High Sierra Topix

Day 4

We were treated to a delightful Sierra light show to start the day











Then it was time to head down, skirt Elinor and meet up with the South Fork of Big Pine Creek and try and find the use trail that would take us to the South Fork Big Pine Creek trail.

The usual





There was backtracking and bushwhacking and creek hopping and eventually random cairns were found and lost and found again as we wound our way circuitously down the drainage.







Eventually the trail was found and we could relax for the first time in a while and just walk and soon we were at the trailhead and another fantastic Sierra adventure in the books.

Cool trip in some of our favorite places. We love your wide-angle photos; is it a wide lens or some panorama method? Mt. Sill and Scimitar Pass--fantastic! Was Scimitar class 2 ,with a few Cl.3 moves on both sides? I am thinking of coming from the east. Great trip report, thanks for putting it together. Harlens.

Amazing trip and beautiful photos. Lots of ground covered in a short amount of time!

What were the dates of the trip? Looks like later season.

Harlen wrote: ↑Fri May 16, 2025 12:56 pm Cool trip in some of our favorite places. We love your wide-angle photos; is it a wide lens or some panorama method? Mt. Sill and Scimitar Pass--fantastic! Was Scimitar class 2 ,with a few Cl.3 moves on both sides? I am thinking of coming from the east. Great trip report, thanks for putting it together. Harlens.

All pics were taken on mine and my buddies cell phones.

Scimitar Pass only had the one section of slightly technical moves on the West side way before even getting to the pass. Coming from the East nothing was technical, except the route finding. The trail from the S Fork trail to Elinor Lake was, hmmmmm, not much of a trail (not at all actually) and pretty convoluted. We backtracked a few times then came across some cairns that led us on a winding wild goose chase. Once to Elinor it was talus all the way up. In some spots really really steep and really really loose. I should have a track from my Garmin watch I can send you if you want.

Wandering Daisy wrote: ↑Wed May 21, 2025 8:21 pm What were the dates of the trip? Looks like later season.

July 19 - 22

Thanks C_S,

I have nothing but maps and dead reckoning for pathfinding, and only know bread crumbs from fairy tales. Using them in the Sierra seems a good way to get a Bear up yer arse! Ian.

Great TR! I must put Scimitar Pass on my list now.....