High Sierra Topix

Our last 2 summer Sierra hiking trip plans were changed by smoke. We ended hiking in the Ruby's for 2017 and Great Basin NP in 2018. We have been doing trips since the early 90s. We have done a mix of trail miles with the occasional wild pass. We sometimes follow a route instead of a trail for 2-3 days as part of a trip. My wife and adult son appreciate if I avoid too much exposure when leaving the trail.

We are thinking about doing a 11-12 day hike starting the last week of August 2019. We plan on going in on the "no-quota" Trail Pass starting at Horseshoe Meadows campground. We would hike over to the GoldenTrout Creek trail over to the Kern river near the ranger station. We would hike all the way up the Kern to South America Lake and spend an extra day exploring that area. Hopefully the bugs will be minimal by then. We would hike down to the JMT near Tyndall Creek and go to Crabtree Meadows area. We would day hike Whitney and back to Crabtree Meadows. We would end the trip going up over Crabtree Pass to Sky Blue lake and over New Army pass. We may spend a day exploring Cottonwood Lakes area before heading down to Horseshoe Meadows.

We are used to fitting up to 12 days of food in our Bearikade Expiditions. The trail would be new to us except for the JMT portion which we have done 4 previous times. The Kern river part of the trail starts at lower elevation but I hope the heat will be less by the end of August. The gradual climb north will give us good conditioning before reaching the upper Kern area and the higher portions of the JMT/Whitney portions of the trip.

I was thinking I could revise the start date to later if the weather or smoke conditions require a later start date since no reservation will be required. I prefer to hike later in the season to avoid bugs but the smoke has been crazy the last few years. 2013, 2017 and 2018 have been awful in Reno.

I would try to avoid being near Kern Hot Springs on Labor Day weekend. Or for that matter, the JMT until after Labor Day. There was such a crowd once when I was at Kern Hot Springs on a holiday weekend, that I could not even get in the springs. Either as an exit or entry, I would definitely use New Army Pass to Cottonwood Lakes. And definitely do a side trip up to Crabtree Lakes.

The worst insect problem I had on the Kern (at Kern Hot Springs) were swarming wasps, not mosquitoes. Never have been on the lower Kern, but sometimes at lower elevations in the later season, you will be plagued with black flies (those face-swarming gnats) or horse flies. Maybe someone here who has been out there at this time can comment on this.

I have thought of going up the Kern early season but soon figured out that the ability to cross the river (and the Little Kern River lower down) was needed, so late season makes sense. I suspect no matter which way you loop, there will be some hot days on the lower Kern. But then you can jump in the river regularly too.

Your time frame seems a bit short, to me, especially if you plan to fish. But then, I would want to do side trips to many of the headwater cirques. Personally, I would do the lower Kern as an entirely separate trip. Often I start planning some epic trip only to realize that the logistics do not work well because I am trying to cram too much in one trip. I then split the trips and it works much better.

Thanks for the comments about the wasps and the Labor Day weekend crowds. We have been plagued by flies once on a June trip in the Ten Lakes area of Yosemite. You had to swat the flies and then grind your shoes on them or they would just fly up and try to bite again. We pack long sleeve shirts and pants plus face nets over hats so we can cover up if needed. We don't fish but do like to explore and take lots of photos. I figure the lower Kern will have plenty of chances to take a break to chill in the river.

We like to start on the trail by about 6:30 in the morning and like to stop early enough for a bear can sponge bath before the sun gets too low. I like to do a bit of photography at the start and end of each day and whenever the views are great We typically graze on food all day while hiking and don't need to cook when we get to camp. We fill up our water bottles and bags for the night before we pick a campsite. We don't plan to camp at Kern hots but plan to check it out in the mid morning

The trail mileage goes pretty easy for us. If we find the lower elevation hiking boring we will pick up the mileage and spend more nights in the upper Kern area. When route finding off trail, our mileage is usually cut down by half or more. Our last two trips had more off trail days than trail days. We have been on the JMT enough times to expect crowds on the trail. It doesn't take much effort to get away from people when picking a campsite a bit off the trail. I want to keep the trip to 12 nights tops so we don't have to resupply food.

I was planning a southern Utah trip with our travel trailer to do day exploring and evening astronomy. Maybe we should consider going to Utah in late October instead of September. The shorter days means earlier star gazing. We could start the backpack trip on September 8th and avoid Labor Day crowds. I could enjoy the August 30th new moon with my telescopes instead of backpacking. It's hard for my wife to get too much time off in the same month now that she works with a smaller group of nurses.

On 5 - 7 day trips we do bring a stove and cook dinner. We prefer to cut down the weight of the stove, fuel, pot and related items when carrying 10-12 days of food.

I just read Wandering Daisy's August 2018 trip reports. She mentions a snow and ice on some of the upper lakes. I think the post Labor Day trip would help the area dry out a bit more to decrease the bugs. Of course we won't know for a while what kind of snow totals we will see one the coming winter. We did a NOBO JMT finishing Labor Day weekend in 2011. We hit lots of snow on every pass. Our 2008 and 2014 JMT trips had a little snow on only a couple passes.

Less snow, bugs and crowds post Labor Day. Might also consider a night up in the Wallace/Wales lakes area and skip the day hike up to top of Whitney. We did Whitney as a day hike in 1999 and 4 more times since from the west side.