High Sierra Topix

Hi Gang,
Trying to plan a trip for this summer into the bear lakes area. Starting at Lake Edison and heading up hilgard. I'm interested in coming down past Vee and through the east fork section back to the main stem of bear creek. Does anyone have any information on the quality to the trail if any? From the initial bit I've pieced together, staying south of the creek is the way to go until heading further downstream causes it to curve north at which it appears that a trail becomes formally present. This would require a stream crossing around this area. If anyone has some suggestions, it would certainly be very much appreciated.

Japhy

I came down this section in 2021 from Vee Lake. From the outlet I went down the chute, then stayed on the south side until about the 10,200' contour. The crossing was easy in early September, ( the creek braids in several spots ) and the trail was easy to pick up. The upper part of the canyon has numerous use trails, but once you start getting close to the main stem of Bear Creek, the trail becomes obvious.

A couple of years ago, I came up the Hilgard branch and went down (returned to JMT) via the East Fork. We started from the Bear Dam Diversion trailhead. We returned down the south side of the East Fork, but quickly lost the trail. At a bunch of rocks (cairn?) I crossed the creek and followed the trail. The trail soon left the creek and began to go uphill. Eventually, the trail intersected the JMT. As I recall, it was trail, all the way.

I don't know if there is a trail on the south side of the East Fork also, but we found one on the north side all the way down.

There are threads from previous years. I do recall posting route descriptions, maps, and images.

SSSDave wrote:

I do recall posting route descriptions, maps, and images.

Scroll down towards the bottom to see Dave's description of his route.

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