High Sierra Topix

See mosquito report for daily schedule.

HEAT was the main issue. 85+ degrees in shade at 8000 feet, to 78 highs at 10,000 feet. Nights barely under 55 degrees. Almost nobody out there- went 2 days without seeing anyone. I hiked only from 6:30 to early afternoon. Camping in shade was essential- rested in tent and sat in cold water between rests in the tent until about 4PM. Fished or poked around after an early dinner. Thankful for a light breeze. Warm nights too. I have never backpacked in such hot conditions. Nevertheless, better than being in Sacramento in 112-degrees.

All creeks very wade-able. Skies clear blue. Wildflowers in good display along Summit Creek. Emigrant Meadow Lake and "meadow" very wet and green, boggy and wet. Middle Emigrant Lake dam has been knocked down, appear to be no fish in the lake. Anyone know about that?

Water levels in lakes and Relief Reservoir relatively normal to high. Vegetation still lush. A few large snowbanks still clinging to north facing slopes above 9000 feet. Remaining snow is packed and hard early in the morning and stayed solid but step-able all day except on edges.

Other than a few people going out from 4th July weekend, it was almost empty- two days seeing nobody. A packer bringing in supplies for a large group when I was going out this morning. Only 1 other person at Relief Reservoir campsites.

Route Taken: Rush Creek Trailhead to 1000 Island Lake, North Glacier Pass, Sierra High Route, Blue Lake Pass, Summited Vogelsang, Tuolumne Meadows, JMT, Donohue, return via Waugh "Lake"

Elevations: 8,000 to 11,000 ft.

Difficult section encountered: North Glacier had some smaller snow fields, None high angle. Easy to kick steps in trail runners. Lyell creek was flowing. I crossed close to the trail but should have gone further upstream as it was a bit sketchy. It was unusually hot all 3 days.

Special equipment needed/used: None. Well, Mosquitos were 5/5 most of the trip. Headnet on and off or repellent and keep moving required.

Route taken: Piute Pass Trail from North Lake to Humphreys Basin, then mostly cross-country via the Sierra High Route (Puppet Pass > Merriam Lake > Feather Pass > White Bear Pass > Italy Lake > Gabbot Pass > Mono Creek > Laurel Lake > Red-and-White Pass* > Tully Lake > Tully Hole > Duck Pass), exiting via Duck Pass Trail to Coldwater Campground. *I traveled over the Red-and-White Pass alternate instead of Bighorn and Shout-of-Relief Passes because I had previously been over the latter 2 passes.

Elevations: highest was 12,359' (Feather Pass), lowest was Mono Creek (approx 8600')

Difficult section encountered: I found the approx 1-mile section of Second Recess between Lower Mills Creek Lake and the beginning of the Mills Creek Trail that's marked on maps to be difficult because it's a sloped landscape with trees, rivulets, thorny plants, etc. It took a fair bit of navigation to find the beginning of the Mills Creek Trail, which, once found, seemed like a glorious superhighway in comparison.

Special equipment needed/used: I used microspikes to cross some of the snow sections near the top of Feather Pass, Gabbot Pass, and Red-and-White Pass, but spikes weren't absolutely necessary, as the slopes weren't that steep and/or there were dry talus sections flanking. I used spikes simply to justify having brought them along with me.

Possible alternative routes: mentioned above, all snow sections I encountered were flanked by dry sections of talus.

Just got out today. I cut the trip short a day to beat the storm out.

Route: Summit Creek-Emigrant Lk-Latora Lk via Buck and Cow Meadow Lk, Lower Twin Lake, Bigalow Lake, Relief Reservoir after long 14 mile day to bail out via Snow Lake and Brown Bear Pass, 3 hours out to Kennedy Meadow TH parking (I was one of four cars in the lot)

Many streams dry so safest to end day at a lake (info that Summit Creek was running when I got up my permit)

Very windy - pretty much a failure at fly fishing

Major trails seem to be well maintained

Thanks to whoever or what agency who have put up MANY cairns on some older less used trails- they were critical!

Curse on whoever or what agency put up the cattle/horse gates on the trails- they are nearly impossible to operate and incredibly poorly made

I cut the trip short a day to get out before the storm. Last day was really windy- walked in three layers, rain jacket with hood up. Emigrant Meadow Lake yesterday was a wind tunnel.

I have never seen Emigrant this empty! Four out of six days never saw anyone, even on major trails and at well used locations. In a 2-wk gap between Archery hunting and regular hunting seasons.  

Note: I had a permit and plans for a loop out of Rush Creek to Thousand Island, Marie, Lost and Alger Lakes. Emigrant was my backup. The forecast day-time temperatures and wind-chill were just too cold for the altitudes at the Minarets. I do not care about night temperatures since I have a 10-degree bag. I am glad one can just get a no-cost same-day permit at Pinecrest.

The outlet to Lower Geraldine lake and most of the other minor streams were dry. Lower Geraldine Lake itself was pretty swampy as well, was very glad to have a filter and even then the water didn't taste the greatest.

Kudos to the trail crew that came through and cleaned up the area, so much cut deadfall on the major trails.

Met a huge group going to Tehipite Valley hiking out, that was cool

Sept 23-28, 2024

Route: 9/23 Pike Lake via Duck Pass + drive, 9/24 Virginia Lake via PCT, 9/25 Hortense Lakes via McGee Pass Trail and x-c from Tully Lake, 9/26 Glennette Lake (return on trail to Virginia Lake then over small pass to Glennette), 9/27 Drop to Purple Lake and then retrace inbound route to Pika Lake, 9/28 out to TH and drive home.

Tons of day-hikers, trail runners and backpackers on trail to Pike Lake. Did not see anyone until returning to the PCT at Purple Lake. Ran into the south-bound PCT bubble on my way out, once I reached Purple Lake. It was either no people, or tons of people.

Fall colors were absolutely at peak above 9000 feet. So amazing!

Daytime temperatures were shirt-sleeve with a pleasant breeze, clear blue skies, brutal high-altitude sun, No bugs at all, PERFECT!!!

Nights were too long for me (12 hours in the tent were trying). Sun gone by 5-6PM, immediately cold, dusk at 7PM, stars out by 8PM; morning sun not until about 8-9AM, frost in grasses and meadows, but surprisingly very low humidity so never had to pack a wet or damp tent. Very low humidity.

Windy on big lakes so fly fishing not good. The only lakes where I even saw rises were Pika Lake, Duck Lake outlet area, Purple Lake and Tully Lake. Even then the rises were out far out, beyond my casting ability.

There are actually pikas at Pika Lake, as well as coyotes howling. Flocks of ducks at Virginia Lake and Hortense Lakes and some other fluffy birds at Cotton Lake. Otherwise, it felt very empty of wildlife.

A lot of ponds are totally dry. Small streams are dry. It was eerily quiet. Upper Fish Creek canyon was still flowing well. I waded the horse crossing in Tullys Hole (mid-calf). There is a log crossing a bit lower that I used coming in, but I could not get up onto the log going out.

November 8th through 10th

Kibbie Ridge, N. Fork Cherry, Yellowhammer, Cherry Creek

Mild weather but temperatures are dropping. Low 20s at night. Highs in the upper 40s. Heavy frost in morning. Water bottles begin icing before bed, so sub freezing temps are coming early in the night.

Clear skies with wispy cirrus clouds.

Moderate smoke. From where? So Cal fires? Kings Canyon? Local burns?

Snow is sticking to north facing slopes and some ravines. No real ice danger on granite. Spikes not warranted.

Very light flow in both N Fork and Cherry proper. Nothing to impact navigation.

Lots of fresh bear sign along N Fork. No sightings. Very few animals about. Some grouse on Kibbie. Zero humans.

Water at/near Sachse Springs, but none other observed on Kibbie Ridge before nearing Styx Pass.

Aspens have shed their leaves at elevation. Still fall colors from oaks below 6,500’.

Unless there is a warm spate in coming weeks to melt the recent snow, these may have been the last days of fall for the area.