Route Inquiry - please help me plan a trip of a lifetime

[Horscht]

Dear High Sierra Experts,

I am seeking your valuable advise for a once in a lifetime trip this snowy summer. Some information about me and my experience can be found here https://www.highsierratopix.com/communi ... 42#p179042
In a nuthshell: solid backpacking and x-country experience but new to the High Sierra.
I especially like lake basins and valleys at the tree line, with a few trees dotting the shore and dramatic mountain peaks in the background. That is, photos from it. I have no interest in fishing but enjoy conquering peaks here and there if time and conditions allow.

My original plan was to hike a variation of the Sierra High Route with some detours from the original route to bypass the most difficult passes. Now, with all the snow and Copper Creek TH being inaccessible (just received the official cancellation), I have to change plans and would like to ask you for your opinion about different options outlined below. I will start on August 13 and have time for 24 consecutive days of hiking which are split into 4 segments for logistical and personal reasons.

Sorry for the long text, please feel welcome to counter that with long texts with your input and recommendations
I can also split this into several requests if needed, just let me know.

Segment 1 (13-20 August)
Option A: I was able to snatch a permit for Kearsarge Pass and could follow the JMT to Bishop Pass with possible detours into 60 Lake, Woods Lake and/or Palisade Basin (via Knapsack Pass and Thunderbolt Col). An alternative would be to stay on the JMT and hike it to Darwin Bench with an exit via Lamarck Col.

The questions are how difficult the creek crossing will be (I know Skurka’s hazardous creek crossings list and found a few from this route on there) and how likely the detours are, given all the snow. What do your crystal balls say for mid August?

Option B would be to start in Yosemite Valley with a North Rim hike ending at Tuolumne Meadows via May Lake, Glen Aulin, GC of the Tuolumne (down and back), McCabe Lakes, Roosevelt Lake via Don’t Be A Smart Pass and Young Lakes.
I think this could be a safer but slightly less exciting option. What do you think? Please note that I will be back in Yosemite at the end of the trip (Segment 4).

I am also open for other suggestions starting at Kearsarge Pass or in Yosemite Valley. While Lake Basin was on the route before and I really like the photos I saw I think this will be somehow off-limits this year.

Segment 2 (21-26 August)
A friend will join me on this segment and we will meet in Bishop. He doesn’t have a permit yet but we hope to get one for one of the following options:

Option C: Pine Creek - Granite Park - Royce Pass - Royce Lakes - Merriam Lake via Royce-Merriam Saddle or (more likely) via French Canyon - Feather Pass - Lee Lake - Lake Italy via SHR or via Bear Creek and Hilgard Branch - Italy Pass - Granite Park - Pine Creek.

Option D: McGee Pass - Tully Lake or Cotton Lake (maybe with an afternoon trip to Hortense Lake) - Shout-of-Relief Pass - Bighorn Pass - Laurel Lake - Pioneer Basin (if time allows) Fourth Recess Lake - LLV

Option E: North Lake - South Lake - Loop via Lamarck Col + potential detours to McGee Lake and Palisade Basin (same as above).

Here I would be interested in your advice about feasibility (snow, rivers), difficulty and scenery of the 3 options. I somehow tend towards option D since it is rather short with tons of side-trip options, so we could freely chose the intensity of our trip.

Segment 3 (27 August - 01 September)
This will be Reds Meadow to Tuolumne Meadows either via SHR or via JMT if conditions require. I have a permit for Minaret Lake, so I can not get onto the JMT directly, but wouldn’t want to, anyway. The idea is to get onto the SHR before or after Deadhorse Pass.

My main concerns about the SHR are Cecil Lake to Iceberg Lake, the area between Lake Catherine and Blue Lake Pass as well as the Lyell Fork of the Merced River. While it will be end of August already, I still believe there will be a lot of snow and am not sure if I should attempt it or not. By then I will also have done some x-country passes so might be able to judge a little better but would still be interested in your thoughts.

If your recommendation is JMT, what would be the best way to connect with it after Minaret Lake? Would Volcanic Pass be an option (probably not)? Or is there a x-country route to Lois Lake or Emily Lake that would be feasible? I am not sure I am allowed to return to Johnston Lake and follow the JMT from there.

Segment 4 (02 - 05 September)
My original plan was to skip Mineshaft Pass and instead start from Tioga Lake to join the SHR at Spuller Lake and finish at Twin Lakes. I could also route back to Yosemite Valley either via North or South rim which would make logistics much easier. I also don’t know if I should tackle Sky Pilot Col and Stanton Pass assuming that even early September will probably still have a lot of snow on those passes.

Ok, that’s the plan(s). What are your thoughts and recommendations? Crazy for someone who has never been to the Sierra Nevada? Should I just stick to the JMT for all the segments? Or do you think I will have the trip of my life?

Thank you so much for your input and support,
see you on the trail,
Horscht

[cgundersen]

Horscht,

I'm familiar enough with your earlier segments to offer a few thoughts: since you have the Kearsarge permit and that's a great trailhead for getting you into the back country and acclimated without a killer climb, it's a great start. My early season experiences with Glen pass is that it can be a little sketchy on the north side, but by mid-August, I'm guessing it will be fine and any residual snow/ice will be trampled. The one key water crossing will be Woods Creek. There's a huge bridge there and as long as it's still intact, you'll be fine from there all the way to Dusy basin. The side loop out of Dusy Basin via Knapsack/Thunderbolt is definitely recommended, if you have time (which you should). The talus on Thunderbolt is challenging, so give yourself plenty of time to negotiate it.

Segment 2: yes, this is apples and oranges, but having taken a buddy from the East coast into Bear Lakes basin last year and having him argue that it was the most-dramatic of the 13 trips we've taken over the last 14 years says something. Spell check turned Vee Lake into Lee, but the view of Vee from anywhere to the north and east is amazing. Also, I'd recommend the "Feather-light" version of the route into Bear Lakes basin as being appreciably easier than Feather itself. See the write-up in the XC passes section of HST. Another nice feature of this loop is there is very little risk at the rare creek crossings you'll encounter.

I've gotta run for a dinner date, but I'll try to chime in again later. Overall, it's an enviable itinerary! Cameron

[Horscht]

Dear Cameron,

Thank you very much for your encouraging reply - I hope you had a great dinner!

Thanks for recommending Bear Lakes basin. It seems to be highly regarded in this community so I should probably go there and see it for myself
I also read about Feather Light and will definitely consider it as an alternative to Feather Pass.

I am a little more worried, though, about the way out of the basin to Lake Italy. I read a trip report from 2017 in which a party had to turn around due to high snow. I think it was in July but this year had considerably more snow, so...
Maybe you (or someone else) can share some insight about the way down from Vee Lake (sorry for the spelling, it's not only autocorrect but English isn't my first language, so sorry for all the other errors) to the JMT. I read a report in which a hiker had to cross the East Fork Bear Creek several times, something I would like to avoid with the high running river that is to be expected. Do you think it is possible to stay on the north side of it for the entire way down?

Regarding segment 1, I read that Woods Creek Bridge is repaired and I plan to bring crampons / microspikes, an ice axe and extra care, so I think I should be fine with Glen Pass, too. Would returning via Knapsack Pass be preferable over using Thunderbolt Col on the way out?

Again, thank you very much for sharing your experience, highly appreciated.

Horscht

[balzaccom]

Cameron has done a good job of answering your questions, and is more familiar with your route than I am. I would only add that from early July to the middle of August conditions can and will change a lot, depending upon the weather. If we get our normal heat waves in July and August, some of this snow will melt. If not, it's going to be another crazy strange year in the Sierra!

[cgundersen]

Hi Horscht,
OK, still digesting last night's meal.......so, it's not just the view of Vee Lake that's amazing, it's Seven Gables Peak looming in the background that really clinches the deal in Bear Lakes basin. As for getting out of Bear Lakes basin, the standard SHR route is White Bear Pass and as the discussion of that pass notes, it can be tricky to find one's way down. But the route over to Italy Pass via Dancing Bear Pass (a short uphill segment and then a traverse) will certainly not push your skill set, so I'd recommend that option. One other comment: yes Royce-Merriam saddle cuts off a lot of trail trucking, but in this high snow year, it may be sketchy, since it does not get a lot of sun and can develop serious ice patches. Taking the trail around to Merriam is worth the effort. Since you'll hit Granite Park on the way out (and could do a side visit to Royce Lakes then), I'd recommend heading directly for Pine Creek pass and French canyon. The waterfall draining Royce Lakes should still be powerful!
Segment 3: While I'm a huge fan of southeastern Yosemite, I have a hunch that many of the SHR passes in that area are going to be tricky. Whitebark pass mostly faces North and may be slippery/icy. Simply finding one's way down from Lake Catherine (heading to Twin Island Lakes) is challenging and Blue Lake Pass may also be rougher than usual. All this said, I think there is enough traffic from Minaret Lake to Cecil and Iceberg that you'll have no problem there. I'd highly recommend Nydiver Lakes (it's an easy ascent from Ediza) and if you cannot do Whitebark, it's easy enough to get back down to trail and meet the JMT near Shadow Lake. If you do not want to be on the JMT the whole way, head for Davis Lakes and then go cross country from there to Rodgers Lake and then to Marie (it's an easy climb from Rodgers Lake up to Marie). The waterfall feeding Marie should still be doing overtime. And it's not that hard to traverse high from Marie to get to Donohue Pass. If you've got spare time, leave the JMT once you cross the creek below Donohue Pass and visit upper Lyell Canyon. You can find a great write up Phil did (in XC passes) for getting over the Amelia Earhart ridge to Ireland Lake as a novel way too get back to Tuolumne. Finally, I don't know your 4th segment well enough to comment. Cheers, Cameron

[Harlen]

Horscht writes:

Segment 4 (02 - 05 September)
My original plan was to skip Mineshaft Pass and instead start from Tioga Lake to join the SHR at Spuller Lake and finish at Twin Lakes. I could also route back to Yosemite Valley either via North or South rim which would make logistics much easier. I also don’t know if I should tackle Sky Pilot Col and Stanton Pass assuming that even early September will probably still have a lot of snow on those passes.

Ok, that’s the plan(s). What are your thoughts and recommendations? Crazy for someone who has never been to the Sierra Nevada? Should I just stick to the JMT for all the segments? Or do you think I will have the trip of my life?

I would say Take the route less-traveled by, it will make all the difference. You've had great advice from cgunderson, and I can put my two cents in re. your fourth segment, backcountry route.

Unless you are keen to complete the SHR, or interested in mining history (Bennetville, etc.), I would consider beginning at Saddlebag Lake instead of Tioga. That will give you a bit more time to explore around off trail in the brilliant high country between there and Twin Lakes. Also, Saddlebag is a "no quota" area, so the permit will be easy. Re. Sky Pilot Col, I agree that it can be sketchy. I would advise that you try McCabe Saddle instead. It is on the other side of Shepherd Crest from S.P. Pass, and though it has a 15 meter rocky section, I think it will be child's play for you Horscht. We have done it with small children on our backs, and once when my wife was 8 monthes pregnant! I would also highly recommend trying Stanton Pass, which is dead easy on the SE side, and just requires a small amount of careful route-finding for the first 30 meters of the NW side. The scenery around the upper Virginia Canyon is fantastic! Photo to prove it:

Virginia Peak with Stanton Pass to the left in the gray granite.


If you go over McCabe Saddle, you can hike an easy off-trail route by the 3 McCabe Lakes, and then join a trail from the lowest lake that can lead you to Virginia Canyon and Stanton Pass. We like the route that leads to Return Lake, rather than the one up to Soldier Lake, though both are beautiful. Below Stanton Pass, Spiller Creek leads down to the PCT, and then to Matterhorn Canyon. I don't think that Matterhorn Creek will be difficult, nor will Burro Pass at the top, and the scenery in Matterhorn Canyon is also stunning! Burro Pass drops you down beneath the "Sawtooth Ridge," also a really beautiful area, and you might take Mule Pass down to Robinson Creek, where, depending on your time and inclinations, you can go down and out to Twin Lakes, or head up to a great campsite above Snow Lake. A great day trip from there goes south over easy Rock Island Pass, and another dead easy saddle to Rock Island Lake, which we highly recommend Horscht. From Snow Lake, an easy route through a high meadow, leads to Peeler Lake, and a very nice trail from there can take you down to Twin Lakes. There are many mountain climbs, and explorations you may enjoy all through the area described. For instance, Shepherd Crest's south Peak; Stanton Peak; Virginia Peak; Slide Mountain; and Crown Point.


Here's one more picture to entice you Horscht; we hope these "Trips of your life" are Wunderbar!

The shore of Middle McCabe Lake.

[Horscht]

Dear all,
thanks for your abundant input, highly appreciated!

Cameron, still digesting sounds like you had a great dinner
I had a call with my buddy and we both agree that Bear Lakes basin will perfectly fit the bill. And we believe that if we can make it into the basin we can also make it out via your suggested route. As luck wants it we were able to get a permit for Piute Pass which must have become available last night (another clear sign for Bear Lakes basin). This will leave Royce-Merriam saddle for another time but might add a challenge in form of Puppet Pass (if we take it) and/or French Canyon, depending on where we have to cross it. What are your thoughts on those (if it’s not asking too much - I feel I have strained your helpfulness already…)?
And a million thanks on highlighting the difficulties of the SHR in the Banner / Ritter area, this is extremely helpful! I will definitely look into the Amelia Earhart ridge - it should be easy to get there with wildhiker’s fantastic description and it looks way more interesting than the JMT beyond Donohue pass.

Harlen, also a million thanks for your suggestions - with pictures, just wow! They all sound and look fantastic and it seems I should have allocated more time to segment 4. Is it still a once in a lifetime trip when you go twice?
I don’t need to finish the trip via SHR, it also doesn’t have to end at Twin Lakes. Armed with your ideas I will look into this segment again and I am sure it will be just wunderbar!

Best regards,
Horscht

[Harlen]

Guten morgen Horscht,
You wrote:

...it seems I should have allocated more time to segment 4. Is it still a once in a lifetime trip when you go twice?
I don’t need to finish the trip via SHR, it also doesn’t have to end at Twin Lakes. Armed with your ideas I will look into this segment again and I am sure it will be just wunderbar!

With my too much detail written above, I may have made the Segment 4 route sound like it needed more than the 4 days you have allocated for it. The longer route that includes Snow Lake and Rock Island Pass, to Peeler Lake, and then down Robinson Creek to Twin Lakes might be a bit of a long march for 4 days, especially if you climb all the mountains, and catch all the fish along your merry way. However, there are many variations that would still involve quiet and beautiful off-trail hiking:

The shortest trip could go something like this: Day 1-- From Saddlebag Lake, over McCabe Saddle, and into upper Virginia Canyon. That night could be spent at McCabe Lakes (shorter), or Return Lake (longer), or anywhere in between. Day 2-- Over either Stanton Pass, or Twin Peaks Pass, (which may be the slightly easier of the two with regard to ledges, but certainly longer and steeper down the north side. Giantbrookie can weigh in on the north side, since I haven't crossed that side.), and after whichever pass you take, you could hike up Spiller Creek to camp somewhere in the upper canyon. That is a very short day for kilometers, but it is a great place to linger, and from Twin Peaks Pass, you could make the top of Virginia Peak via the easiest route (Class 2).
On the third day Horscht rested. (though having done less than half of God's work). Day 4 you could cross easy Horse Creek Pass at the top of Spiller Creek's canyon, and amble down, down to Twin Lakes.

The longer route would be to drop into Spiller Canyon on Day 2, and then hike down to the PCT, and up Matterhorn Canyon, hopefully to near the top of it for the beautiful views.

Family group heading to Burro Pass, at the top of Matterhorn Canyon, with Sawtooth Ridge in view. This was in 2011, another very big snow year. so expect at least this level of snow.


Day 3 could be a very short one, with the crossing of easy Burro Pass, to a camp under the Sawtooth Ridge to enjoy the sunset lighting on its west-facing wall.

View south from around Burro Pass. Horscht, these two photos make it seem snowier than it is. Much of the way up Burro Pass will be on south-facing slopes, which should be mostly melted out. Mule Pass is north-facing, but there will likely be a pre-made boot track for you. As you know, for any steep snow slopes, just avoid the icy early mornings, and you should be fine kicking steps.


Day 4 can also be relatively short, and mostly level and downhill to Twin Lakes, via either Ice Lake Pass (off-trail and harder), or Mule Pass, on a trail all the way down beautiful Robinson Creek to Twin Lakes.

View east down the brilliant canyon below Ice Lake Pass. The clean granite wall of "The Incredible Hulk" is a rock-climbing Mecca.

Someone please comment on the crossing of Matterhorn Creek, which I assume doable. You can get the kilometers for these days by checking Caltopo, with its handy, "distance" feature, but I reckon all will be easily done by Horscht, who will be a very fit man by now. Viel Gluck!

[Horscht]

Moin Harlen, (Moin = good morning, hello in Hamburg)

thanks again for your lovely pictures and the detailed input. I still think this area deserves more than 4 days which I honestly wasn't aware of when I did my research for the SHR. But maybe I can be back for a shorter trip (if I survive this one my wife might let me go again...).

Two more questions, if I may: for high snow years, Skurka recommends crossing McCabe Creek higher up where it's braided, north of the lowest McCabe lake. He also recommends crossing Return Creek higher up where the SHR comes down from Sky Pilot col. Do you know if it's possible to connect those two points by crossing the low point in the ridge coming down from Shepherd's crest, north from the lowest McCabe lake? Looks manageable on Google Earth and would shave a few miles off the trip.
And how high do you think are the chances of hitching a ride from Twin Lakes down to Bridgeport? I don't have a car and walking would make the last day a very long one. Looks like a busy area, so with a few hours buffer I should be ok, maybe?

I think that's it for now,
thanks again and best regards,
Horscht

[Harlen]

Okay, Moin Horscht,
First off, yes you can connect the easy crossings of McCabe and Return Creeks.
Secondly, the hitch down from Twin Lakes to Bridgeport should be easy. We were just up at Twin Lakes, making meaningless casts into the big lake, but enjoying immensely the early morning view of the Sawtooth Ridge. Cars were roaring by us constantly.

Now I am wondering how you return to Yosemite from Bridgeport? If it's a long, slow ride on a bus, why not walk back instead?
I think you can string together a new, southerly route from your original Tioga Lake trailhead. If you did start there, your Day 1 might be the hike you originally intended-- Spuller Lake, and up into 20 Lakes Basin-- perhaps to one of the scenic areas around Cascade Lakes to camp. Day 2 might be climbing up to McCabe Saddle, drop your pack, and on up either Shepherd Crest Peak (easy), or North Peak (harder). You could descend from McCabe and find brilliant camps by the upper McCabe Lakes. A third short, but beautiful day could be wrapping around the ridge south, and up into the high mountain scenery, to camp by Roosevelt Lake-- right under the big face of Mt Conness... or by Young Lakes. (Note, that could easily be Day 2, if you forsake the mountain climbing from McCabe Saddle.)

So then, either Day 3 or 4 could be an easy downhill hike on or off the trail leading back to Toulumne Meadows. We were fascinated by the distant view of the Cathedral Range from the ridge between Conness and Dingley Creeks. If that is your day 3 Horscht, then you have many beautiful options for your fourth day. My favorite would be to make it up to the upper Cathedral Lake to camp. From there, you can easily cross the ridge to the east, and make the circle around Cathedral Peak by descending Budd Creek. You can also do this as a day hike (11 miles or so), leaving your backpack in Toulumne Meadows. I propose this because you had mentioned needing to arrive back at Yosemite Horscht. Please excuse me if I am sticking my nose too far into your trip planning. Alles Gute, Ian.

p.s. I have now pretty much exhausted my German, except for "Ein Beer Bitte," and "Danke."