Re: 6 day backpacking trip

Hello everyone,

I'm planning to do a six day/five night packing trip through Yosemite in the late summer/early fall, and I was hoping to get some advice. I've never been to Yosemite, but I've been reading up on it a bit and studying some maps. I would greatly appreciate it if anyone would be so kind as to shoot me some pointers including: good trail for this length of trip, sections of the park I shouldn't miss, possible rock climbing routes along the trail, precautions to take (weather and animal), best time of year for the trails (temp, weather, foliage, etc.), best lookouts or ridge trails, skill level of sections, etc.

I'm trying to research the park independently, but with the amount of information out there, it is rather overwhelming. I've been on several packing trips of this length and don't mind some heavy elevation gain (~3000-4000 ft. per day), and I can usually put down 10-15 miles of tracks per day, but might want to do a little less if I have a lot of gear, or find a nice granite face to climb.

Thanks in advance for any information you can provide, if I happen to see you on the trail I'll share some of my whiskey with you.

MB

Will this be a solo trip?

Most likely 3-5 person trip, but I will tackle it solo if everyone backs out on me (though I will probably plan a less aggressive trip in that instance since I have never been through Yosemite).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/2010 10:30AM by michaelb.

Peeler is somewhat overrun IMO. Definitely beautiful. Not my fav. lake though.

Here's loops 4 u:

HH->Moraine Ridge->Jack Main Canyon->Wilma Lake->Tilden Lake->Tiltill Mtn->Rancheria->HH

White Wolf->Ten Lake->Glen Aulin->Pate Valley->White Wolf

Mono Meadow->Ottoway->Red Peak Pass->Washburn->Merced->Mono

Quartz Mtn->Fernandez->Post Peak->Red Peak->Merced Pass->Quartz

High Sierra Camp Loop

HH->Ranch Mtn->Table Lake!->Rodgers Lake->Benson->PCT->Wilma->JMC->HH

TM->PCT->Smedberg->Rodgers->Pate->GCT->TM

TM->Lyell Canyon->Vogelsang->Merced Lake->Cathedral Lakes->TM

or one of my favs LATE in the year:
Snow Creek->Tenaya Lake->TM->Cathedral->Sunrise->LYV->Happy Isles

...

---

Quote
chick-on
White Wolf->Ten Lake->Glen Aulin->Pate Valley->White Wolf

michaelb:
This loop will give you an extremely nice cross-section of geological variation, but think about starting/ending at Tuolumne Meadows instead. A Toulumne / Glen Aulin / Pate Valley / Ten Lakes / McGee Lake / Tuolumne loop is around 55 mi. long. Elevation varies from 8.6k at Tuolumne to 4.2k at Pate to 9.9k in the Ten Lakes area. You should find nice rock climbing around the Muir Gorge section of the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne in addition to that around Tuolumne Meadows ( http://www.tuolumnemeadows.org/index.php ).

September & October are especially nice because of the paucity of backcountry hikers (kids back in school) and insects (mostly footsies up) at that time.

October is great anywhere in the park!

Done many a trips in October and see nearly no one for entire trip.
Many times absolutely no one (and I'm not exaggerating).

And some places peeps just don't go. I know when I got a permit for Bear Valley
in Oct. the ranger said I was the second person that year to go thru there.

Anyway, Michael, if you want more routes I can throw some more out there.
We've done all those and more... Never had a bad trip. It's all good baby.
Throw in some xcountry and it's almost limitless...

If I could only go on one trip I'd really try to go all the way up the Merced River
to Merced Lake then go up to Vogelsang Pass... then go to TM and
take the JMT to Sunrise HSC... then over to Sunrise Lakes... then over
Clouds... then back down to the Valley.
If NEVER been to Yosemite the Merced River Canyon is classic Yosemite.
Waterfalls... Spectacular Granite Cliffs... Domes...

Have fun... good luck in your research

---

For some less crowded spectacular scenery try this trip in the northeast corner of Yosemite and parts of the Hoover wilderness. Matterhorn canyon is pretty awesome. I'm not a climber but there are a lot of granite faces in this area and some nice peaks to bag including whorl mountain and Matterhorn peak.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/equanimity/sets/72157606625140243/

Quote
apeman45
For some less crowded spectacular scenery try this trip in the northeast corner of Yosemite and parts of the Hoover wilderness. Matterhorn canyon is pretty awesome. I'm not a climber but there are a lot of granite faces in this area and some nice peaks to bag including whorl mountain and Matterhorn peak.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/equanimity/sets/72157606625140243/

Nice shots der apeguy. Just a note... you gotz Benson marked as Barney.

Michael, Yosemite is too big. Just pick a loopy and go for it.
You'll miss something. You'll have to live with it. Come back again (and again... and again...)

You couldn't even see it all in that many days if u were super chick-on.

Make any loop you can think of about 50 miles. Then do that. It really won't matter.

Seriously

---

apeman45,

Great pics, I will focus my research on that area. The color of Peeler Lake is like something out of a dream. Thank you.


chick-on,

I understand your sentiment (just go, then go again). I have no delusions of seeing it all in such a short time, I'm just looking for suggestions to plan my starting point around.


`



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/2010 10:31AM by michaelb.