Kings Canyon High Basin Route

[jenreyn]

Andrew,

I agree with you that there are sections that are reasonable for fit folks wanting to test the waters off trail.....just not the Enchanted Gorge to Simpson Meadow. I am also a guide part time, here in the Eastern Sierra, who enjoys leading trips that are off trail and creating new loops, etc. If I was to be offered to lead a trip down the Gorge it would require a serious inquiry into their experience as well as fitness, etc to see if they were capable. Ionian Basin is amazing, and I do appreciate the remote sense you get being within the confines of the Black Divide. I just wonder if there could be an alternative more the more faint of heart to get to Simpson Meadow.....Ionian, to Lake 10232, to Finger Col, to Blue Canyon, to Tehipite Valley and up to Simpson.....which by the way is like hiking off trail since the trail barely exists and its wild there.....or possibly connecting into the "Tunemah Trail " down into Simpson if the route was clear, as this could put the unsuspecting into bad terrain as well.

Jen

[jenreyn]

Or bypass Ionian to Davis Lake, to Martha Lake, Lake 10232, and so on....

[RoguePhotonic]

It's a bit of an extreme idea for most people but I like the idea of dropping down to Lake 10,232 then up to Finger Col. Traverse over to Tunemah Lake and then Tunemah pass down to Simpson. I'd do it like I did in 2013 only in reverse by traversing to the summit of Blue Canyon Peak then South to Peak 11,920 then follow the ridge to the summit of Tunemah Peak and down to the pass. It's a bit tedious on the West ridge of Blue Canyon Peak and fairly tedious approaching class 3 scrambling on the North ridge of peak 11,920 but the rest is quite easy.

[jenreyn]

Exactly Rogue......I was up there this past summer and the traverse was a bit interesting but negotiable. The rest of the terrain seems fine. I just haven't been over Tunemah pass so I can't speak from experience. The route takes you into the furthest point from any road in the Sierra and it stays with the High Basin theme(Tunemah Lake Basin) etc. Andrew, you should check it out either way.

[andrewskurka]

I appreciate these alternate ideas, and I will look more deeply into them when I am back at a computer and have high speed internet. (Tonight I am in Boulder UT, pop 200, and am heading into the canyons tomorrow.)

But in general I am reluctant to recommend such a circuitous route with additional vertical gain only to avoid less than 5 miles of relatively moderate bushwhacking, and when I say "moderate" I am thinking about guard spruce in NH's White Mountains, old growth slide alder in the PNW's temperate rainforests, and willow in the Arctic. That type of **** is really slow, and IMHO a step or two or three harder than what I saw below the confluence to the M Fork. It is the worst bushwhacking I have seen in the High Sierra, but the High Sierra a pretty tame compared to brush elsewhere in North America, and not worth going through such efforts to avoid it. Of course, the route description will be very clear about this.

[andrewskurka]

Andrew, you should check it out either way.

You make a good case and I will most definitely look into it.

[rlown]

I appreciate these alternate ideas, and I will look more deeply into them when I am back at a computer and have high speed internet. (Tonight I am in Boulder UT, pop 200, and am heading into the canyons tomorrow.)

A nice place to be!! sucks that they finally paved the Burr Trail. The cafe is a nice place to eat. Been there a few times during deer/elk season.

[Wandering Daisy]

I have been over the pass east of Finger Peak and it drops directly into Blue Canyon. The north side had some snow. The south side is easy. I have not been over Finger Col, but have day-hiked to Cathedral Lake and Midway Lake and they are very scenic. Also have been down Crown Basin and over the pass by Hummingbird Lake as a way to get to Blue Canyon. The problem seems to be getting from Blue Canyon to Simpson Meadow.

Enchanted Gorge is a case-in-point for a route that has vastly different conditions. The Arnot book makes it look almost pleasant. Weather was perfect and the stream was low enough that they basically walked in the streambed or hopped from rock to rock. When I did it, in late August of a high snow year, first I had to do a controlled self-arrest down an icy snowfield that blocked the entire upper section. Then when the river hit the wall, I had to belly crawl across a 1-foot thick snow bridge; the stream was too high to cross safely. I did this as a 16-mile day-hike loop from Chasm Lake, and I do not think I could have crossed that snow bridge if I weighed more or had to carry a big pack. Then I had to re-cross on another snow bridge, swing from branch to branch in a vertical jungle before the pleasure of bushwhacking though stinging nettles. Rogue did it in a rainstorm - double the misery and making everything slick. And Ionian Basin can be more like a mountaineering route in a high snow year. Lots of snow cornices, even in late August in a high snow year. You definitely want an ice axe and know how to self arrest. The benefit (scenery)/cost (misery) ratio is also just too high for Enchanted Gorge to be a part of any major thru-route. When I finally headed up Goddard Creek, it was like paradise! Now, Goddard Creek, to me, is worth the effort. So is Ionian Basin.

[ndpanda]

The benefit (scenery)/cost (misery) ratio is also just too high for Enchanted Gorge to be a part of any major thru-route.

This is my take on it too. When I went down the gorge in the early 1980s I had similar issues with multiple sketchy snow bridges. My only source of advance information was the James Hutchinson article in the 1924 Sierra Club Bulletin. Though he had a fairly epic journey the conditions that year were definitely less extreme than those I encountered.

The nature of Enchanted Gorge is that once you're in the thick of it and things get interesting it's not that easy to get cold feet and decide to turn around. You suppose that the worst must be over. You decide that it's better to muddle on than re-take some of the risks you've already run. In my book that's the kind of crap-shoot you want to warn people away from unless you're personally acquainted with their backcountry skills and experience.

[andrewskurka]

A nice place to be!! sucks that they finally paved the Burr Trail. The cafe is a nice place to eat. Been there a few times during deer/elk season.

Wish I could bottle up some of the grooviness here and take it back to the other Boulder. Love the tranquility, slow pace, and sense of community. There are drawbacks of being way out here but there are tradeoffs with any location. At least what they do have here for services is generally excellent -- after a long day in the car I had just a salad for dinner at the Burr Trail Grill, tasted great and was farm to table, but here that is just expected rather than needing to say it is.