Rae Lakes loop

1) It's 42 miles total, divided by 3 = 14 miles per day. If your pack is light and you're in reasonable shape, it should be OK. Personally I would not hesitate to do it in 3 days.

2) If you get to Road's End early and are willing to take either Woods or Bubbs Creek, you have a decent chance of getting a walk-up, especially since you are starting Friday.

3) Mosquitoes – none on Woods Creek 2 weeks ago; would suspect that the only place you might find some is near Rae Lakes, but they should be nearly gone by now.

4) Plenty of water on the whole loop, no difficult crossings

5) It's easier to start on Woods Creek since the climb is more gradual, but is OK either way

6) I see 20% chance of thunderstorms – that could go either way – bring a good raincoat and shelter, and make it over Glen Pass early in the day.

7) Can fish anywhere on Woods or Bubbs Creek, and Rae Lakes too. Sixty Lakes Basin is fishless.

8) No way! hardly any snow anywhere this year.

Hope this helps…

Andrew covered most of the bases very well–I’ll just supplement his thoughts with another voice.

I will probably be in the vicinity of Rae Lakes loop this weekend, also starting Friday AM at the Copper Creek Trailhead, ascending Granite Pass, intersecting the JMT, ascending Mather and Pinchot Passes, then intersecting Rae Lakes Loop at Wood’s Creek crossing, and completing CW Rae Lakes loop from there (see here). So I’ve been looking at weather, etc for the region. It’s aggressive, but I plan to do that in three days.

1) I’ve done the Rae Lakes loop twice, once in 6 days (with my wife, adding 60 Lake Basin–first backpacking trip; I had a 55 lb pack!), once in 4 days (with my dad, adding 60 Lake Basin). If I were to do the loop solo this weekend, I’d do it in two days. Three days is eminently doable. If I were to do it in three days, I’d probably spend the first night at Upper Paradise Valley (assuming CW), second night at Rae Lakes or in Sixty Lake basin (a worthwhile addition), and go over Glen and finish on the third day. If going CCW, I’d probably add a detour to East Lake, and camp the first night at East Lake, second at Wood’s Creek crossing.

2) Get there early, but I think your prospects are good, especially if you’re willing to go CCW (Bubb’s Creek).

3) Mosquitos should be pretty tame–you’ll probably see a few, but that’s it. I would recommend (and am) leaving netting and DEET at home. Bears are active on Rae Lakes loop. I’ve seen them both times I’ve done it. You’ll need a bear canister for food storage. I think they can be rented from Road’s End.

4) It’s a very wet loop, as Andrew pointed out. But while there is plenty of water available, there are no stream crossings of note.

5) If you want the bigger climbs first, go CCW (Bubb’s Creek). This is typically the easier permit to get. The loop is essentially up up up down down down, so no matter which way you go, it will be an easy finish. Most prefer going CW to acclimate a bit before going over Glen Pass.

6) I see the same thing Andrew does, from weather.gov. I’ll look at it Thursday, to better know what to anticipate. As usual, I anticipate afternoon thunderstorms in the Sierra. Extended storms happen, but are rare–the forecast doesn’t show that as likely as of now. As Andrew pointed out, try to clear the high passes early in the day if thunderstorm activity appears likely.

7) No comment – haven’t fished on the loop

8) Absolutely not. If you were worried about needing crampons on Island Pass, I’m surprised you didn’t ask about them on Glen Pass. Island Pass is barely a pass. The first time I went over it, I didn’t even realize I had gone over a pass. Regardless–in both cases, you absolutely don’t need crampons.

Right on Adam. Doing that loop you posted in three days sounds burly. That's like 8k vertical per day. Let us know how it goes.

Well, my plans just changed!

I just got a call from the SEKI wilderness office that said there is a fire in lower tent meadow, and the Copper Creek trail will be closed for up to a week.

Time to look for a plan B…

(edit: as of Tuesday at 12:30pm, the Copper Creek trail is open again! No plan B needed!)

You could also go up Lewis Creek/Kennedy Pass instead.

> You could also go up Lewis Creek/Kennedy Pass instead.

That occurred to me, but I think it adds something like 14 miles and 3,500 ft of climbing and descending. I think I would probably need to add a day to do that, unless I descended Wood's Creek instead of Bubb's.

I would probably try to coax a Bubb's Creek permit out of them first, and just hike Rae Lakes CCW, ending the first day at Wood's Creek crossing, using the second day to detour up to Pinchot Pass and possibly Mather if the weather cooperated, planning to return to Wood's Creek crossing at the end of day 2, then descend Wood's Creek and Paradise Valley on day 3.

So Yuri, it's your thread–sorry for the semi-threadjack! Might I see you up there this weekend?

Hi Adam,

I'm going with my dad, but we haven't nailed the area just yet. Will probably know thursday where we will end up.

Right now the two remaining issues i'm facing:

1) can we manage 14 miles per day with a few stops to fish here and there?
2) how likely are we to get permit (either direction)

I would preffer Rae Lakes over my plan B, but dont know for sure where we will go.

A somewhat related question. When trying to get a permit how early is early. And where is a good place to sleep/camp the night before showing up early to the permit station? Close is good but free is better.

I think the permit station at Road's End opens at 7:00 or 7:30. They usually start giving out permits at 11AM the day before. There are a number of first-come, first-served campgrounds near Road's End, they are all around $21-25 per night. Sadly there isn't any free camping that I know of around there.

The car campgrounds are close to Cedar Grove, which is six or so miles downhill from Roads End.

The permit station at Roads End opens around 7:00 a.m., depending on when the ranger gets there. Sometimes during prime season there is a big crowd of backpackers waiting there, jockeying for position in line.

It seems a lot smarter to get there the day before to get a permit. In fact, it is better yet to have a permit reserved so that you know you will get it.

–B.G.–

Well, reserving would be dandy, but too late for that now. We usually drive through the night to show up right before opening. I tried calling Cedar grove center to ask what are the chances of us getting one in the morning, but they are not answering and i had to leave a message.

Ok, we decided to go with plan B – Thousand Island, Wagh, etc. Just not sure if we will have enough time for fishing and enjoyment of the scenery if do Rae. Both of us can't be late to work Monday morning and it is a 7 hour drive (with no traffic).