Trail Condition pine lakes to granite park

[666Blond]

hi-was hoping to get to granite park via pine lakes/honeymoon mid july. inyo natl forest person said lotsa snowpack,no trail, treacherous crossings, anybody gone there yet? thanks

[rlown]

Welcome to the HST!

An introduction would be nice: http://www.highsierratopix.com/communit ... f=1&t=9329

And trip requests with information laid out in this guide would also help us in hopefully giving you the response you're looking for: http://www.highsierratopix.com/communit ... f=1&t=4205

[cthenn]

I too am wondering about this, specifically about crossings, and also mosquito levels. If the rangers are saying "treacherous crossings" and still tons of snow, I may shift my plans around. I climbed Mt. Dade a few weeks ago, and it was 100% snow above ~10.5K, and showing no signs of being close to melted out.

[cgundersen]

666blond,
For the huge amounts of snow we saw looking over Pine Creek pass a couple weeks ago, I think you'll still have a horrible time doing the creek crossing below Pine Creek Lake and I can assure you that traversing around that lake on the south side is a non-starter, too. Then, even if you do get past that first obstacle, the trail re-crosses the creek a bit further up the road and that will be as close to a quicksand marsh as you could hope for. Seriously, you'd be better off going in via Piute Pass and heading north across Humphrey basin like we did. There was plenty of open ground to camp even two weeks ago, and Piute is VERY forgiving. And, if you really want to, you can get all the way into the Pine Creek drainage by jamming north. Cameron