Re: Styx Pass water works
Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2017 4:56 pm
Thanks K very helpful,
Interestingly, the Stanislaus NF website as far as I was able to view, has nothing that indicates the dam gate is closed. And I looked rather thoroughly using their site index including looking at the road status page that lists closed roads? So today phoned up Groveland and indeed the dam gate is closed and she said it will remain so all summer. That is due to considerable damage on the gravel and dirt roads across the dam. She will look at their web page.
Accordingly if one parks up the road a bit from the dam at the boat ramp junction, it is about 9/10 mile just to the other side of the dam at 4700 feet and a total of 4.5 miles up 1100 feet to Shingle Springs Trailhead. Thus about 9 miles up to mid shore at Kibbie Lake. And to my intended destination near Styx Pass about 14 miles and 3500 feet of up vertical. That is more than I want to do in 2 days as a first trip of the season, especially through such boring charred landscapes.
Instead as a leisurely 8 day trip, I could hike in late afternoon 4 miles up 950 feet to 5650 on the lower Kibbie Ridge Trail where there is a small water less knob. Day 2 instead of hiking Kibbie Ridge as planned since it would be too far to Lake 7777, about 10.0 miles, would hike just 5.0 miles up 1200 feet to Kibbie Lake, a very pleasant destination I've been to many times and do some rainbow trout fishing. Then day 3 would hike 4.8 miles up 1400 feet to Lake 7777 and sync into my previous plans one day behind. Along the route when I reached the KR trail would stash my fishing gear. On day 6 would do the 6.5 miles back to Kibbie Lake picking up my fishing gear en-route, then fishing some more. Then day 7 would hike 6.0 miles down to the Cherry Lake shore, swim, fish, and camp. Although I might decide to hike all the way back 8.5 miles and then fall asleep driving 5 hours home and go to sleep in a casket.
And day 8 at sunrise hike 2.5 miles back to my car. Although 8 days, only 6 days would be within wilderness. The first and last days are short so would just be 7 days of actual time. The first day would eat my main meal as a late lunch and just have a snack on the trail. Could stash food for day 7 evening day 8 morning above the reservoir in my Lighter1 bear canister thus lug food for just 5 days that can easily fit in my Ursack or Garcia.
In any case am not too enthusiastic about such a long trip and associated pain of lugging heavy gear up mountains to start out my backpacking season so still need to think about this some although I suspect there really won't be much else available in June. Just look at this snow pack:
From the map, one can see the Kibbie Ridge trail is now snow free as is my target zone of Styx Pass, Cherry Creek about Lord Meadow, Boundary Lake, and Bartlett Creek. But just a bit higher in elevation, that changes dramatically. with 39-59 inches of snow about Huckleberry Lake and 59-96 inches at Twin Lakes, upper drainage of Cherry Creek still has heavy snow. Thus with the next good heat wave in June, I expect the stream to have considerable volume making for whitewater.
David
Interestingly, the Stanislaus NF website as far as I was able to view, has nothing that indicates the dam gate is closed. And I looked rather thoroughly using their site index including looking at the road status page that lists closed roads? So today phoned up Groveland and indeed the dam gate is closed and she said it will remain so all summer. That is due to considerable damage on the gravel and dirt roads across the dam. She will look at their web page.
Accordingly if one parks up the road a bit from the dam at the boat ramp junction, it is about 9/10 mile just to the other side of the dam at 4700 feet and a total of 4.5 miles up 1100 feet to Shingle Springs Trailhead. Thus about 9 miles up to mid shore at Kibbie Lake. And to my intended destination near Styx Pass about 14 miles and 3500 feet of up vertical. That is more than I want to do in 2 days as a first trip of the season, especially through such boring charred landscapes.
Instead as a leisurely 8 day trip, I could hike in late afternoon 4 miles up 950 feet to 5650 on the lower Kibbie Ridge Trail where there is a small water less knob. Day 2 instead of hiking Kibbie Ridge as planned since it would be too far to Lake 7777, about 10.0 miles, would hike just 5.0 miles up 1200 feet to Kibbie Lake, a very pleasant destination I've been to many times and do some rainbow trout fishing. Then day 3 would hike 4.8 miles up 1400 feet to Lake 7777 and sync into my previous plans one day behind. Along the route when I reached the KR trail would stash my fishing gear. On day 6 would do the 6.5 miles back to Kibbie Lake picking up my fishing gear en-route, then fishing some more. Then day 7 would hike 6.0 miles down to the Cherry Lake shore, swim, fish, and camp. Although I might decide to hike all the way back 8.5 miles and then fall asleep driving 5 hours home and go to sleep in a casket.
And day 8 at sunrise hike 2.5 miles back to my car. Although 8 days, only 6 days would be within wilderness. The first and last days are short so would just be 7 days of actual time. The first day would eat my main meal as a late lunch and just have a snack on the trail. Could stash food for day 7 evening day 8 morning above the reservoir in my Lighter1 bear canister thus lug food for just 5 days that can easily fit in my Ursack or Garcia.In any case am not too enthusiastic about such a long trip and associated pain of lugging heavy gear up mountains to start out my backpacking season so still need to think about this some although I suspect there really won't be much else available in June. Just look at this snow pack:
From the map, one can see the Kibbie Ridge trail is now snow free as is my target zone of Styx Pass, Cherry Creek about Lord Meadow, Boundary Lake, and Bartlett Creek. But just a bit higher in elevation, that changes dramatically. with 39-59 inches of snow about Huckleberry Lake and 59-96 inches at Twin Lakes, upper drainage of Cherry Creek still has heavy snow. Thus with the next good heat wave in June, I expect the stream to have considerable volume making for whitewater.
David
