40-50 Mile Sierra Loop

Michael,

My favorite Sierra hike by far is a lollipop loop starting at Pine Creek and either going over Granite Bear Pass or Italy Pass looping through the Bear Lakes area and then over Feather Pass.  50% cross country that is relatively easy to manage, but one of the most beautiful and isolated areas of the Sierra.  I’d estimate 40 miles?

Andrew

This is a really nice loop:

Buckeye Flats to Redwood Meadow Grove, to Bearpaw Meadow, to the Sierra High Trail by Hamilton Lakes, Precipice Lakes, continue to Little Five Lakes, Black Rock Pass Trail, back to Redwood Meadow Grove, and out to Buckeye Flats.

North or south Sierra? North–Benson lake loop out of Twin Lakes ner Bridgeport. Easy off trail on the drainage that’s one over from Kerrick meadows, or the drainage later on going south just before you reach the vicinity of the Sawtooth range–but this last is a highlight!

Clover Meadows trailhead–any number of loops going towards Triple Divide in Yosemite, with French Canyon as a good off trail bit. You can also do a loop out of Tuolumne that goes over Vogelsang pass and then takes the high route towards Triple Divide and back. This last has a STUNNING off trail climb up to Lyell peak. This is rarely visited.

3 options come to mind, two variants of the North Lake to South loop.

Variant 1:  enter via Lamarck Col.  The route over Lamarck Col is old unmaintained trail, but will give you an idea what x-country travel is about.  This is also a day shorter than the trailed route

Variant 2:  bypass Evolution Valley via Goddard Canyon and the short x-country route past the Davis Lakes to Wanda Lake where you pick up the JMT.

Third option:  Onion Valley–Center Basin over Junction Pass to the “Pothole” scramble x-country to the Shepherd Pass trail over Shepherd Pass to the JMT and return via Forester Pass.  Or variant via Lake South America and over one of 4 possible crossings of the Kings-Kern Divide (Harrison Pass, Lucy Foot Pass, Millys Foot Pass, or Little Joe Pass).  Center Basin over Junction Pass is the old JMT route.  You will find bits of the trail but there is still enough route finding challenge to give you a taste of x-country travel.  The alternate crossings of the Kings Kern each have some challenging sections to find a “foot path” route.

Hey Michael,

I was in exactly the same situation a few years back. I wanted to try out off-trail travel with the intention of scoping out a future SHR or similar. I ended up doing a SHR/JMT loop–it was only 30 miles, but it could pretty easily be extended out NW if you want to make it longer.

I’ve got the world’s tiniest trip report and a topo map here.

Mary, that looks like a fun loop. Thanks for sharing it.

Yes, the pass to Cecile from Minaret is easy enough to find going from Minaret lake, once you find the use trail–and it’s kinda fun, because there’s only the one possible route surrounded by cliffs–but it took me a lot longer to find that same descent from Cecile to Minaret, if you go the other way. But more importantly, there can be very steep snow dropping from Cecile to Iceberg lake late in the season; it really does require proper equipment if it’s present.  But that whole area is spectacular with a bunch of off trail options.

Michael, Are you taking Ali?

Not this time unfortunately. Her and I will probably try to get a long weekend or two in the Sierras in, but this trip is for a couple buddies and I.

Ok, I just hope you are not excluding her just because she’s getting a free custom made Nunatak quilt.

Haha I wouldn’t think of it! Excited to see that in person!

Go in over Lamarck Col, hike the JMT to Palisades Lakes, then return via Cirque, Potluck, and Knapsack Passes, with an exit over Bishop Pass.  Either preposition a car at the South Lake TH, or hitchhike back to the Lake Sabrina parking area and walk back up to the North Lake TH.  This would give you a taste of off trail “lite” going in over Lamarck, an SHR stretch of the JMT down to LeConte Canyon, and a good representative sample of the SHR itself from Cirque Pass to Knapsack Pass.

How much time do you have? We did this loop out of Pine Creek last August in 6 days, with a couple of peak ascents to mix it up. It’s 50 miles and visits some pretty striking areas. We planned it to take advantage of the big snow year covering lots of talus and providing glissades where otherwise bare scree and rock would abound.