High Sierra Topix

I'd advocate for a mid-July or later start. Simply, you'll avoid more snow and mosquitoes, both.

A wedding PLUS a backpacking trip immediately following, is a LOT to plan for all at once. Why not have the wedding, and THEN move into backpack planning mode? Chart your mileage, plan your town visits, pack your food, etc. after the wedding. You will be plenty busy.

- Elizabeth

You will be hiking in your tuxedo, right?!

Hi everyone. I realized that I never posted a reply of thanks for all of your sage advice My sincere apologies -- I'm going to do better in the future. All of the conversation that came of this post was very helpful in planning out our honeymoon trek along the Sierra High Route.

Here are some conclusions, informed by everyone's advice:

- We are going to start the week after the wedding (June 27). Yes, we've seen a decent amount of rain in the last month and yes recent snow surveys are showing surprising depth at the high elevations (http://www.pcta.org/2014/state-snowpack ... erra-18573" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;). However, this is still an abnormally dry year and we'll prepare ourselves for the occasional snow patches. I am probably also going to customize our route so that we detour off of the prescribed Sierra High Route where there are known or likely snow covered north-facing passes.

- My fiance got a kick out of the common advice that I butter her up with some time at the Ahwahnee. We won't be doing that (she doesn't want it), but we are going to add some luxury to the trip. First, we're going to spend a night or two at a resort immediately after the wedding and before we hit trail. The point will be to relax and pamper, probably somewhere in the Bay Area. Second, I'm going to hire a pack team to resupply us at least once. I'm going to have them bring up a nice bottle of wine and a nice dinner. She won't know about this.

Thanks again for your thoughts, everyone. I look forward to posting the trip report when all is said and done... and I wouldn't be surprised if I asked for some more advice before then too.

Brendan