Mineral King on Memorial Day

“I'm going to put in for a permit for a long weekend backpacking trip out of Mineral King in the Sierras. Anyone else interested in Memorial Day Weekend? I believe they start taking permit requests on March 1st.

email me if interested: wingding0@hotmail.com”

“What pass are you thinking about?
I won't do Timber Gasp again!!!

Unless things warm up Memorial Day be pretty early up there.”

“Sawtooth Pass

Maybe the snow will slow the trip down, but at the same time it'll be fun to have some white stuff.”

“I'm up for something for Memorial Weekend. The snow should make that (scree) trail to Sawtooth easier to hike. I remember 1 step up, slide back down.

Last year we climbed Langley, but didn't know til a few days before, whether the road would be open or not.

Put me down as tentative for MK.”

“Wow Wingding0! Sawtooth on Memorial Day weekend? That is the highest/steepest/meanest pass in Mineral King....Got Ice Axe and Crampons? LOL!
It might be ok...who knows? I'd check with the rangers periodically though....you could always slip over Franklin and take the long way around.

I'm getting gun shy... everytime I try to make advance plans something comes up that I just have to do. I was going to do two with Mel and one with Obi Wan Canoli and all 3 conflicted with family stuff. So when I can get away....I'm outa here!”

“Sawtooth? I guess you can count me out.
Watch out for the false passes. The 1st time I tried it, I went to Glacier Pass (to the north) and the last time I went to the notch to the south.”

“I wish I didn't work on weekends, I'd be down for that one!

I think you don't need to worry about how much snow is up there unless we get a cold spell. Right now the temperature in Fresno is so warm I've been wearing shorts all week.”

“Fresno....Fresno!!!!!!!!!! ahahahahahahahhaahahhahaahha................FRESNO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...Bakersfield here”

“if its warm in Fresno it must be hot in Bakersfield”

“HOI.. the temps are usually within a couple of degrees of each other.

Thinair, wsdavies ...I'm in little ol P'ville half way between you guys.”

“It'll be great if you can make it Snow Nymph.

I put in for a permit for six because a few others have tenatively said they'd like to go. If more are interested as Memorial Day get's closer, I'll request another permit.

I was up in the Stanislaus National Forest last weekend and the snow was melting really fast, so I started to think MK might work for Memorial Day.”

“Keep me posted WingDing. If you have another opening. I have wanted to explore the Mineral King area for a while now..”

“Actually I guess I could just pull a permit too.”

“It would be great to have you along WLD. Let me know if you decide to pull your own permit. I'm probably going to try to add a couple space to the one I requested just in case interest grows beyond six.”

“If you have openings, we might join you. If not, we'll pull our own. SnowDude hasn't been in that area yet.

Mammoth is expecting a storm tonight. If so, it should be nice this weekend!”

“Anyone know when the road opens to Mineral King? Do you think Memorial Day is too early for Sawtooth?”

“...it was 88 degrees here yesterday! That snow will be melting for sure!!! It's a local call for me ...so I'll call SNP tomorrow and ask when the road will open....Ok?”

“Talked to the Rangers at the Foothill visitor center today.
They said the road would be open Memorial Day weekend but not much earlier than that. I asked about Sawtooth....it was pretty much, we'll have to wait and see kind of an answer. He said if the quotas are not filled for some of the other trailheads we could opt to go out another way if Sawtooth wasn't open enough to get through.
But on Memorial Day weekend that could be a pretty big IF ! There are many options on that little dead end road though. Could do Timber Gap to Blackrock pass instead or Timber Gap to Redwood Meadows and camp in the Giants or a dozen other possibilities.

It has been very warm here in the Valley. If this continues it may not even be a concern.”

“Last year we got the same kind of answer for Cottonwood Lakes. We didn't know til Wed of that week if we could go. Someone sent me a photo of the lake from the weekend before, which was frozen. A week later, most of the ice was gone.”

“If you want current information, don't talk to the rangers, they never seem to have it right. Their estimates always tend to be very conservative. Few rangers venture beyond the 1st few miles of a trail. Information they have tends to be 2nd hand and old.”

“"We won't really know the trail conditions until people start going in and out of the wilderness" :)”

“What lies on the other side of sawtooth pass...Columbine Lake

Sawtooth Peak 12,343'

Looking down on Columbine from Sawtooth Peak”

“for checking with the Rangers and for those pictures. They're nice. I guess we can get there, but then will we be able to get very far.

Has anyone been on the Lakes Trail in Sequoia? It goes out to Heather and Pear Lakes from Wolverton.”

“Lakes Trail Part 1

Lakes Trail part 2

I did a day hike into Emerald Lake back in November. Wanted to revisit this area...it was my very first backpacking trip 25 years ago!

It's a very well traveled trail. There are two routes, the Hump and the Watchtower that merge at Heather lake. I have yet to use the hump trail because I love the breathtaking views of the Watchtower route.
Near the Watchtower itself ...you can look over the edge and see another trail way down in the bottom of the canyon...where the people look like ants :)

There is no camping at Heather or Aster lakes. Emerald and Pear have numbered campsites like a campground. I would like to go x-country to Moose Lake and maybe Big Bird Lake sometime though!”

“Is this trip still on? Or has it switch to another location?”

“I think it's still on... Right Wingding! (I think Kathy was just inquiring about another west side trail)

We'll have to wait until May to see if we can get back there.
We had a freaky storm and
it snowed down to 3,500'last night.”

“Great... I will watch for the posts. But I do want to hike the Mineral King area this year. If at all possible.”

“Mammoth Mountain got 8" last night, and it was still snowing this morning (according to the daily update).”

“The trip is still on, but weather could effect it. I'm hoping it works out.”