Wildflower Pass - or - "best" way from picket creek to 9 lakes basin
Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2020 3:18 pm
With 2020 affording me zero trips and too much time on my hands, I've been poking around on caltopo and throwing together a 9 Lakes, Kaweah Basin, Picket Creek, Kern-Kaweah, 9 Lakes loop. Maybe a likely candidate for 2021.
I was researching ways to get from Picket Creek up over to the upper Kern-Kaweah with the utimate goal of Pants Pass back into 9 Lakes, then over Lion Rock and maybe down to Tamarack Lake then back to Lodgepole or up over to Coppermine Pass and into upper Deadman, around Horn Col and over Pterodactyl to get into the Tablelands and back down to Lodgepole.
The way I see it there are a couple of options:
Thoughts?
I was researching ways to get from Picket Creek up over to the upper Kern-Kaweah with the utimate goal of Pants Pass back into 9 Lakes, then over Lion Rock and maybe down to Tamarack Lake then back to Lodgepole or up over to Coppermine Pass and into upper Deadman, around Horn Col and over Pterodactyl to get into the Tablelands and back down to Lodgepole.
The way I see it there are a couple of options:
- Pyra Queen Col back to 9 Lakes though this is the least interesting as I'll have come from that way.
- Drop down to the Kern, follow Colby Pass up to upper Kern-Kaweah, over Pants Pass - this has a lot of extra decline in elevation than ideal, I'd prefer to stay up high.
- "Wildflower Pass" https://caltopo.com/m/1V7S which I only see referenced in Secor's book, nowhere else. This is the pass west of Picket Guard Peak. I did find one trip report that went over it but not much actionable info. https://www.trailnamebackstroke.com/kaweah-basin
Thoughts?