Kern River crossing at Junction Meadow?

[gdurkee]

Hi all. A friend was just asking about the Kern crossing at Junction Meadow, then up to Colby. He's pretty experienced and hoping to do it around August 20+. NPS site as of 7/19 says it's probably a month yet. Looking at conditions, I'd agree though maybe even more. Anyone here looked at it?
Thanks,

George

[Hobbes]

Hi all. A friend was just asking about the Kern crossing at Junction Meadow, then up to Colby. He's pretty experienced and hoping to do it around August 20+. NPS site as of 7/19 says it's probably a month yet. Looking at conditions, I'd agree though maybe even more. Anyone here looked at it?
Thanks, George

Last week, BlueWater (Andy) hiked south from Horseshoe meadows to the Volcano falls bridge on the Kern river. He then turned north along the river route, with a plan on fording the Kern to get to Colby. When I talked him at the HST meet-up last Thursday (7/27), he said it was impassable. So, disappointed, he camped @ Junction meadow. He then continued north, thinking maybe he could go over Harrison.

But nature had other plans - he couldn't ford the Tyndall crossing where it drops into the Kern. So he had to turn around and hike up the HST (Wallace crk) to the JMT. He then continued north on the JMT, even bypassing the Arrow/Window/White basins to Bench* by going over Pinchot. (He hiked through Arrow basin from Lakes basin while doing a combo SHR + SoSHR last year.) So, once again he was on the JMT. He was complaining mightily how his big x-c summer hike had turned into a generic JMT hike.

* This of course must bring back memories. According to the MM snow records, they had 321" during 95-96', this year 618" ( https://www.mammothmountain.com/winter/ ... nd-weather). What Andy saw in Window/White coming down from Rae, and what I saw coming down from Woods lake (http://www.highsierratopix.com/communit ... =1&t=16435) was the reason the meet-up was moved to Bench.

[gdurkee]

Thanks! It's pretty amazing that he couldn't even get over Tyndall/Kern confluence! This year is at least a 1 1/2 months behind normal -- maybe 2 months. it's equivalent to '83.

[jenreyn]

I was hanging out with Rob at Crabtree Station a couple weeks ago, after completing the same route except for we came up Whitney Creek and exited out Whitney Russel Col. Rob said his wife Laura(Tyndall Ranger) had talked to some folks that supposedly crossed the Kern up there at Junction, about a 100yds below the normal crossing. After hiking along the Kern I thought that was crazy since it was raging the whole way up the river and we never saw a place that one could even contemplate crossing. I guess the take home is it can be done but I wouldn't try it solo.

[Mike M.]

I'm planning to cross the river there on August 20th. I'm betting that the melt has already peaked and water levels will be manageable by then. If not, I'll take the long way around -- down the the Kern and then over Elizabeth Pass via Chagoopa Plateau and Kaweah Gap.

Mike