Thursday, July 29 – The “gang of four” assembled in the eastern Sierra, camping at Onion Valley and enjoying the traditional trailhead barbecue.

Friday, July 30 – We got a reasonably early start, at least by talusdancers standards, on the trail up to and over Kearsarge Pass (11, 700+’) and arrived at our camp site at Kearsarge Lakes.

Saturday, July 31 – We descended from Kearsarge Lakes, passing Bullfrog Lake and then joining the JMT to descend to Vidette Meadows for lunch. We then headed on up the canyon to our camp at the Center Basin “Trail” junction along Upper Bubbs Creek.

Sunday, August 1 – This was the highest day of the trip, as we crossed 13, 200′ Forrester Pass. The ascend is long and steady, but this is certainly not the most difficult Sierra pass aside from the altitude. Everyone was on top by lunch time. Following the quick descent and longish slog past high lakes and on toward timberline, we arrived at our familiar (from previous trips) camp at Tyndall Creek.

Monday, August 2 – Today we visited country that none of us had seen before, or at least that none of us could recall. We left Tyndall Creek and followed the route towards Lake South America, passing through a mosquito-infested valley and climbing a steep and little-used trail to ascend its headwall before dropping to another lake and finally making a quick visit to Lake South America. We had contemplated staying there, but it was quite barren and exposed so we headed down and toward the Great Western Divide, finally arriving at a stunning campsite in the area of a series of small, unnamed lakes. Yes, more mosquitoes…

Tuesday, August 3 – We descended this upper Kern drainage area, passing through a very beautiful area of small lakes, rocks, trees, and meadows – finally reaching the junction with the trail back toward Tyndall Creek. This trail ascended steeply back to the ridge that we had climbed out of Tyndall the day before, and we finally arrived back at the same campsite where we stayed on August 1.

Wednesday, August 4 – We began our exit from the highest country today, ascending the gentle trail to the Sierra crest lake at Shepherd Pass. Following lunch we launched ourselves over the pass and into the tremendous descent towards Anvil Camp, passing over a small but intense snow field near the top of the pass, carefully picking our way down the steep couloir, and then past rock fields to our camp site.

Thursday, August 5 – On the final day we started early, doing the initial descend down Shepherd Canyon before climbing the ridge over to the Symmes Creek drainage to eventually emerge – after much descending! -at the base of the Sierra. A drive to Mammoth for dinner at Roberto’s followed.

Friday, August 6 – Headed home. Time to think about next year’s trip!

The Upper Kern is the favorite place of many experienced backpackers. We will find out why. This access route avoids climbing up Shepherd Pass from the east and Forrester Pass from the south. It also avoids significant backtracking and has an easy all east-side car shuttle. East-side access via Kearsarge Pass is a day quicker, much less vertical, and an easier drive than the west-side access from Cedar Grove. Except for the east-side access entrance and exit points, most of this trip is above 10000 feet.

Thursday, July 29

Drive to Symmes Creek trailhead, leave two cars (high clearance only, 4×4 recommended).
Drive Onion Valley Campground, trailhead BBQ, carcamp.

Friday, July 30

Park at trailhead.
Via Kearsarge Pass, hike to Kearsarge Lakes (bear boxes and bears!), camp.

Saturday, July 31

Via JMT, hike to Center Basin Trail Jct. (bear box), camp.

Sunday, August 1

Via Forrester Pass, hike to Tyndall Creek, (bear box) camp.

Monday, August 2

Hike to Upper Kern via cut-off trail, basecamp at a lake south of Lake South America.

Tuesday, August 3

Layover day: explore the lakes of the Upper Kern Basin.

Wednesday, August 4

Via Shepherd Pass hike to Anvil Camp, camp.

Thursday, August 5

Hike out to Symmes Creek, fetch vehicle(s) at Onion Valley, hotel and Roberto’s in Mammoth.

Friday, August 6

Drive home.

(Friday, August 13

Dan’s birthday.)

So, when will Tioga Pass Road open? I don’t have any inside information but I do know the history (average historical opening date is May 29) and I follow the current reports at the NPS and elsewhere. The road was reportedly plowed through recently, but this does not mean that it is yet ready to open. There is always a lot of additional work to take care of including clearing side roads and parking areas, patching road damage, and so forth. My hunch is that the NPS would like to get it open for Memorial Day Weekend in another week, but that this may be a challenge this year – especially if the forecast of another cold week with the possibility of snow pans out.

While the delay in “opening the high country” can frustrate some of us who want to get up there early, there are compensations. When the road does open, it is likely that we’ll see a lot of snow still in the high country – not like a few previous years when it seemed all too much like summer all too quickly. Even better, the heavy snow fall and late melt promises a long, green summer season and tons of wildflowers. (OK, and tons of mosquitoes, too – but let’s try not to think about that, OK?)

Not all photographs survived the transition. We’ll deal with that eventually.

The Upper Kern is the favorite place of many experienced backpackers. We will find out why. This access route avoids climbing up Shepherd Pass from the east and Forrester Pass from the south. It also avoids significant backtracking and has an easy all east-side car shuttle. East-side access via Kearsarge Pass is a day quicker, much less vertical, and an easier drive than the west-side access from Cedar Grove. Except for the east-side access entrance and exit points, most of this trip is above 10000 feet.

Monday, August 3
Drive to Symmes Creek trailhead, leave two cars (high clearance only, 4×4 recommended).
Drive Onion Valley Campground, trailhead BBQ, carcamp.

Tuesday, August 4
Park at trailhead.
Via Kearsarge Pass, hike to Kearsarge Lakes (bear boxes and bears!), camp.

Wednesday, August 5
Via JMT, hike to Center Basin Trail Jct. (bear box), camp.

Thursday, August 6
Via Forrester Pass, hike to Tyndall Creek, (bear box) camp.

Friday, August 7
Hike to Upper Kern via cut-off trail,
basecamp at a lake south of Lake South America.

Saturday, August 8
Layover day: explore the lakes of the Upper Kern Basin.

Sunday, August 9
Via Shepherd Pass hike to Anvil Camp, camp.

Monday, August 10
Hike out to Symmes Creek, fetch vehicle(s) at Onion Valley, hotel and Roberto’s in Mammoth.

Tuesday, August 11
Drive home.

(Thursday, August 13
Dan’s birthday.) 

This is where we went last summer.

I was in the Tuolumne area for a short pack trip to the Young Lakes area more or less in mid-July. The Tuolumne Meadows campground had already been open for awhile and there was no snow left there. The trail to Young Lakes (and to other places I day hiked at similar elevations) was completely snow free. I saw some snow banks in a few places above 10,000 feet.

The mosquitos at Young Lakes were awful – as bad as I’ve seen. That is bad news if you happened to be there in mid-July, but this is perhaps small good news in that the hatch may end earlier than usual and leave us with fewer mosquito problems in August and later in the season.

Dan