*** Official Backpacking Thread ***

[afoaf]

got a permit, trying to get it emailed.

staging pack...driving up tonight and trying to sleep at elevation tonight
and then shoving off first thing in the morning....3 or 4 day.

looking at Trail Pass, rocky basin lakes, doubling back to PCT to soldier lake and iridescent
lake area, and then over the pass through cottonwoods

or something.

at least that's the general area you will find my body

it's been a blast, friends!

 

[Driftcoast]

Put meat tenderizer in your pockets so the bears can scavenge your carcass without chipping a fang.

Sounds like a great hike. Envious.

 

[Autoprax]

Take pictures!

 

[manbearpig]

Don’t take pictures!

 

[crustBrother]

My kid is leaving tomorrow to spend 30 days on this...

Sierra High Route - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Thank God I get to stay "safer at home" making computers do stupid things for people.

 

[crustBrother]

Start at Lake Mary by Mammoth, over Duck Pass and camp at Purple Lake--good fishing there. Then cross Muir Trail and take trail down to Cascade Valley, Fish Creek. Follow Fish Creek down to Iva Bel Hot Springs, one of the very best wilderness hot springs anywhere. Then take Fish Creek back around to Reds Meadows where you can catch a shuttle back out to Mammoth.
View from Duck Pass with Mammoth Mtn on the right and Ritter, Banner, and the Minarets back to the left.
View attachment 93572

Getting ready to cross the Muir Trail at Purple Lake and head down to Cascade Valley and Fish Creek. This was my first trip out with my grandson and my dog...big responsibility!
View attachment 93573
Got down to Fish Creek and it was raging! We neglected to think about late afternoon snowmelt and had to cross this creek a little farther downstream...stressful but doable.
View attachment 93575

But it was so worth it! Hot spring coming out of granite, not what usually happens but I guess this is on the western side of the Mammoth Caldera..105° perfect.
View attachment 93576

Then hike down Fish Creek Trail which comes out above the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River and goes by Rainbow Falls and on to Reds Meadows.

OMG I have to do this!

 

[SteveT]

Any of you do the Dingleberry Basin? (yes, it does exist)
Pretty easy hike out of Lake Sabrina. Some great Alpine lakes, Dingleberry, Hungry Packer and Fishgut along with some off the grid ponds with wild Goldens and tons of streams loaded with brookies, browns and rainbows.
It's been years since I've been up there but some great packing memories.

 

[MitchellC]

My kid is leaving tomorrow to spend 30 days on this...

Sierra High Route - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I've done about half of the SHR over the years in 3-4 day sections.

Just got back from a quick long weekend. Didn't want to deal with overnight permit issues from the office closures, so my son & I decided to dayhike 3 passes in 3 days.

Started with Mono from Mosquito flat - thought about trying for Pioneer and back, but the lure of hot food & beer was too tempting; especially on the first day. Nice day, mild at the pass.

Next day was Bishop out of S lake. Cold, cloudy and windy from the get go. (This was the beginning of the wind storm that resulted in high wind advisories for commercial truckers and recreational trailers/ RVs on the 395.)

The pass was nuking with winds in the 30-40 mph range and wind chill easily around freezing. Switchbacks were icy with a couple of snow fields at the top. Backpackers were bailing - I stayed exactly 1 minute for a photo. Talked to 3 guys on the way down searching for Jigsaw - that one is beyond my pay grade. I think they took a look and decided to head back. LOL

And for the capper, there was a fresh "dearfall" at the base. Two years ago, an entire herd stampeded over the cornice trying to escape an early winter storm. Their remains are all skeletons now. This was fresh, 3-4 day carcasses that probably got spooked from the earthquake. The entire day had a heavy Mordor vibe, with the black granite backside of the Palisades providing additional atmosphere.

Last day was Kearsarge from OV - easily my favorite pass. I've done it, along with (Whitney) Trail crest and Shepherd many times over the years. Bluebird sky day - as clear as it gets, with light winds and temps in the 50s. It was like a super model on her best day.

We had been starting between 7-8 each day, so with Kearsarge we were back in Independence by noon and decided to drive back home.

PS Anything below Cottonwood will be out of the glacier zone. That means no 12-14k walled escarpments that put the High in high Sierra. Fun fishing however; I've hiked north to the weir damns on the south fork Kern from Kennedy meadows, and south down the Kern out of Horseshoe to the hot springs in search of golden trout.

 

[Icu812]

A good dayhike for good fishing is from North Lake Campground to Upper Lamarck Lake...last summer we had a permit for Wonder Lakes (a really nice canyon that doesn't really have a trail to get up in there), and we did a day hike from there to Upper Lamarck. Love the east side of the Sierra...
Lower Lamarck Lake looking up into Wonder Lakes Basin

 

[crustBrother]

I've done about half of the SHR over the years in 3-4 day sections.

Shiny, eh?



I've done the part from Minaret Lake to Isberg Pass Trail and then bailed out down the Merced into the valley a couple times - one 16 day trip when I was 20 and then a twelve day trip two years ago at 50. So beautiful I don't have the words to describe it and wouldn't even talk about it on the internet except I think the barrier to entry is high enough to keep it it safe from the social media hordes. When I was 20, we didn't see a single other person outside our group for 10 days between Ediza and Isberg Pass trail. On the more recent trip we saw 1 or 2 people per day. That kind of isolation while wandering around the range of light for a couple of weeks is strong medicine.

And for the capper, there was a fresh "dearfall" at the base. Two years ago, an entire herd stampeded over the cornice trying to escape an early winter storm. Their remains are all skeletons now. This was fresh, 3-4 day carcasses that probably got spooked from the earthquake. The entire day had a heavy Mordor vibe, with the black granite backside of the Palisades providing additional atmosphere.

Ha! Not only is that bizarre, but its bizarre to me that I would hear about it for the first time a couple days ago reading Rocket Llama's journal and then again today!

 

[Leaverite]

Going to visit a lot of these places. As an overlander. Setting my truck up. This place today, another place tomorrow.

 

[Icu812]

Shiny, eh?



I've done the part from Minaret Lake to Isberg Pass Trail and then bailed out down the Merced into the valley a couple times - one 16 day trip when I was 20 and then a twelve day trip two years ago at 50. So beautiful I don't have the words to describe it and wouldn't even talk about it on the internet except I think the barrier to entry is high enough to keep it it safe from the social media hordes. When I was 20, we didn't see a single other person outside our group for 10 days between Ediza and Isberg Pass trail. On the more recent trip we saw 1 or 2 people per day. That kind of isolation while wandering around the range of light for a couple of weeks is strong medicine.

Ha! Not only is that bizarre, but its bizarre to me that I would hear about it for the first time a couple days ago reading Rocket Llama's journal and then again today!

When I was a kid my dad got us out on the hike from Agnew Meadows to Yosemite Valley via the Muir Trail, circa 1964. One of my 'bucket list' hikes now would be to go from Agnew Meadows to the Valley cross country...hike up to 1000 Island Lake then over this pass, North Glacier Pass:


And then go by this lake, Lake Catherine, one of the more beautiful lakes I've ever seen in the Sierra. This was taken in 2009 and supposedly that glacier was supposed to be gone in 10 years...guess I need to go find out if it's still there. It's in between Mt. Ritter on the right and Banner Peak on the left. People hike up to the top of Banner via that notch, hiking up the glacier. That would be a cool side hike.


Then continue on down to the N. Fork of the San Joaquin river, cross country the whole way and up into Bench Canyon. Never been there but a friend has and says it's awesome. Then over the ridge by by Mt. Foerster somewhere, think there's a pass there, and then on down into the Valley by Washburn Lake, one of our favorite fishing lakes when I was a kid.

 

[r32]

Thinking about making this an official backpacking thread. Lots of great info here. What say you @afoaf ?

And then go by this lake, Lake Catherine, one of the more beautiful lakes I've ever seen in the Sierra. This was taken in 2009 and supposedly that glacier was supposed to be gone in 10 years...guess I need to go find out if it's still there.

Can confirm, glacier is still there.

 

[crustBrother]

supposedly that glacier was supposed to be gone in 10 years...guess I need to go find out if it's still there. It's in between Mt. Ritter on the right and Banner Peak on the left

Here's the picture I took of that glacier in 2018. Getting smaller but still there.

PS - The trip you describe is pretty much exactly the one I've done a couple of times and largely overlaps one of the sections of Roper's Sierra High Route. Send it, bro! Here's a (not so sparkly because of yosemite fire) shot I took looking back towards the Minarets from the pass you mentioned just south of Forrester. Roper calls it Blue Lake Pass. Me and my kids stood up there for like an hour watching and endless stream of.... DRAGONFLIES.... gliding through the saddle. WTF?!?!?! DRAGONFLIES? Thousands of them just riding the breezes up and over a 12,000 foot pass? That just seems so improbable to me. Maybe they were fleeing the yosemite fires? Mother nature does some really cool sh!t.

 

[Boneroni]

Dayum afoaf, you got the permit and info and pulled the trigger quickly!

Hope all is well and have a good trip. I'd kick a puppy to have a few days away from home right now.

 

[tsenn]

Thinking of a quick weekender to Big Pine with the family...go up early, get a spot, head over to the Bristlecone pines, come back and fish a bit. Get up early and hike to lake #1...anyone do that? Oh, and hit that BBQ spot...

 

[_____]

Thinking of a quick weekender to Big Pine with the family...go up early, get a spot, head over to the Bristlecone pines, come back and fish a bit. Get up early and hike to lake #1...anyone do that? Oh, and hit that BBQ spot...

I'm about 40 minutes away in Lone Pine. Just finished inventory with the A/C blasting. It was pretty hot up here today, maybe 96º. Bring sleeves, DEET and a head mosquito net if you're fishing the Owens. I got destroyed last year around this time at the upper owens.

I'm posting up for a few nights and hoping to make 1 spot home base and be comfortable instead of doing 20 mile days. Most sh1t I've ever packed on a backpacking trip (hammock, pan, some extra clothes, boots, waders, 2 rods, 2 reels, loaded fishing chest pack, day hike pack, ) and I like a little redundancy in some areas (lights, knives, lighters, deet, bug screens). All of this sh1t fits easily in a ULA Catalyst pack.

 

[JBerry]

I'm about 40 minutes away in Lone Pine. Just finished inventory with the A/C blasting. It was pretty hot up here today, maybe 96º. Bring sleeves, DEET and a head mosquito net if you're fishing the Owens. I got destroyed last year around this time at the upper owens.

I'm posting up for a few nights and hoping to make 1 spot home base and be comfortable instead of doing 20 mile days. Most sh1t I've ever packed on a backpacking trip (hammock, pan, some extra clothes, boots, waders, 2 rods, 2 reels, loaded fishing chest pack, day hike pack, ) and I like a little redundancy in some areas (lights, knives, lighters, deet, bug screens). All of this sh1t fits easily in a ULA Catalyst pack.
View attachment 93773

whats your final wieght of your pack?
I'm more of an 8-12 mile day guy. I like to stop and smell the roses, enjoy the views. Base camp 1-2 nights same spot
and day hike around the area. Usually run a 60L pack with up to 40lbs, but have slowly scaled down in weight, as I've read every #1 of weight on your back adds about #10 to your knees! Have a fun trip!

 

[_____]

whats your final wieght of your pack?
I'm more of an 8-12 mile day guy. I like to stop and smell the roses, enjoy the views. Base camp 1-2 nights same spot
and day hike around the area. Usually run a 60L pack with up to 40lbs, but have slowly scaled down in weight, as I've read every #1 of weight on your back adds about #10 to your knees! Have a fun trip!

Usually around 25lbs but I'm guessing at least 35lbs. Most of my gear is really light. This pack is 78l, and the one I normally use is 68l. I'm posting up this afternoon and have a small day pack to stuff with water, food etc.

 

[Duffy LaCoronilla]

Don’t take pictures!

Draw pictures.