King canyon august

Kevin,
I did this same trip about 10 years ago.
The loop itself is about 70 miles.
I did it in the opposite direction.
Your 5-7 days time seems right.
I was not a SUL hiker back then and started with 35 pounds and it was a little hard for a 5 day trip.

One thing I would recommend is to go through Lake South America.
I went further south along the JMT and cut straight over to Colby.
It is nowhere near as scenic as Lake South America.

I was there two years ago. Lake South America was OK, but Harrison Pass was pretty awesome.

–B.G.–

"spend a day exploring kaweah basin then back to road end from forester pass."

How do you plan to access Kaweah Basin?

Thanks for the input guys, Im really excited about the trip! Ill check out South America lake, thanks for the suggestion Aaron. The trail along the Kern river looks pretty cool, I can follow that to South America lake. I have seen pictures of big bend in the river with western divide in the background.

Going over Harrison pass sounds pretty cool instead of forester. I really like both Lake Reflection and East lake. But I have very little experience cross-country so I save that for another trip. Unless I was with someone who was experience leading the route.

Tom I was thinking of following the stream that flows down from Picket Guard and maybe alittle beyond. Do you have a suggestion of where to go? I have seen a couple photos of the area from other people trip reports, the area looks really cool. I think it would be really cool to maybe do a loop over the Kaweah to Nine lake basin for a future trip.
Kevin

If anything blows up with your current plan, then shift gears and do a long loop out of Mineral King. It is just a bit further south and maybe just a bit warmer. A new bighorn sheep herd is present in Laurel Creek.

–B.G.–

"Tom I was thinking of following the stream that flows down from Picket Guard and maybe alittle beyond. Do you have a suggestion of where to go?"

That is the route I would suggest. It is my favorite way into Kaweah Basin. Be sure to take the right(east) fork of Pickett Creek. The left one, which drains the chain of lakes over in the Pickett Creek drainage will take you into some pretty serious terrain, probably best avoided on your first visit, especially if you're going solo.

You're going to love it up there, guaranteed!