Deciding between seki loops

[ebfm]

Hi all - first post here (aside from a brief intro on the lurkers thread)

I’m planning a ~6 day trip in late July, aiming to enter from the west side. I get one of these trips a year and in recent years I’ve done Rae Lakes, Red Peak Pass, and Mineral King - HST - big 5 lakes - sawtooth pass.

This year I’m currently thinking either circle of solitude (potentially adding Whitney), or HST to Colby pass, deadman canyon over Elizabeth pass and back on HST. Any thoughts? In terms of what’s new to me and different between the routes, I’m basically choosing between (1) JMT between Bubbs and Colby pass trail + avalanche pass or (2) HST between crescent meadows and Bearpaw, HST between big arroyo and Colby pass trail, and deadman canyon / Elizabeth pass.

Of course, I’m open to other suggestions of similar flavor.

Some context/preferences: likely solo, not too crowded at least for a good chunk of the trip, happy to do ~15 mile days and associated elevation, much prefer big open scenery to forests, fishing is a plus but not a must, and any xc would have to be really mellow.

Thanks in advance!

[grampy]

ebfm -
It looks like your option 2 adds up (assuming no side trips) to 83 or so miles and over +/- 31,000 of elevation gain/loss. So, an average of 14 miles (and about 5,000' gain/loss) per day for your 6 days, so your "happy to do 15 mile days" statement would be a reality. Any way you could add another day or so to your plan ?

[ebfm]

On alltrails I'm getting something like 90 miles and 19000'. Gaia also gives 90 miles but the elevation seems to vary wildly depending on how exactly you make the route (I've realized I'm not sure how Gaia handles elevation change in its mapping).

I was thinking something like Crescent Meadow - Hamilton lake - Moraine lake - Junction meadow - Big wet meadow - Upper Deadman canyon - Crescent meadow

An extra day may be possible though

[grampy]

I did find a mistake in my route (calculated using Gaia).
Overall distance is 90 miles. I broke down the route into 3 segments to avoid any goofs:

+19,270' / -14,028' C.M. (via HST, Moraine Lake) to Colby Pass:
+5,150' / -5,838' Colby Pass (down Cloud Canyon, up Deadman Canyon to Elizabeth Pass:
+4,520 / -9,144' Eliz. Pass (using the "over the hill" trail) to Bearpaw, finish back at Crescent Meadow:

... for a total of (about) 29,000 vertical (ascent + descent))

EDIT: see my post below; apparently the most recent version of Gaia is spitting out nonsense (with respect to its calculation of cumulative elevation gain/loss). Apologies; please disregard my input shown above.

But my main point is that some stretches of trail are no longer nicely maintained (like Colby Pass, or the south side of Elizabeth Pass) which may cause you to do a couple of lower-mileage days; you might end up doing a couple of 18-mile days, to stick to your 6-day plan.

[frozenintime]

i was curious about a 90m sierra route that would have ~30k of gain, so i mapped this quickly in caltopo: i got 89 miles and 20k of gain.

[grampy]

i was curious about a 90m sierra route that would have ~30k of gain, so i mapped this quickly in caltopo: i got 89 miles and 20k of gain.

Turns out my Gaia app is acting glitchy. They recently released a software update which (apparently) is causing it to add up cumulative elevation gain incorrectly ... I checked against the elevation profile and it seems to be almost doubling the gain for some routes I just mapped (and re-mapped and re-re-mapped). I will try to submit a bug report) if they allow for such a thing).

[ebfm]

Yeah I’m really wary of Gaia elevation now. It does weird stuff.

Point taken on slow travel through some of these areas though.

Any thoughts on the potential routes themselves, in terms of the quality of the scenery and experience?

[frozenintime]

bubbs creek is a bit of a slog, as is avalanche pass, so i’d probably do the HST variant.

the areas on either side of colby might possibly be the highlight of either trip to my eyes.

[KT5519]

I hiked the Circle of Solitude in 2020, Colby pass already hadn’t seen much maintenance in awhile but it was in good shape. If you can get help with a shuttle, you could start out of the Jennie Lakes Wilderness out of Big Meadows; Scaffold Meadow (Roaring River) is about 14 miles from the trailhead at Marvin Pass. The entire loop from there is about 75 miles. I really recommend going through the Upper Kern on the older trail (not hard to follow, a narrow faint track) on your way back to the JMT near Tyndall; it’s beautiful ( you’ll be walking right below the Kings/Kern Divide) and very quiet. It’s also a quick side trip to see Lake South America. From there you would return to Roads End via Forester Pass I assume? Maybe after you take a side trip to Whitney as indicated.

The loop that involves Deadman Canyon would be easier solo because of Giant Forest’s shuttle running between Crescent Meadow and Lodgepole. On the Kings side of Elizabeth Pass, a stop at Big Bird Lake would be nice, there’s actually an old horse trail that goes up there but if you can’t find it, it’s still mellow and short cross country. As for the Sequoia side of Elizabeth Pass, I’d rather go down it than up it; I’ve been down many times. It’s not frequently maintained but it isn’t hard to follow at all, some rutted areas, but it doesn’t have a lot of vegetation coming down for awhile, and the trail is pretty well carved in. Also the biggest cairns I’ve ever seen in the park.

[ebfm]

How is the xc for a side trip from Elizabeth pass to horn col and lonely lake?