High Sierra Topix

Hi all

I found this fantastic forum last spring as I was preparing for an early summer trip into the Emigrant Wilderness and was looking for some information.

By way of background, I live in AZ now (not many great backpacking locations here), but grew up in So Cal and backpacking in SEKI -- both sides, out of Wolverton/Crescent Meadow and Whitney Portal. My first trip years ago when I was in high school was to Moose Lake. Three day trip that changed my life!

Thirty years later, the Sierras remain my favorite place on earth and I now take my boys backpacking 1-2 times/year here.

I hope to post a TR from our Emigrant Wilderness trip last year - hopefully will be of interest to folks planning 2014 trips.

Not sure where we will head this year. Definitely one more trip to EW, probably one additional.

Also, I recently discovered the joy of fly fishing. Getting gear this month and really looking forward to fishing this summer

Chris

Hi Chris,

Welcome to HST! Looking forward to reading your Emigrant TR, welcome back to
the Sierra.

Granite wrote: I hope to post a TR from our Emigrant Wilderness trip last year - hopefully will be of interest to folks planning 2014 trips.

Chris

I'd love to see your TR!

Russ

Hello-

I found this site recently as a friend and I started to plan for a JMT hike at the end of summer. The plan started to develop as we drove up 395 on Friday night before Opening Day (a 35 year tradition with few misses).We fished Intake II and had a good weekend with moderate success. I live in San Diego and try to get to the Sierra a few times a year. I have some backpacking experience and a lot of car camping from Bishop to Bridgeport. Thank you in advance for all of your sage advice. I hope to post a TR in September. But for now, back to reading.

Bill

Hi Bill,

Welcome aboard HST! Looking forward to reading about your adventours on the JMT.

Little down time at work on a Friday afternoon... thinking about a week long trip to Kaweah Basin in late June or early July. Thought I'd post some pics from the JMT last year. What's awesome, of course, is that there's nothing "special" about these pictures:)

Hey RudofJ,

Welcome to HST! Thanks for the wonderful photos, all Sierra photos are special here.
Hope you will get some more down time and post a full TR about your JMT hike from
last year.
Kaweah Basin is a very special place, if you need any intell please ask, several members
have visited KB.

Hi!

So yeah my name is Chris.

I used to hike in the sierra nevadas when I was in the scouts but its been a long time since I have done it. I think the last time I was up above 10,000 ft was when I was around 17-19 Then I ended up going to Alaska for my undergrad and grad degrees. Right now im actually working in Death Valley so its not so far from the action so to speak. The only thing I am worrying about is the fact that I haven't been in a high altitude environment for a while. So I am going to try to work up to it. Doing some overnights around white mountain to try and build up some ability. My goals this summer is to get my backpack, bivy, and camera and get out there! I want to do overnights and maybe 3 day weekend trips, but I need help with planning and I need other people to help me with reality checks,

My Goals Are
--Convict Basin via Laurel Lakes
--Tulainyo Lake via Russel/Carillon Pass (I have no idea how to get the permitting for this)
--Banner Peak via Thousand Island Lake

--Chris

Hi Chris,

Welcome aboard HST! You'll get all the help you need to plan a fun and safe trip here
on HST. Take advantage of the "search feature" to get intell about specific areas your
interested in visiting, then ask specific questions that you couldn't find answers to in
your searches.

I guess that means me! You caught me...

As my name suggests, I spent the first 3/4 of my 27 years in Maryland completely ignorant of what lay 3,000 miles west of my flat, suburban home. In college I got a taste for rock climbing, and visited the Sierra for the first time in 2008 to climb in Yosemite with friends. In 2010, I accepted a seasonal position with Sequoia-Kings Canyon on the aquatics crew, and since that incredible summer in Sixty Lakes Basin, have been living in California and searching for ways to spend as much time as possible in the mountains. I returned to work on SEKI's aquatics crew for two more summers, did bird surveys in the Tahoe area for a few springs with PRBO (now Point Blue), and last summer worked in Yosemite, also doing bird surveys. I've just started graduate work in Ecology at UC-Davis, and have been combing the boards pretty regularly in the last month or so for snowpack info and route advice, because I will be starting my own research in SEKI beginning early June!

Research-wise, I am interested in how birds and bats use alpine lakes as food sources throughout their short summer breeding season, so I will be monitoring many lakes throughout SEKI over the course of this (and hopefully many more) summer using both traditional bird counts and acoustic recording devices to detect ultrasonic bat calls. You may run into me around McGee Lakes, Barrett Lakes, Amphitheater Basin, East Lakes/Lake Reflection, Center Basin, and around the Upper Kern... I've got a jam-packed summer, and will be happy to post some TRs as payback for some of the invaluable info I've gleaned from you all. My first trip is June 2-8 to East Lakes/Lake Reflection and Center Basin via Road's End. I am looking for any reports from that area and hoping we won't have to take snowshoes, but I guess there is still a good chance for significant snow at high elevations, even with this drought year.

Recreation-wise, I love to climb technical routes and am hoping that there will be some spare time to climb some High Sierra classics like Charlotte Dome, various Palisades summits, etc. Otherwise, my research is bound to fill my summer with some incredible backpacking trips. I started backpacking about 6 years ago when I moved to Colorado, and have been lucky to explore CO's Maroon Bells Wilderness and RMNP, WY's Wind River Range, and of course, the southern Sierra. I'm becoming increasingly comfortable with/enthralled by off-trail travel, and usually stick to Classes 1-3 unless I've got a rope, in which case I can be found plugging in gear on easy-moderate Class 5

Good to meet you all, and thanks for all you do and share! Happy trails, everyone!