Hiking off the Trail

“I'v been intrested in the "High Sierra Route" It has no official trail and was wondering if anyone has hiked part of it. I'v bought a book that describes it. A good portion is at elevations above 10,000.”

“I'm thinking of hiking one or two sections this summer.

ThinAir^^^”

“You been breathing thin air, ThinAir?

Gopher it!”

“That sounds like a worthy challenge. How well do you read topo maps? I don't completely trust myself to go totally without a trail, for long treks, just yet.”

“All I do in the off season is stare at those maps, planing future dream trips. :-)

The cool thing about the higher altitude routes, is that there is less trees and more granite. You can really see the topography around you and than figure exactly where you're at. My only worries are the fact that you cross many loose bolders while climbing to passes.

This route travels near many peaks between Mt.Whitney and Yosemite. Some of the route follows trails and then heads off to less traveled terain. The author of the book provides maps, but doesn't mark an actual path on them. He only describes landmarks and passes so that the area remains natural. The idea is to get away from the trail and design your own route to a common point like a pass. He also asks that karrens be dismantled if found.

I'm excited and hope that I can get enough time to see some of this this summer. I have to admit that I am a little wary of leaving the trail too sence I hike solo mostly.

ThinAir^”

“Aerial photos corrected for distortion and georectified to match 7.5 minute USGS quads. Usually 1 meter resolution, gray scale.

much of the area is available on the internet. Huge files, though. One quad is typically around 180-200 mb.

Search for DOQ, DOQQ, or
Digital Orthophoto Quadrangles.

Microsoft use to have a site with most of the U.S covered. Don't know if they still do or not. I would provide a link but I don't have one handy, it's late, and
...zzzzzzzzz.....”

“Practice your compass skills!!!

To many cairns are alittle unsightly but I would not recommend knocking them all down. They're there for a reason.”

“Check with the rangers! The topo in this area have a lot of errors.
Most of time if you stay in the valley you want you can't get lost. But those passes are a LOT harder than they look on the map!
You'll see very few people and have an awsome adventure!”

“I've touched upon several spots of the "High Route" and have plotted the southern end up to the Humphreys Basin area. Too many trails (or in this case no trails) and not enough time.”

“Don't for get to compensate for the mangetic declination!”

“one word,
GPS”

“I just last fall did a small part of the High Sierras and I'll tell ya thin it is a real hard walk First there are no trees, not as most of us think of them. the tree line is somewhere between 11-12k, there arn't many and 5' is a tall one. Next, distances are discepted, what looks like maybe a couple of miles can be more like five because the nature of the ground gets lost in the broken rock. It is all the same colour of rock so things blend well. And rock HOPPING, that is about all you do. Don't think that it is like those nice pics of Yosemite, with smooth granite expances. The High Sierras are where those glaicers started and ended so there is mountains of large broken rock.
On the otherside of things, sunrises and sets are unreal, you live in the stars and the air is still very clear. People are great and you always seem to have a plane overhead. If you would like to see some pics of the upper Evolution V. / Mt Darwin area let me know. I did not find that pics in any of the guide books really gave me a feeling of what it is really like.”

“I've been a few places like these, and the reason I would go is because of what trininty described. Also I'm not worried about Topos. I actually prefer the smaller scale vs the 7.5s of today. My favorite are the Tom Harrington maps. These you can see the Topo detail and are able to figure out the surounding peaks you see. It takes some common sence and some skill to navigate, but I'm confident. My dad took me on a couple of off trail hikes when I was a kid. We headed to some secluded lakes for trout fishing, he tought me a lot about figuring out the lay of the land.”

“trinity trekker, I'd love to see some pics so post a link or E mail me. thanks”

“ThinAir, I've done a couple of short sections of the Roper Route, but I've never tried the whole thing. It sounds like you already have Roper's book, which is one of the first absolute necessities.

The difficulty of the route varies a lot. There are some pretty hairy passes; I've been hiking off-trail in the Sierra for about 10 years, but I would be hesitant to try parts of the route. The first part of the route, as far as Glacier Lakes, is a good way to get your feet wet; the routefinding is pretty straightforward, there's nothing too scary, but you do get a good taste of off-trail travel in the high country. There are several good trip reports covering this stretch; I'll find them and post urls.

The site gordon is referring to is the Terraserver, and I think it has most if not all of the High Route. Those images will give you a pretty good idea of ground cover in a given area, but they really flatten out the terrain.

You can get a tremendous amount of information from the folks in two Yahoo clubs: California's High Sierra, and Sequoia Kings Canyon Hikers. Collectively, the members of these clubs have been just about everywhere you can go in the Sierra. Join the clubs and ask whatever specifically you want to know, and they'll be happy to give you info.

Also, feel free to e-mail me questions at tehipite@thebackpacker.com. I'll be glad to help if I can.”

“tehipite, I went to Yahoo and did a search for the two sites you described but couldn't find em. Please give me a hint.
Thanks”

“Never mind, I found it thanks anyway”

“If you found the clubs, great--if not, I'll post the urls.

Also, Charles Hayden has trip reports from 2000 (coves the High Route from the Copper Creek Trail to Lakes Basin) and 1990 (covers the High Route from Horseshoe Lakes to Upper Basin). Both of these reports have detailed description, and lots of great pictures. Doyle Donehoo's Sierra Trails magazine has a trip report on the Cirque Crest, which covers Horseshoe Lakes to Lake Basin; this one also has great pictures, but the description is not quite as detailed (still good, though).

Enjoy!”

“Ooops. Tehipite beat me to it. Sorry.”

“TA!

ALWAYS, trust your compass not
your intuition in times of doubt
re routefinding. Look back as
you go up if you plan up and
back trips.

Make sure your compass is set
to declination for your area.

Don't attempt routefind in the fog.
Camp or wait for it to lift.

Offtrail travel is AWESOME...only way
to go. Most of my bps I only see folks
at the trailhead.

Use minimal impact but do not remove
cairns. Someone behind might depend
on them. Removal of cairns imposes
"your" sense of wilderness on others.
Better to remove "trash".

Good luck, TA!

Highcountry”

“One more thing, ThinAir: I would strongly advise going with the 7.5' maps. Bring the Tom Harrison map too, so you can identify far-off peaks and such; but the terrain in the high country is a lot more complicated than it seems, and you really want the most detailed map you can find.”

“thinair, here's a site with some great pics
http://www.bearcomp.com/tom/sierra/”

“Hey, ThinAir--I just ran across a trip report from a guy who did a sizable chunk of the Roper route. More photos than text, but there are some good shots of a couple of the trickier passes. Enjoy!”

“Hey thanks, that looked like a great trip. And the pictures were great tooo...”