A reader asks for recommendations for a California backpacking trip. The requirements:
- Leaving in June.
- 4-5 hours from the Bay Area.
- 25 miles in 4.5 days.
The reader has hiked part of the Lost Coast and may decide to finish it on this trip (that would simplify things; you can’t go wrong on the Lost Coast, except getting stranded at high tide). Also, Hetch-Hetchy at Yosemite was hiked last fall so it’s off the list.
I had a couple thoughts:
- Yosemite High Country would be awesome, but the water could be running so high that many of the creeks would be impossible to cross.
- Trinity Alps springs to mind, though I don’t know how much snow they got up there this year.
More suggestions welcome; you guys get out a lot more than I do.
Lost Coast and Hetch Hetchy would have been my #1 and #2 recommendations for June.
#3 would be a through hike of the Pine Ridge Trail in Ventana, but that burned to the ground last year. (And the Dick Smith/San Rafael wilderness further south burned the year before)
By June, the high country should be mostly accessable. It will, however, be soggy, partially snowbound, and skeeter ridden.
I’m thinking maybe the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne via Glen Aulin and Waterwheel Falls?
You are correct that the Yosemite high country will likely be a bit wet/snowy still. Late June is a possibility if the melt happens sooner than usual and the hikers are OK with rather wet conditions. If so, some hike possibilities include some of the locations on the high sierra camp loop – several of these could be combined to make a trip of about the length/duration you mention. By the way, if one goes higher (say Fletcher Lake/Vogelsang) there could be _fewer_ mosquitos, since it is possible that they will not have hatched yet at these higher elevations.
It could also be possible to do something in the Hetch Hetchy area since that is lower in elevation.
Something in the Thousand Island Lake area could also work.
One might also put together a multi-day trip at Point Reyes.
Dan
I would check out Kevin Gong’s website for ideas, he used to do lots of backpacking in Calif.
I like his Rae Lake backpacking loop trip:
http://kevingong.com/Hiking/RaeLakesLoop.html