Route Advice - Great Western Divide Loop

[kylekuzma]

Cool looking trip!

You really should slow down and spend a full day in the Kaweah Basin/Picket Creek region. Its absolutely jaw dropping in my opinion.

Also, I'd recommend Colby Pass liek some other people mentioned. Colby Lake is also a really great place to spend a night. It's far out there so not many crowds, and its really beautiful. Also i'd imagine by this part of the trip you'll be over x-country travel and prefer on-trail travel (assuming you are traveling clockwise per your map)

[cjt93]

Really appreciate everyone taking the time to write some lengthy and detailed responses! Let me see if I can provide some clarifications and adjustments.

The total mileage of the route per Caltopo comes with a huge caveat - x-country travel paths are modeled as straight-line paths through the terrain. My brief experience navigating the cliff bands of 60 Lakes Col taught me that a nice even gradient in contour lines does not always translate to a straight path. I wouldn't be surprised if the actual mileage on these x-country portions adds at least 25% extra in terms of mileage, not counting navigational errors and backtracking. Point taken that the mileage may be too much for 8 days, and even if achievable, would not allow much time for side hikes and exploring the area.

Upper Kern - is this area roughly bounded by Lake South America to the east, Mount Ericsson to the north, and Mount Genevra to the west?

In choosing Harrison, it appeared to be the safest (previous trip reports) and per the google earth view, the most scenic due to the basin surrounded by Ericcson and Stanford. Trip reports are very sour on Milly's foot pass due to the treacherous class 3 upper slopes. Little Joe's is an appealing option due to the shorter distance to Upper Kern, but I hesitate with this one due to the challenge in picking the right chute to ascend. I don't have much intel on Lucy's. All 4 appear to have their challenges and unique risks.

Thanks for the tips on Brewer. I'll definitely look into the SE ridge via Cinder Col. I've also seen trip reports suggesting the east ridge is the easiest/safest by starting from East Lake. The scenery from the summit places this high on my priorities for the trip. Will look for "Up and Down California" in the library.

@Flamingo By Milestone Col, do you mean MilestonePass (col just SE of Milestone Mtn)? And following Milestone Creek to Upper Kern area? I was hoping to avoid the Kern Canyon, so this advice is sounding great. One of my unpleasant memories of the HST trip was walking up the Kern Canyon in the hot July summer afternoon. Our fault on timing that part of the hike during the hottest part of the day, but ugh. If I forgo Kaweah Basin, this sounds like a good alternative.

By "navigate uncharted territory", I meant not repeating hikes or paths done in previous trips. I'm not opposed to hiking the same trail again if it makes sense, but greatly prefer new routes.

My current thinking is to modify the route to
- Take Colby Pass trail to avoid some of the more advanced x-country passes (Pyra Queen Col, Lion Lake)
- Ascend Brewer Creek instead of Cunningham Creek for a campsite around Big Brewer Lake
- I'm not quite ready to give up on Kaweah Basin just yet, but am leaning toward setting up camp at Picket Creek Lake and spend a day exploring the basin and Red Spur Lakes.
- Consider starting/ending at Onion Valley instead of Road's End. The benefit here would be hiking on trail through Center Basin over Forrester/Junction Pass to get to Upper Kern instead of over Little Joe's/Lucy/Harrison/Milly. The return would involve going over Longley Pass or Brewer Pass back to Reflection/East Lakes. The downside would be missing out on Sphinx Lakes. C

So many options! Time to go have a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

[kursavwilage]

cjt93,
I could be wrong but, I've always thought of the Upper Kern as the basin created by the upside down U of the Great Western Divide on the west, the King-Kern Divide on the north, and the (Whitney Range?) on the east. I'm not sure the east is called the Whitney Range but, that is what I always called it. Now if you draw a line from Midway roughly to around Mt Tyndall this line is right about the southern limit of the Upper Kern. South of that line the trail from Lake South America starts to drop down from the Upper Kern into Kern Canyon.
If you want to avoid the Kern then Milestone Creek to Milestone Pass will keep you out of the Kern and lead you to Colby Pass and the upper parts of the Kern-Kaweah and Triple Divide Peak....
Looks like you have some great Ideas. I'll look forward to reading what you finally end up doing.