Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board High Sierra Trail

Anyone done the HST recently?
what are the water crossings like?
will a sturdy pair of low-tops be adequate?
other advice?

Have a trip from 16-22Jul. seems like the crux is the last day (west-east) and from the WP TRs things look pretty good.

Hi,

Our crew just finished the HST with a Whitney summit on July 6. You should be fine in the low tops depending on your ankles. Precipice Lake still had some snow, but route finding should not be an issue on your date - many folks will have tracked through by then. The only stream crossings that involved wading were Whitney, Wallace and Wright Creeks, respectively. Mosquitoes were not bad at any of the campsites. Get an alpine start on your summit day to beat the hordes from the east side and enjoy Whitney in solitude. Hope your trip works out as well as ours did.

P.S. If you run into Milton from the trail crew at Hamilton Lake please thank him again from the 'Ohio Crew' for his good company and the entertainment on Harrison's birthday!

Enjoy and safe hiking,

Mark

Hey, Mark, thanks for your post.

Did you happen to notice whether or not there were any decent tent sites at Precipice Lake? We* are planning at camping at Upper Hamilton, but wouldn't mind adding a couple of extra miles on that leg of our trip.

Thanks,

HJ

*We = 3 guys sleeping in one man tents

Jim,

A few years ago a couple of friends went on up to Upper Hamilton Lake and spent the day fighting off marmots :-). You could camp there, but Lake 8235 (aka Hamilton) is a much nicer location. If you are planning on continuing on the HST, Big Arroyo Junction is a good next night location.
Either way have a fantastic trip!

Mark

Jim: the climb up from Hamilton is a bit of a beast, just as a heads up. See how you feel. I agree about fighting off the marmotelians at Hamilton, remember how one ran off with my camera!!

I don't remember any really good spots at Precipice Lake proper, but there are a few tarns immediately above it that do have flat areas around them. If you're that far, you may consider finishing Kaweah Gap and dropping down the switchers on the east side to the headwaters of the creek there. Snow may still be an issue.

Have fun!

-Laura

Our plan right now is to camp at Lake 8235. Thanks for the confirmation that Lake 8235 is a good spot. Been a while since I've been through there. Didn't think that camping would be good above Lk 8325, but thought I'd check. I've seen people sleeping up in the gap itself, but not my cup of tea.

Oh, hey, Laura, howz it going?

Yeah, good advice. That is quite a hump out of there. Dang. I'm suffering from "summit fever" and I'm not even out on the trail yet.

Yeah, going past Lk 8235' is probably not a good option, particularly given that crazy switchback climb out of Hamilton. Our day 2 is 8 miles, 2600' gain but our day 3 is 11 miles with 3400' gain. I was hoping to make day 3 a bit easier by camping a bit further up the trail, but who wants to climb out of Hamilton at the end of the day. Eww.

Our plan is a to do a five day loop as follows: Mineral King - Redwood Meadow - Bear Paw Meadow - Kaweah Gap - Big Arroyo - Little Five Lakes - Big Five Lakes - Lost Canyon - Sawtooth Pass - Mineral King. Our camps are 1. Redwood Mdw, 2. Hamilton Lake/8235, 3. Little 5 Lakes, and 4. Columbine Lake. On day 5 we'd hike back out.

Now THAT is a plan.

bump. Anyone head up this past weekend?

Heading up on Sunday 7/25, hoping to get a walkin permit for Sunday or Monday. Doing it in 5days.

Any updates on conditions? Mainly curious about mosquitos. Damn mosquitos.

I have a permit for Sat. (not Sun) July 25th. Any current trip reports would be great. Thanks in advance!

Snow minimal throughout my hike* portions of which were on the HST.

WATER CROSSINGS REPORT:
Cliff Creek 7/17 - Perhaps unnerving leap between two big rocks but very doable dry crossing. If that doesn't feel comfortable, you can ford 15' upstream in complete safety. The water is perhaps mid-calf. This is a "no big deal" crossing. I've crossed things up to my belly button before. Not sure why the NPS even lists this on their site as as potential problem crossing.
Eagle Scout Creek 7/18 - Either make longish (not bad at all) completely dry leap or need to step on one partially sumberged rock. Dry crossing on either option (only if you remembered to water proof your boots on 2nd option ). Very easy.
Middle Fork Kaweah River (upper crossing). 7/18 Wet crossing. Best place to cross is the site of the old bridge. If headed nobo, do not take the last switchback. Instead follow use trail from the "elbow" of the last switch back upstream. Use trail peters out when it hits rocks; just go down to the river. Look across river for river rock-and-cement footing of old bridge. Cross just down stream of old bridge footing. Water slightly above knee high. Current moderately strong but no big deal. Trekking pole(s) helpful.
Big Arroyo (HST crossing). 7/19 Wet crossing less than knee high at the trail. Tricky but doable dry crossing about 200' upstream.
Big Arroyo (near Old Patrol Cabin crossing). 7/19 Creek divides into two streams here. First crossing easy dry crossing. Second crossing wet but no big deal at trail; knee deep. Very tricky dry crossing available about 300 yds upstream. Use sandbar and then rocks to get to a log that has fallen halfway out over the water. Tricky to scramble onto wet log, but doable and faster than shoes off-cross-dry off-shoes on routine.
Lost Creek 7/20 (near junction with trail from Big Five Lakes) 7/20 - Dry crossing.
Columbine Lake 7/20 Outflow stream tricky only in that there's a vertical rock on W side. Easy scramble up unless you're injured like one of our party was. Flow moderate.

MOSQUITO REPORT
Mineral King 7/17 & 21 - Minimal
Redwood Meadow 7/18 - Minimal
Hamilton Lake 7/19 - Moderate
Kaweah Gap 7/19 - Moderate
Upper Big Arroyo 7/19 - Moderate
Old Patrol Cabin in Big Arroyo 7/19 - Bad
Little Five Lakes 7/20 - Bad
Big Five Lakes 7/20 - Moderate
Lost Creek 7/21 - Moderate
Columbine Lake 7/22 - Moderate

*Route (loop) was Min. King - Redwood Meadow - Hamilton Lake - Kaweah Gap - Old Patrol Cabin - Little Five Lakes - Big Five Lakes - Lost Creek - Columbine Lake - Sawtooth Pass - Mineral King. Crossings not mentioned are straightforward dry crossings.

thanks for the update, we are heading up the High Sierra 08/04

thanks for the update, we're heading up there in two weeks. if anyone else is up there between now and then, i'd love to hear any further updates/trip reports/pictures. =)

Did somebody say pictures?

Photo highlights: http://picasaweb.google.com/hikin.jim/Mi...079976013703954
Full photo album: http://picasaweb.google.com/hikin.jim/MineralKingBackpackFullAlbum#slideshow/5361458609004601698

holy cow that's gorgeous! makes me not want to have to wait 2 weeks to get up there!!! thanks so very much for sharing!

It really is gorgeous -- now get out there! (and share some photos when you return)

Just got back today from Lone Pine. Got up to the Sequoias on Saturday around noon and was able to get a walkin permit for Saturday instead of original intentions of getting one for Sunday. We figured this way we could atleast put down some mileage and break up the first day. Figured we would just hike a couple miles and make it to the first campsite, but being way excited, we ended up hiking to Bearpay Meadow. Good ammount of people at all the campsites we came across.

Sunday started our hike to Hamilton Lake, came across a bear just outside Bearpaw Meadow. Filtered some water at the lake, continued up to the gap, ate some food, then kept hiking to Big Arroyo Junction. Bugs were pretty miserable.

Monday our plan was to get to Moraine Lake, take a quick dip, then drop into the Kern and we did exactly that. Stayed the night at Kern Hot Springs, not really too many people. Mosquitos wernt bad at all. Hot springs felt amazing.

Tuesday started heading up the Kern to Junction Meadow, then up the HST/JMT junction at Wallace Creek. Annoying Mosquitos up the Kern, and didnt seem too bad at Junction Meadow even though we were only there for a bit. HST/JMT junction had a few ammount of bugs, but I dont feel they were horrible.

Wednesday was an easy day and hiked over to Crabtree Meadow, then up to Guitar Lake but we actually camped at the Tarn above Guitar Lake thanks to someones recomendation on the board (seriously, thank you!). Guitar Lake was a zoo, so many people. If you make it to the Tarn above Guitar Lake fairly early, there probably wont be anyone there. Only about room for three tents, and a couple more overlooking Guitar Lake. Two storms came through and kept us in our tents for a litte bit, but then had amazing weather, super warm and sunny. Bugs were basically non existent and could actually sit out and enjoy yourself.

Thursday got an early start of 2AM and summited alot sooner then expected at 430AM. Really cold at the top, someone was saying 31degrees, and that wasnt including the little breeze we had going. Watched the sun come up and had the summit with just a few others we had met at camp and on the trail. Left the summit at 630 and was down at the Portal by noon. 2 burgers and 3 beers later I was finally full.

All in all it was an amazing trip. Bugs were only bad in a few spots. We brought a headnet which definitely helped, but we were in shorts so our legs got chewed on when we were camped or standing for a bit. I cant remember all the creek crossings creek by creek, but we were able to cross all of them without getting wet. Some required looking up or down stream for rocks/logs. Weather was amazing. All I wore were shorts and had a lightweight long sleeve on that was constantly pulled up. Only used my fleece at Guitar Lake area. Clouds were like clockwork. Everyday you could see them form in the afternoon and as long as you got started early in the morning, they were never a threat.

The trail itself is amazing, and very well marked. We went off this itinerary (http://theschenks.net/main.php?area=hike&trip=20)but being able to start a day earlier allowed us to spread the trip out. He has alot of good info on there that has each junction and has the mileage and elevation gain and that came in handy alot of times and allowed us to plan our days really well.

Ill try and get some pictures up later this weekend.

All of you guys are making me extremely jealous. We don't go until September 4th. Doing the HST round trip from Crescent Meadows. I can't wait to get out there. Great pictures and trip reports. Thanks

I'm doing the High Sierra Trail September 4th thru 13th. I'm leaving from San Francisco, and was wondering if anyone had any great ideas on the Logistics (other than a 12 hour car drop).

The only thing I've thought of so far is to find someone else from the Bay Area who is doing it at the same time but walking the opposite direction from me and trading cars for the ride home.

---Steve