Best Day Hikes in the Sierra?

If you've been searching for the best source of information and stimulating discussion related to Spring/Summer/Fall backpacking, hiking and camping in the Sierra Nevada...look no further!
User avatar
SSSdave
Topix Addict
Posts: 3523
Joined: Thu Nov 17, 2005 11:18 pm
Experience: N/A
Location: Silicon Valley
Contact:

Post by SSSdave »

dave54, just a few comments on the northern Sierra you mentioned. An interesting way to look at the northern Sierra is to consider the amount of backpacking at those elevations and compare them to the amount of backpacking at similar elevations in the southern Sierra. What one would find is that there is not a lot of difference. Similar elevations in the south are mid elevation forests. If one excludes backpackers and hikers only interested in passing through those areas from trailheads, there is also a dearth of activity and also considerable amount of empty wilderness. In other words those in the south are traveling up stream canyons in order to reach the near timberline and alpine areas where most of the lakes and impressive landscapes are. In forest areas, basins gouged out by glacial ice tend to quickly become meadows from erosion inflow while depressions in higher rock and snow areas contain far less wood and vegetation so take much longer to fill in with debris. The north has a few higher areas where glaciated bedrock landscapes contain fair numbers of lakes, but in the south lakes are abundant because it is significantly higher generally. It is the lakes people tend to backpack to. When someone mentions where they are going, it inevitably is to one or more lake areas. A related issue is the northern lake areas are more often at the end of paved or 4wd roads unlike those in the southern wilderness areas and that certainly has an attraction to someone interested in more than day hiking regardless of whether there may just be a couple jeeps at a lake versus a half dozen backpacker groups.
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Bing [Bot], Google Adsense [Bot], Karch, mkbgdns, Spicer'sVet and 134 guests