Two friends and I just finished a circumambulation of the Ritter Range starting at Tuolumne Meadows. We took the PCT to Reds Meadow. From there we headed west up to king Creek, Granite Stairway, Corral Meadow, Hemlock Crossing, south and west to Granite Creek, then up to Isberg Pass back into yosemite. We took the trail along the east bench above the Merced River and ran into 10 blow downs. Not bad. The trail up Lewis Creek to Vogelsang Pass has no blow downs. No snow anywhere on the 100 miles of trail. The cross-country passes seem to be clear - 12,000' ridges with no snow.
As of a couple days ago the PCT from Donohue through Reds Meadow was clear of blowdowns. The JMT still has blowdowns to navigate - not that many I was told.
From Reds Meadow up to the crossing of King Creek there were four major blow down piles. From King Creek to Granite Creek, including the trail from Corral Meadow to Hemlock Crossing and down and west to Granite Creek there are at least 500 blow downs. I am trying not to exaggerate. The Sierra National Forest people have major work to do. For about 25 miles we spent as much time walking around and over blowdowns as on the trail. Once the trail jogged left in the middle of a 100 yard blowdown and we spent a half hour looking for it. From the 7500' to 8800' level blow downed tree piles are everywhere. No rhyme or reason - north slopes, south slopes, etc. Trees in this elevation band tend to be big, and when in piles, can be awesome - a giant's hand just knocked 20 of them down willy nilly.
The trail from Earthquake Meadow to Hemlock Crossing has not been maintained in years, and in Naked Lady Meadow can be found only by stumbling onto pink ribbons hung from trees every 200' or so on the north side of the meadow. The crossing of Iron Creek involved climbing over a 10' pile of trees on the north bank. Very dispiriting.
Mosquitos were horrendous below 9600'. There really wasn't anywhere on the trip under that elevation where relaxation was possible.
We ran into about 35 PCT thru-hikers over three and a half days with the herd only a week or so behind. They should be trailing each other into Yosemite about now, taxing services and crowding the trail. From greeting them we took to saying hi and walking past. Just too many people heading south on the PCT.
We saw no one from King Creek to Isberg Pass, and only one set of footprints over 30 miles or so. From Isberg to Vogelsang High Sierra Camp we saw four people. There were 10 trees on the trail from Isberg Pass to the junction at the Lewis Creek Trail up to Vogelsang Pass. The high country is fairly empty off the main trails and a couple days from a trailhead.
The high country north of Hemlock Crossing JUST BEGS to be explored. it feels really, really empty.
Jeffrey Olson
Rapid City, SD, and Santa Rosa, CA
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/2012 10:27PM by Jeffrey Olson.