Most remote location in the sierra?

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dave54
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Re: Most remote location in the sierra?

Post by dave54 »

Distance from road is not a good criteria if there is well maintained trail access. Distance from trail or road would give a different answer, especially if you use a weighting factor for terrain and difficulty of off trail hiking.
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Re: Most remote location in the sierra?

Post by SSSdave »

Thanks rcymbala for bumping one of our favorite old threads that always is worth some new inputs. Of course John's OP without any focus was as the bird flies map distance. However as many later noted there are other ways to quantify that. The one you noted is more psychological. Not a remote distance, nor particularly difficult to visit off trail, but rather a place few bother to visit. People simply tend to be followers of others. Those that are not afraid to, in fact eager to explore what is new and unknown are few.

The following snippet off the link shows that a few with nothing better to do have done so haha.


http://www.summitpost.org/mount-bradley/208629

A third approach (with the most elevation gain of almost 7,500 feet is the Pinyon Creek trail. The trail head is located 4.7 miles from Independence, Pinyon Creek Road leaves Onion Valley Road and heads southwest. After 0.2 miles turn right at the fork and right again at another fork 0.7 miles later. Continue another 0.3 miles where the road ends next to Pinyon Creek.
From the trailhead, follow the use trail that ascends on the north side of the stream and follow it to the basin north of Mount Bradley. From here, follow the north slope (Class 2) up to the summit.


http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=36.75192,-11 ... -118.19927

r >>>"The trouble with locating one single most remote location from a road .... is that posting about it will attract MORE people to that spot, which will detract from the "feeling of remoteness."

Actually your input herein will likely be read by just a few on this modest board, ignored, so nothing to worry about. IF it contained a lake which it does not, it would make a lot more difference. And if it contained a lake with trout way way more. But nope just another lakeless east side canyon with tall vertical walls and a lot of cliffs, talus, and knobs on the crest headwall. It does have the noted peak however there are much easier routes for peak baggers to notch it onto their belt.

I ramble about places on both sides of the crest that it is rather obvious that few if any ever saw boots. They are places without lakes and streams, without some peak to bag, not on any cross country routes. Only places a curious mountain landscape photographer might explore. A few times on the board I've said there are almost always places few if any ever walk even near some of the most popular locations. And the reason usually is no one has a reason to. And it is just not about the high country as there are modest sized zones down in the sagebrush zone on the east side likewise. Here is a place I've mentioned and recommended on this board a few times:

http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=37.19680,-11 ... -118.19927

The top of Table Mountain, a day hike from the very popular Sabrina trail head. Minor numbers of groups do hike the trail between George Lake and Tyee Lakes that passes over that plateau at the south end. However almost no others head north of the trail out onto the huge plateau that is all above 11k feet. From the trail it looks like a stony barren arctic tundra fell field. However unseen beyond the center at the edges are timberline forest, small streams, and meadows...as well as virtually no signs of visitors. So to a small mind probably rather boring, uninteresting. Ahh but not so at all. :cool: Most of us have been to the Peabody bouldering area out on the Buttermilk dirt roads and noted the interesting highly eroded smooth whimsical granite forms. Well same geology up there. Lots of cool formations. And the view towards the Sierra Crest is a birds-eye view of the impressive Darwin to Humphreys section. Especially nice at sunrise. But has anyone gone up there since I posted? Probably not haha.

David
http://www.davidsenesac.com/2017_Trip_C ... les-0.html
Last edited by SSSdave on Mon May 15, 2017 1:24 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: Most remote location in the sierra?

Post by robertseeburger »

This is a great post.. and I am glad it was resurrected and additions made. My own as follows:

Agree it is a state of mind about the word exploration as much as facts of actual remoteness. My example...is Dumbbell Lakes. When I did them in 1975 or so, I did it by looking at contour lines on a map, seeing a route, and deciding to explore. The passes looked doable and my brother and I spent a night at one of the Dumbbell lakes. We never had seen a writeup of any kind, and it just had the "feel" of complete remoteness. This was a treasured trip for me (Cedar Grove/Granite Pass/State Lakes /Marion Lake/Observation Peak/Muir Trail to Darwin Bench/Alpine Col/Humphreys Basin/Royce Lakes/Bear Creek and out). Best ever, and Dumbbell Lakes felt very remote. There was a tin can register at the top of Dumbbell Lakes Pass. I returned last year ( 40 years later). Since then, I had read many accounts of the area. While I was there solo as opposed to with someone, and I saw no one on the cc route, it didn't have nearly the same feeling of remoteness. It probably helped that I had read Roguephotonic's description of how to get around the big Dumbbell Lake, and then I ran into Rouge and Alpinemike near Mather Pass.

The longest I have been without seeing anyone while solo is 7 days. This was a trip in June 2015 that had me go over Reinstein Pass and Finger Col.
I read some of the comments that talk about Disappearing Creek and Goddard Creek as being isolated. Agree that these are out there, but there are many posts of people doing this. I wanted to add that near this, I went up the West Fork of Goddard Creek and camped there(below Finger Col). And I would nominate this fork as having the feeling of being very remote. It probably helped that I had been 6 of the 7 days without seeing people. But it is a beautiful basin and not much evidence of travel, although I am sure a fair amount of people do it same as me ( connecting Martha Lake/Reinstein/Finger Col and Blackcap Basin). But it sure felt remote. A side note on this.. when I was there I had a tough decision to make. With one extra day, do I go to Tunemah Lake or spend a day wandering around Blackcap Basin? I had always wanted to go to Tunemah Lake, and that is how I stumbled on this post..looking for input there. I chose the Blackcap Basin option and had a wonderful day fishing all the lakes there. I usually try to fish one lake hard, but in this case I spent one glorious day fishing most of the lakes, an hour or so each so I have a pretty good flavor for the area without having any in depth knowledge. But I still regretted not going to Tunemah. I was going to go this year on my trip which I posted in July, but I turned around due to so much snow, and I am sure it was frozen anyway..better for another time. While I have still never been to Tunemah and the lakes surrounding it... it has the feeling of being very remote to me and I gotta get there someday. The fact that I know some people get there doesn't deter me, but this is a tough area to plan to get to!

I wanted to nominate one more area that I have never seen anyone write up. Similar to other northern Yosemite hikes.. I hiked from Table Lake up the river to the outlet of Benson Lake. Benson Lake of course sees tons of people on the east side, but the outlet side is protected by steep cliffs and the outlet sees almost no one.
I had a great fishing experience there also, only able to navigate 100 feet or so at the outlet. Too much water to cross. But the canyon upstream from Table (and Irving Bright Lake) up to Benson was a special wild and remote area. I actually saw my one and only fresh water otter in the river in between also. I am curious if anyone has ever done this hike.

I enjoyed reading all the comments on this subject over the years...
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Re: Most remote location in the sierra?

Post by DwainGoforth »

In 1980 I searched the maps for the most remote subalpine lake in Yosemite National Park and went there. It took three days to get there and two to get back. There were no fish in the lake, having never been planted. There was one very old fire ring with a mountain hemlock in the center of it. The lake is at 9,700 feet. It is unnamed on USGS Topo maps so we dubbed it "Wilderness Lake."
Tower Peak_Wilderness Lake_CROP_1.jpeg
The unspoiled wildness was great!

Image
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texan
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Re: Most remote location in the sierra?

Post by texan »

I have always heard and saw that Tilden Lake in Yosemite was the farthest place away from any road making it the most remote location, but its off of a trail, so to many of us that might not be the case. I have been to Tilden and it is remote but not like Dumbell Lakes.

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Re: Most remote location in the sierra?

Post by Gogd »

One author I read claimed parts of the Golden Trout Wilderness region east of Horseshoe Meadow as the most remote location in the Sierra from a road head.
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Re: Most remote location in the sierra?

Post by c9h13no3 »

This page provides an interesting, mathematical perspective.
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Re: Most remote location in the sierra?

Post by texan »

c9h13no3 wrote: Tue Jun 27, 2023 10:49 pm This page provides an interesting, mathematical perspective.
Thanks for sharing this.

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CalMntHkr
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Re: Most remote location in the sierra?

Post by CalMntHkr »

I completely agree with Maverick. I would mix Spiller Canyon in with Thompson Canyon as one location.
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Re: Most remote location in the sierra?

Post by giantbrookie »

DwainGoforth wrote: Tue Jun 27, 2023 4:33 pm In 1980 I searched the maps for the most remote subalpine lake in Yosemite National Park and went there. It took three days to get there and two to get back. There were no fish in the lake, having never been planted. There was one very old fire ring with a mountain hemlock in the center of it. The lake is at 9,700 feet. It is unnamed on USGS Topo maps so we dubbed it "Wilderness Lake." Tower Peak_Wilderness Lake_CROP_1.jpegThe unspoiled wildness was great!
Image
For decades this lake was near the top of my list of trailless places to explore but I didn't get there. As of 1993 when I went to the Dumbbell Lakes, I'd say this unnamed lake in Yosemite was in my top 3 (Dumbbells and Ladder Lake were the other two). I had even purchased air photos (this was many years before the advent of Google Earth!) to evaluate the spawning potential of the inlet and outlet, concluding that if this lake had ever had fish it would be able to sustain itself. After returning from the Dumbbells in 1993, this lake temporarily assumed the no.1 spot on my remote-lakes-of-interest list. In fact the super long distance from the nearest guaranteed fish-bearing place deterred me from launching a trip there. Alas, I am fishing oriented, and I think I heard about 10 years ago that this lake is in fact fishless, so I dropped it from my plans to reach it. I will be exploring two different unnamed lakes in two different basins in northern Yosemite later in July, and whereas the total travel time (from trailhead) to reach those two places is comparable to the unnamed lake you note, they are not as "remote" as your lake because I will be dayhiking both of them in one day from an on-trail basecamp (and hopefully climbing a peak in between them, too). The length of off trail travel to reach a destination from the nearest trail contributes to the remote feel for me and that N Yosemite lake is a very long way from a trail. This is why the lakes I've been to that felt the most remote to me were those on Red Spur and those in the enchanted basin below Tunemah L.
Since my fishing (etc.) website is still down, you can be distracted by geology stuff at: http://www.fresnostate.edu/csm/ees/facu ... ayshi.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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