to be the best for solitude--probably because so few people include them in the loop. Anywhere along the JMT will be lots of folk. I find it best to adjust expectations and think of hiking there as an enjoyable social experience. It is fun to chat with through hikers for example. In Dusy Basin and Humphreys Basin you can certainly find solitude--but only if you arrange to camp in each place and allow a while to get off the main trail.
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Re: How crowded is the North/South Lake Loop? Can I find solitude?

Post by SSSdave »

98% of backpackers camp within 200 yards of trails, popular use routes, peakbagging routes, and lake edges. In fact that is so ridiculous that recreation dot gov only has lake names for most wilderness permit itinerary destinations as though that is all visitors seem to be interested in. And many of them likewise after camping in such locations ever bother to venture away from trails and use routes after they have made camp except if they take a rare rest day. That leaves vast areas empty where one might walk in late summer and not only not see others but rather no other footprints accumulated over whole summers. In any case, it is true many trail routes do have narrow choke points where terrain provides few camping options. On that loop, such is the case at Loch Levn Lake 3 miles up the trail or where the trail from Le Conte Canyon switchbacks up towards Dusy Basin, however it is easy to avoid having an itinerary needing to camp in such zones.

One of the surest ways to locate such empty places even near trails is to climb up on terrain a bit above trails as when groups do look for places to camp out of sight of trails, they invariably look within no more than 50 feet visibly uphill of trails and more commonly downhill despite hiking miles with serious up verticals. An example of that strategy even works at the most popular areas like famed Evolution Lake. Three of us camped at the little pond at ~10915 north of the outlet maybe 70 feet vertical and 500 feet horizontally from the heavily traveled PCT/JMT and found no one had yet camped there all summer. Better yet climb up the 500 feet from the trail up to Darwin Bench and camp well away from the main lake where the use trail routes, well west on the bench. Use a 7.5' topo and Google Earth to preview what may be possible
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Re: How crowded is the North/South Lake Loop? Can I find solitude?

Post by hisdudeness47 »

SSSdave wrote: Mon Jun 15, 2020 7:42 pm 98% of backpackers camp within 200 yards of trails, popular use routes, peakbagging routes, and lake edges. In fact that is so ridiculous that recreation dot gov only has lake names for most wilderness permit itinerary destinations as though that is all visitors seem to be interested in. And many of them likewise after camping in such locations ever bother to venture away from trails and use routes after they have made camp except if they take a rare rest day. That leaves vast areas empty where one might walk in late summer and not only not see others but rather no other footprints accumulated over whole summers. In any case, it is true many trail routes do have narrow choke points where terrain provides few camping options. On that loop, such is the case at Loch Levn Lake 3 miles up the trail or where the trail from Le Conte Canyon switchbacks up towards Dusy Basin, however it is easy to avoid having an itinerary needing to camp in such zones.

One of the surest ways to locate such empty places even near trails is to climb up on terrain a bit above trails as when groups do look for places to camp out of sight of trails, they invariably look within no more than 50 feet visibly uphill of trails and more commonly downhill despite hiking miles with serious up verticals. An example of that strategy even works at the most popular areas like famed Evolution Lake. Three of us camped at the little pond at ~10915 north of the outlet maybe 70 feet vertical and 500 feet horizontally from the heavily traveled PCT/JMT and found no one had yet camped there all summer. Better yet climb up the 500 feet from the trail up to Darwin Bench and camp well away from the main lake where the use trail routes, well west on the bench. Use a 7.5' topo and Google Earth to preview what may be possible
Love it. I'm definitely eyeing Lower Honeymoon Lake, Franklin Meadows, and Darwin Bench as some of my campsites so far. My current goal is finding something between Muir Pass and Big Pete Meadow.
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Re: How crowded is the North/South Lake Loop? Can I find solitude?

Post by hisdudeness47 »

kpeter wrote: Mon Jun 15, 2020 7:26 pm Whether you can find solitude will depend almost entirely on how quickly you wish to do the loop. If you want to do it in a speedy fashion, you will not have the time required to leave the trail and seek out destinations a bit off the beaten track. If you allow yourself plenty of time, you can afford to spend part of each day leaving the main trail and finding camp (and sights!) away from the crowds.

I found the Tyee Lakes part of my complete N/S loop to be the best for solitude--probably because so few people include them in the loop. Anywhere along the JMT will be lots of folk. I find it best to adjust expectations and think of hiking there as an enjoyable social experience. It is fun to chat with through hikers for example. In Dusy Basin and Humphreys Basin you can certainly find solitude--but only if you arrange to camp in each place and allow a while to get off the main trail.
Great point. I was originally thinking 6 days/5 nights for the loop but I think I'm gonna stretch it to 7 nights.
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