talusdancers

June 27, 2009

Upper Kern Expedition – August 3-11, 2009

Filed under: Upcoming Trips — O. @ 6:18 am

The Upper Kern is the favorite place of many experienced backpackers. We will find out why. This access route avoids climbing up Shepherd Pass from the east and Forrester Pass from the south. It also avoids significant backtracking and has an easy all east-side car shuttle. East-side access via Kearsarge Pass is a day quicker, much less vertical, and an easier drive than the west-side access from Cedar Grove. Except for the east-side access entrance and exit points, most of this trip is above 10000 feet.

Monday, August 3
Drive to Symmes Creek trailhead, leave two cars (high clearance only, 4×4 recommended).
Drive Onion Valley Campground, trailhead BBQ, carcamp.

Tuesday, August 4
Park at trailhead.
Via Kearsarge Pass, hike to Kearsarge Lakes (bear boxes and bears!), camp.

Wednesday, August 5
Via JMT, hike to Center Basin Trail Jct. (bear box), camp.

Thursday, August 6
Via Forrester Pass, hike to Tyndall Creek, (bear box) camp.

Friday, August 7
Hike to Upper Kern via cut-off trail,
basecamp at a lake south of Lake South America.

Saturday, August 8
Layover day: explore the lakes of the Upper Kern Basin.

Sunday, August 9
Via Shepherd Pass hike to Anvil Camp, camp.

Monday, August 10
Hike out to Symmes Creek, fetch vehicle(s) at Onion Valley, hotel and Roberto’s in Mammoth.

Tuesday, August 11
Drive home.

(Thursday, August 13
Dan’s birthday.) 

 

High Sierra Trail Trip 2008 Photo Log

Filed under: Trip Reports — O. @ 5:58 am

This is where we went last summer.

August 19, 2008

Talusdancers on Mt. Whitney

Filed under: Trip Reports — talusdan @ 3:14 pm


August 14, 2008

Guitar Lake

Filed under: Uncategorized — talusdan @ 8:17 pm

July 25, 2008

Mid-July Conditions

Filed under: Uncategorized — talusdan @ 1:55 pm

Posted a bit after the fact, but I thought I’d describe how summer conditions seem to be evolving this year, at least in the Yosemite Sierra. As many know, what looked to be a decent winter early in the year ended up being not so great in terms of snowfall when the tap was more or less turned off a couple months early. Consequently, the summer season began a bit earlier than usual, with much of the high country snow melting out at least a few weeks early than average – this followed by early plant growth, wildflowers and, of course, mosquitos.

I was in the Tuolumne area for a short pack trip to the Young Lakes area more or less in mid-July. The Tuolumne Meadows campground had already been open for awhile and there was no snow left there. The trail to Young Lakes (and to other places I day hiked at similar elevations) was completely snow free. I saw some snow banks in a few places above 10,000 feet.

The mosquitos at Young Lakes were awful – as bad as I’ve seen. That is bad news if you happened to be there in mid-July, but this is perhaps small good news in that the hatch may end earlier than usual and leave us with fewer mosquito problems in August and later in the season.

Dan

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