High Sierra Topix

I am planning to backpack to the forks of kern river, then travel north along the river to kern flat on June 18,2019. DOES ANYONE KNOW IF YOU CAN FJORD THE LITTLE KERN RIVER right now???

That's not the Little Kern. It's the Big Kern. No, you can't Fjord it, nor can you ford it.

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Hi, I called western divide ranger office, and they didn't have the answer to my question. No one has given them a trip report. I am hoping that I can find out @ hst. Thanks

Well -- think about all the snowmelt going on right now. Visit the Mineral King webcam and look at all the snow on Farewell Gap right now. All that snow is melting down into the Little Kern, which is currently the Big Kern. There are lots of other little creeks emptying into the Little Kern, making it bigger and bigger all the way down to the Kern. It's as high as it's going to get.

If the webcam isn't enough, have a look at the sat photo. https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/?p ... 8335756958

Plenty of snow melting like gangbusters.

AlmostThere wrote: ↑Sat Jun 15, 2019 11:25 am That's not the Little Kern. It's the Big Kern. No, you can't Fjord it, nor can you ford it.

You do cross the Little Kern at the bottom of the trail, then it follows the Big Kern up to Kern Flats. I would be a bit wary of even trying to cross the Little Kern at this time. Call the Kern River Ranger District Office.

John

Ya, I hear you. I might go check it out on a day hike, but use extra precaution for any fjord. I would agree that the flow is too much!

I can guarantee the Little Kern is going to be roaring and not safe to cross. I used to guide whitewater trips up there and there is a ton of water coming down right now. Definitely worth a day hike to see it though.

I don't think that there is any way your are crossing the Little Kern yet. There are a couple of other options if you really want to get into that area. You can either hike the Rincon trail from just a couple miles up the Sherman pass road or the Jerkey Meadow trail. One spring I hiked in on the Jerkey Meadow trail with a buddy to the Little Kern river bridge for a night. The next morning he continued on to the the Kern for a couple days then crossed the bridge just above Kern Flat and took the Rincon Trail to the cut off for the bridge over the 99 where his wife picked him up. He said that it was a great trip. I think that would be pretty warm right now on that Rincon section though.