High Sierra Topix

Hello!

I know I don't post here a lot. Mainly because I'm not going out to the high sierra nearly as much as I would like and I don't want all my posts to just be questions. I made time to do it in 2020... but we all know how bad that year has been. Fitness wise due to having to be locked in the apartment for a year (extremely high risk, doc said it was "strongly encouraged" to not have contact with people I don't live with) So right now my fitness is at like a one. However once I get my second shot in April I'm gonna start training to get up to at least a three before my Permits are started up. I tried to set up these trips so they are on average 4-6 mile days, except for the Whitney one. For all of these trips I have four spots, because my friends and I were going to go but it looks like at least two are bailing out, so once I figure this out I was gonna try to find partners on here, assuming that they are okay with a very slow but steady partner. But yeah, I was hoping for a sanity check to see if my ideas are too extreme or maybe I need to ramp up my exercise to compensate.

So here are the three routes I have permits for (In topo map form) and the potential camp sites are indicated on the map as well.

High Trail: Ansel Adams Wilderness
Meysan Lake: Near Mount Whitney
Kearsarge Pass to Mount Whitney Summit

If you can't find more people to join you, please revise your permit to allow someone else to go hiking...

I fear many have done what you did--get a permit for more people than will actually end up hiking--and it would be great to get those unused spots back in circulation...

Looks like you have some nice trips planned.

What's your cross country experience level?

balzaccom wrote: ↑Sun Mar 28, 2021 7:07 am If you can't find more people to join you, please revise your permit to allow someone else to go hiking...

I fear many have done what you did--get a permit for more people than will actually end up hiking--and it would be great to get those unused spots back in circulation...

Looks like you have some nice trips planned.

Given the current system for permits, I see no problem with over permitting. Hiking partners are fickle. They may all commit or none. Life happens for everyone and gets in the way sometimes. I pulled a permit for Inyo mid September for 4. I expect 3 will be on the permit but that might drop back to 2. One seems committed, another on the East coast got a new job so that is questionable. The other is a flake and in his mid 50's wants to work towards retirement. Of course, if we have another nasty fire season, all bets are off.

You don't even see a problem with overbooking your permit and denying others access? Hmmm.

I have 3 people I normally go with. I don't see my permit as overbooking. some bail. I might book different times as backups.
I didn't initiate the system in play. It didn't use to be this hard. The problem I see is I don't get my money back if I free up spots beforehand and the walk up permit system is out of wack.

I highly encourage everyone to cancel an unused permit spot, regardless of getting any money back. Many depend on last minute "no-shows". None of us right now can predict if walk-in permits will be available, however, the trouble with not cancelling, even if that permit is not given out, is that cancellation is the only way the FS can look at their current policy and see if it fairly distributes permits. If you do not cancel, they will assume you used all your permit slots. The number of people actually in the wilderness is used for all sorts of things, such as which trails get priority for trail work and fine tuning of the permit process. And it really is the ethical thing to do.

I read on Stanislaus NF web site that they are allowing you to call in 2 days ahead to get cancelled permits, and they write the permit and put in a pick-up box. Each entity has different policies.

As for your routes, it is hard for me to say. They do involve a some moderately difficult off-trail travel. I usually plan fairly conservative daily mileage, and then if I get ahead of schedule, I have planned extra side-trips that I do. The other method is to plan an optimistic schedule and then some "bail outs" if needed. Either way, think about both getting behind or ahead and have some options already lined up.

Your last trip looks like 11 days. What are the dotted lines? Depending on how the other trips go you may want to cut that back a day or so. I could not tell if you are doing the loop clockwise or counterclockwise. Getting to Thousand Island Lake on Day 1, carrying 11 days food, is pretty rigorous. If you have to take the shuttle to the trailhead, that is a bit time consuming. I do not know what the policy is going to be about that.

I'm only familiar with #3, but I think your "4-6 mile days" criterion is being exceeded. the outlet end of TIL is 9+ miles from Agnew Meadows, with an altitude gain of 1500'. a standard measure of caloric output reads 1000 ft gain as equivalent of 2 miles of level walking, and adds your pack's % of your body weight as an additional % to the distance. thus day #1 could come out as equal to 15 miles of load-free level walking, and Daisy mentions those old first-day-heavy-pack blues. I try to measure my days in equivalent-miles, and the formula seems pretty accurate.

then there's the difference between cross-country and trail walking, thus malathebee's question. depending on your answer, I wouldn't take the north side of whitebark pass lightly.

I think what you're doing is just great, and a cure for the covid blues. your thought about ramping up your training prep probably comes from the realistic part of your brain. good luck. I'm jealous.

Wandering Daisy wrote: ↑Sun Mar 28, 2021 10:08 am Your last trip looks like 11 days.

If you enlarge the images you can see the difference between triangle and tent symbols. Looks like the Ansel Adams trip is 7 days.

While we wait for the OP's response on experience, I'll just say XC travel takes a lot longer than trail travel. My typical on trail comfortable days are about 11-14 miles with 2-3.5k elevation gain. I plan XC days at about half that.

Generally, your plans look like a weird mix of super short and super long days. e.g. on the AA between nights 4 and 5 vs 5 and 6. A few other comments:

Kearsarge trip:
-Camping at Bullfrog Lake is illegal. If you take the higher leg of the trail above the lake, there are some incredible campsites on the south side on cliffs overlooking the lake.
-Can you fit enough food for this length of trip in whatever bear canister you have?
-Your last day of this trip is very long relative to the shape you say you're in.

AA trip:
-You can shorten the length of this trip by hiking out DPP and taking the shuttle back up to Agnew.
-I'd camp at Nydiver lakes instead of Garnet.
-It's been some years since I was at Iceberg but I don't remember much in the way of places to camp there.
-Cecile has only one reasonable campsite in a little tuft of trees on the NW shoulder. The west shore is all slopey and the east shore is all talus.

I have a few suggestions for your trip from Onion Valley to Whitney. First, if you would like to add like a nice climb, the west ridge of Junction Peak begins right near Forrester Pass, and it's a class 3 route with solid rock, and great views. Secondly, though the JMT/PCT is great through this stretch, a deviation up Tyndall Cr., over Rockwell Pass, and down through the truly wild upper Bighorn Basin would be adding a nice bit of off-trail hiking. Thirdly, if you were to take a rest day anywhere on your Onion Valley to Whitney trip, I would recommend Wallace Creek. There are 3 beautiful lakes, and a day trip up to Tulainyo Lake is well worth the effort. However there are NO fish, and No Golden Trout in particular, anywhere in the Wallace Creek Basin Lastly, in the interest of getting off-trail again, I would wander up to Hitchcock Lakes to camp instead of the Guitar Lake zoo zone. Those are huge, impressive cliffs, and the next day you could cross country over to meet the Whitney trail from there... or are you already planning to do just that? It's hard to tell from the map, but I now notice that you have written "Lower Hitchcock Lake" for your camp on Day 8. I hope you have three great trips.

Tulainyo Lake is the highest, biggest lake in the range... or is it the biggest, highest lake-- one or the other, it's very nice to see.