All discussion related to transportation to, from and within the Sierra Nevada. Need directions or flight information? Info on road conditions? A ride to the trail head? Can you offer a ride, or do you run a transportation business or shuttle service for the Sierra Nevada? Come on in and post the details!
Her subie was spitting up coolant when we drove up to the hilton creek TH in May - there's not a pressurized cap on the overflow. It hasn't done that since and hasn't popped a warning light all summer and coolant levels look good ~7-10k, but it's something we're aware of. It's new enough (2017 iirc) that I agree there shouldn't be issues, but her car doesn't like altitude to being with. Amusingly my RWD 2007 commercial vehicle with a gated diesel turbo V6 handles TH climbs better.
@mort 4WD? There's a big difference between a rough dirt road with some rocks/dips that needs high clearance (8"+) but is fine with 2WD/AWD and a proper 4WD road. Some googling shows Ford Fusions can be FWD or AWD and have a clearance of 5". I've heard of sedans making it up there, with people wondering about their undercarriage condition afterwards heh.
My crappy rental was a "no clearance" Toyota C-HR. No need for 4WD/AWD, but higher clearance would have been great. Regardless, a lifted 4WD would still be going pretty slow because the road is that bad. There were some low clearance cars at the trailhead, I just gave up.
I'd think the 8 inches on a Subaru would be useful and would probably get you all the way to the trailhead. If you want to pull up short, there is an old FS road to the north that has been blocked off. The pull off shows up on the USFS map as well as CalTopo's MapBuilder layer about a 1/2 mile short of the corrals and a mile short of the trailhead.
Thanks for that clarification - 8" clearance 2WD seems to be about the recommended safe minimum. We're used to rough dirt roads, just don't want to mess up her (non rental) car by getting in above our heads.
With the rain coming in again I'm tempted to just make it a loop hike from the paved TH permit I have for Thursday instead of having it be a shuttle thru-hike just in case the road degrades (doesn't seem like it should if it held up for the core of the monsoon). I'll keep an eye on the forecast.
mort wrote: ↑Sun Sep 04, 2022 3:38 am
Am I blind? I saw no corrals.
The creek appears to be all year (most years), and the trail head is right on the creek, 20 or so feet above it. That is the only water on the trail for the next 5 or so miles.
-mort
The corrals are on the south side of the road, it doesn't appear that they have been used in a while but there are obvious fence posts and wire. The location shows up on the USFS map about a 1/2 mile short of the trailhead.
As far as water, it was pretty easy to top up from the creek at about 6500' - 6600', about 1.5 - 2 miles from the trail head.
@erutan Just saw your latest post, I think there is very little chance of rain washing out the road. The road bed is pretty high above the creek and isn't really close to it either. Given the ridiculous amount of rain that fell in the beginning of August didn't seem to matter, I wouldn't worry too much about road conditions after a storm. But, I totally understand the appeal of a paved approach to a trailhead after driving in/out on the Taboose Road this summer
Another rain concern is just the terrain I'd be in on a thru-hike. I was planning on a Bishop Pass > Knapsack > Potluck > Cirque > Mather > UBC > Observation > Dumbbell > Vennacher Col > Taboose trip starting Thursday. That's a lot of time XC above treeline that wouldn't be ideal in storms. Sunday & monday look like they could get a bit intense.
Toying with heading down trail on the middle fork and take gray > red > white passes to keep below treeline for a while and then just loop back to south lake via Dumbbell > UBC and then trail out (we've done cataract creek down to le conte already this summer).
