I’m planning a trip through the southern Sierras for late July-early August along the following route:
Woodchuck Trailhead near Wishon Reservoir
Chuck Pass
Crown Valley
Tehipite Canyon
Simpson Meadow
Granite Pass
Road’s End (resupply and possible spot to join or leave trip)
Avalanche Pass
Elizabeth Pass
Kaweah Gap
Chagoopa Plateau
Kern Canyon Ranger Station
Horseshoe Meadow
I have a few questions:
1. Is the road from Shaver Lake paved all the way to the Woodchuck Trailhead, or at least to Wishon Dam? I’ll probably need to persuade a car or shuttle service to take us from Fresno to the trailhead, and that’ll be easier if the road is paved.
2. Can anyone provide a recent report on the trail from Crown Valley to Simpson Meadow? My understanding is that the trail down into the canyon is very steep and very unmaintained, but I saw a September 2014 post from Mark Munger that seemed to indicate that a ranger had done some work on the trail. From Tehipite up the river to Simpson Meadow I’ve heard that the trail may be in decent shape. I’m wondering if anyone has been on this stretch of trail recently and could provide an update on its condition.
3. Are there any decent campsites on the Avalanche Pass trail between the junction with the Bubbs Creek trail and Avalanche Pass – maybe near the Sphinx Creek crossing where the trail starts heading to the west? If one of my hiking buddies joins this trip at Road’s End, I’d like the option of giving them a chance to acclimate by breaking the climb out of the Bubbs Creek canyon into two days.
4. One option for finishing the trip would be the trail through Little Whitney Meadow, Big Whitney Meadow and over Cottonwood Pass. Another option would be a little to the south, along Golden Trout Creek and the South Fork Kern River, through Bullfrog Meadow, and over Trail Pass or Mulkey Pass. Any reason to choose one route rather than the other?
5. Is it fairly easy to hitch from Horseshoe Meadow to Lone Pine? I don’t have a sense of whether the Horseshoe Meadow area gets the same amount of traffic as, say, Onion Valley.
Any help with these questions or other useful info would be appreciated – thanks.
