tehipite valley sept 29, 30 and oct 1?

Hi Cody! I'm thinking of hiking in to Tehipite Valley this weekend, Sept 19, out of Wishon Reservoir. Have you heard any trail reports on water? Is there any flow in Crown Creek? I worried about hiking a dry trail, but am having a tough time getting trail reports from the back country rangers.

Hey mark, was told yesterday by a Ranger that water will be running in major creeks along the trail, I assumed this meant Rancheria and Crown. Also there is water at Spanish and Geraldine lakes.

This is the info I got from calling the high sierra ranger district, haven't seen any TR's lately to confirm this.

Have a great trip if you decide to go!

Thanks for the reply! I hadn't been able to talk to any back country rangers, so your information is very welcome! We're going to go for it this weekend. I'll post an update when I get back and let you know how things went! Cheers!

Trails in that area are rarely traveled by rangers, and the trail into Tehipite is never maintained. There have been multiple rescues from the valley by helicopter. People go down the switchbacks and have great difficulty, and some can't get back out.

Don't forget to leave an itinerary. http://reconn.org

There is a book called Angels in the Wilderness about someone who broke her legs on the way down "the b*tch" (as we locals have taken to calling the switchbacks) and was miraculously rescued, as there are rarely people on this route.

It's very late in the season for this trip. Don't forget to pack the car with chains and emergency gear. The trailhead itself is pretty remote and the store/facilities at Wishon are closed for the season.

Have a great trip Mark! Look forward to your updates of the area.

Hi Cody!

My son and I had a terrific trip to Tehipite last weekend! I'm glad to report that all of the creeks were running with a surprisingly good flow, even the small creeks. The combination of the dry summer and tons of livestock made the trail from Rancheria Creek TH to Crown Valley a dusty mess. Fortunately, we received about 1.5" of rain on a stormy night in Tehipite, and trail conditions going out were much better!

There was a pretty big fire a few years back that really improved the views once you get past Crown Valley. You follow the burn literally to the start of the "hill", but I thought it made the trail more interesting to see the forest recovering. As always, the "hill" was a bitch, but a ranger has been in recently with a mule and the trail down the hill is clean and clear.

We camped about 1/2 mile up canyon, once you hit bottom, and found a great and slightly improved campsite. The only downer was the trash that some lame party left in the camp. Broken sunglasses, broken head lamp, tons of aluminum foil, etc. Unfortunately, I was so worried about my own ability to get back up the "hill", that we didn't carry out much of the others trash. We did pack out a bag full of aluminum foil and paper trash, but none of the big stuff. I'm sorry if you end up having to live with this in camp like we did. I can never understand how people can be in a place of such grand beauty and leave their trash. We also had a very big bear in camp one morning and saw tons of fresh bear scat throughout the valley. Fortunately, he was more afraid of us than we were of him, and he made quite a racket crashing through the forest to get away from us. Also, 2 days in the valley and no rattlesnakes!

We climbed out of Tehipite last Monday. We woke up at 5:00 am to hit it early and used head lamps for the first 20 minutes of the hike. Surprisingly, we made up to the top in just over 2 hours, about the same time it took us to drop down. It's such a great feeling to hit the top, but also left me a bit melancholy to leave such an amazing and almost sacred place. I thought this might have been my last to Tehipite, but I miss it already.

I hope you have a terrific trip. I left part of my heart and soul in that beautiful place, so if you see it there, just be gentle with it!

Sounds like you guys had a great time Mark! Super jealous! My colleague ended up bailing on me and didn't feel like going to the sierras solo so opted for a night at pt reyes instead. Ended up meeting a great group of people who have similar ambitions for sierra hiking and peak bagging so super stoked for that to have happened.
Anyway thanks again for posting hope to post a TR of the area next year!