Rethinking this summer!

[oldranger]

Wow if the Sierra winter continues much longer I will probably change the timing of my Sierra backpacking. Was planning a n. Yosemite trip starting about July 10. But now rethinking that the ideal time is likely to be after Labor Day. The problem is I had promised Kathy that we would do an eastside Sierra car camping trip with the trailer during that time. August is out because of other commitments and besides there are too many people then. At any rate I guess I'll wait until May 1 to make a final decision.

By the way what is the E. Sierra like after the start of hunting season? My concern is a bunch of nimrod once a year hunters who do things like taking a "sound shot" not real hunters.

[rlown]

This year, it looks like Fall is the new Summer. Having done the East side a lot, and talked with some of the hunters, they aren't likely to shoot at you. Still wear the orange colors. Generally, hunters to worry about are road hunters. If beyond the road, you should be ok.

[SSSdave]

Report Friday on another board before storm #3 was reporting over 6 feet of snow depth at the Tuolumne Meadows site. All we old timers have seen these conditions after big years in the past but this summer am predicting the numbers of new, unfamiliar, and uninformed backcountry enthusiasts will be greater than any time in the past. There will be many bone-headed thru trail users getting in over their heads trying to march through Southern Sierra high country snowed over and corniced passes and some streams requiring fording like Bear Creek will be dangerous well into July.

Numbers of others will post on this board in June and July asking for advice on conditions in favorite timberline destinations. Responses will include "Are you prepared to camp atop snow?", "Will you be carrying an ice axe?", "Are you aware those lakes you want to fish are probably still frozen or mostly so?", "How do you plan to cross XYZ Creek?".

And after reading some threads with such responses, numbers of lurkers who notice they may need to change plans just like oldranger will proceed to ask questions about where they can go.

Some northern exposures of favorite cross country passes that have been snow free all summer for years will still have large scary snowfields when the first fall snow storms begin next October. We high country backpackers will have little trouble all summer long filling our water bottles without any filtering. Fishermen fishing pools on streams well below our larger Sierra lakes will find some large trout strangely in those waters. Trout fishing will be excellent in many high country lakes during August that is usually the mid summer lull. Mosquitoes will be slow to rise early summer and then get really bad and never really go away in many wet places. Many visiting Emigrant Basin in late July for week long trips will abort by day threes back to trailheads. Down in our larger deep high country canyons, trails in some places will require climbing through huge piles of snow and broken tree avalanche debris. Mid to late August some timberline landscapes will have vast expanses of blue lupine fields. Wilderness permit availability for popular quota trailheads in August will vanish earlier this spring than ever.

And yea oldranger, early September will be a fine time to ramble.

David

[Cross Country]

It seems to me that ever year there is a lot of snow there are still some people who write "we gotta go on a trip to the high sierra in June" or worse still May. I always say "you gotta be kidding". Unfortunately they're not kidding. They're going to take a big risk on their life but their not kidding. Like I wrote earlier when someone here wrote the were going in May. You might as well go in February if the weather is nice because the hiking and camping is similar. If the weather is good February is actually safer because large amounts of snow melting can be dangerous. I'll admit that Febuary is a lot colder.

[giantbrookie]

Yes, it's sure looking like a heavy winter, but, as you say we always have to reserve judgment until the beginning of May. We've had lots of winters that were on a pace to be really wet and then things would go dry for the rest of the winter and we'd end up with no better than an average year. Yosemite July 10 may not be too far fetched even this year although I can think of one particularly choice lake in southern part of the park which thaws rather late and might be iffy as of July 10 (this year).

In the meantime it's been a pretty amazing progression of storms. We haven't seen something like this in Cali for a few years.

[Lumbergh21]

Actually, we haven't seen this before, at least not since the State began recording precipitation and measuring snow pack. All three regions are ahead of record pace for precipitation, which by the way was set in a different water year for each of the three regions. We are also ahead of record snow pack for this time of the year in the San Joaquin and Tulare regions (northern Sierra is above average for this time of the year but not above record pace). So, actually, we haven't seen anything like this before from one end of the state to the other. That doesn't mean we will have record precipitation and snow pack come April 1, the date that the State uses to determine how much water all the water rights holders get, but we are in an extremely unusual weather pattern through January. I just hope that I can go on one of the Sierra trips that I had planned for mid or late August without too much trouble.

[oldranger]

Lumbergh 21

Though the State relies on April 1 I really pay attention to May 1 as occasionally April will have significant snowfall. In the spring of 83 on or around April 15 at Mammoth a foot of snow fell on the peak snow pack of the year about 240 inches (20ft!) yet the snowpack depth actually decreased! 20 feet of snow is a lot of weight compressing down. So actually the important point is how much water the snowpack contains. May 1st gives me a good Idea of what to expect in the summer. But even that can be misleading depending on the temperatures in May and June. But if snow pack is greater than 150% of normal I will usually delay my backpacking adventures and as SSSdave said, the mosquitoes will be bad most if not all of the summer.

[paul]

My experience with hunting season does not include the east side much, but in the other areas where I have backpacked during the hunting season my experience has been that once you get a couple miles from the trailhead you get past the guys who are just fooling around. Only the serious hunters make the effort to hike in a ways, and they are responsible. I've never had issues, even in the Emigrant Wilderness which get s a lot of hunters. I think some nice blaze orange would still be a good idea. Of course, if in doubt, one can go to a national park and avoid the issue altogether.

Odds are certainly good that we'll be above average on the snowpack. Today's sensor report show the statewide average of water content over the april 1st average already. Southern sierra is at 121% of the april 1 average. Even with re rest of the winter well below average we ought to end up average at least; and most likely above. But you never know for sure. I was already thinking September before things started to pile up. Now I'm starting to hope for September wildflowers.

[oldranger]

My question about hunters really deals with car camping and short day hikes. Well aware that things are usually pretty safe after a mile or two and I always where bright orange during hunting season wherever I go outside of a national park. But more to the point what are the campgrounds like during hunting season?

[rlown]

Opening day for whatever hunting zone you're in or near will be a zoo in the campgrounds. Could be that way for the whole opening "week." j

On Monitor pass, the hunters actually pull 5th wheels up there and stake out their territory a couple weeks before the opening.

Some are very nice and even invite you over to partake if they had success. If you see a campground site with 4 lifted trucks and a couple ATV's as well, you might want to camp elsewhere. It's always good to talk with the people near you to get that take for how they might behave as camp site neighbors.