Re: Kibbie Lake Snowcamp

I went snow camping at Kibbie Lake this weekend. My trip started when I picked up the permit I requested in the drop box (Stanislaus NF), and found it was counter-signed by a pink chicken. The trail was generally clear (small snow patches) up to the Kibbie Lake/Styx Pass trail junction, beyond that the trail was generally snow covered (small clear areas). The lake was mostly frozen over, a few small open patches, my water supply was melting snow draining towards the lake. Saturday was beautiful, warm, mostly sunny. Saturday night was clear, and considerably colder than the forecast (forecast for that location was 30, ice was moderately developed in my water bottles), Sunday was mostly cloudy and breezy but no real precipitation.

Its a long way into Kibbie Lake when starting from the Cherry Lake dam, but it was really cool having the lake to myself. It would have worked better as a two night trip so I could spend the middle day exploring around and just enjoying being there.

View of the lake:



Campsite:

Awesome. Just awesome.
When saw your permit and 2 days... Old Dude and I thought it was unlikely you'd make it in all the way to Kibbie.
You need to change your hike-on status to Super Chick-on. Well done.
When OD and I went to Kibbie in the snow... well over 10 years ago now... it took us three days to get in there.
Snow from the dam .... nightmare quagmire in the "marshy" area about 2 miles from the lake...
on day 4 we got our butts up early at the lake and since the snow solidified overnight... ran out of there sans snowshoes
all the way to the dam.
Did you take trail all the way to Shingle? Or hike on the road? Why? Well... I'm just wondering if they
cut the large trees that had fallen across the road in the big wind storm last fall..

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Going in I took the road to Shingle because I didn't know where the trail was (there's several trail-like tracks near the Eleanor trailhead), coming back I took the trail all the way to Eleanor trailhead.

The road's mostly cleared up, a little more cutting required on the switchbacks but nothing major. The trail down from Shingle was also in good shape, it looked like it had seen a little bit of recent cutting.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/2012 07:58AM by ttilley.

In Dec. when I did the Eleanor/Flora/Inferno/Mercur loop there was a huge log across the
road after the first switchback.... sounds like it's cut and Apr. 15th will be able to get to Shingle TH.
Few people hike the trail from Eleanor to Shingle. Amazingly it's in stellar condition (hiked it
twice in December). Hopefully you at least hiked the trail to Eleanor TH from the dam
(turn left after crossing the dam and you can't miss it... hahaha) (seriously... the first time
we ever went that-a-way... we did it in the dark... so it aint that bad).
(however, there is a trail jct. mid way b/t Cherry and Eleanor... the left one going to Shingle trail...
the right one to the Eleanor TH... but really... they are both so close... it shouldn't matter).
Anywho... glad you had a good time

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This was the view of Cherry on Dec 27th, 2011:

(Z wife at this point decided she had had enough of my xcountry excursions and opted for the trail down to
Eleanor TH area)

Last century The Old Dude and I have hiked from the dam into Mercur Lake on day 1... and then out on day 2. In Late Nov.
Interestingly Kibbie has pretty good fishing... whereas almost all the lakes west of Kendrick Creek have zero fish in them.
Mercur used to have monster fish in it... (I caught a really big Brown Trout once there)... but I haven't seen those
fish in that lake since that time. (I'm not making this up). (it was a "dying" lake ... that big trout looked nasty)

Anyway, Have Fun

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Nice picture, looking back at the set on Picasa I see that was the 'bald eagle' trip.

What brought you to the Groveland RD Friday PM/Saturday AM?

Old Dude, his Son-in-Law, and I were on our way to Hetch Hetchy area and I
was showing Non Old-Dude my "best kept secret this side of Yosemite"...
This gave me a few minutes to peek in the mailbox and markup your permit.

We took some other backroads up towards the lookout tower right there also
and from there you can see all the way to Tower Peak ... including Richardson.
We were heading to Rancheria... but I decided to take a somewhat more scenic route there
since had just been that-a-way and up LeConte a few weeks prior.
I put some pix here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/yosemite.chick.on/AltRoute2Rancheria

Enjoy

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Nice pictures, thanks. That has to be pretty difficult cross-country, even w/ the obvious fire burn.

I also like the fire safety demonstration Old Dude gave.

Thank you both for sharing the pictures. I love to see that area of the park.

On a sidenote, I love dealing with the the forest service off 120. Picking up a permit in the mail box is such a great service. I'm jealous! 10 more days til I can get out in the backcountry!