Category : Sierra High Route

The Sierra High Route (SHR) is an alternate route — not a trail — through the high Sierra Nevada suggested by Steve Roper in his 1990 book Sierra High Route: Traversing Timberline County. It somewhat parallels the John Muir Trail (JMT) for most its length, and briefly uses the JMT to move from one crest to another. Steve Roper agonized over whether to share the route in a book; he feared its pristine nature would be damaged by overuse.


Between the months of June and October 2015, I had the privilege to take on every mile of the SHR, solo. I attacked it in a south to north fashion; however, I started with a chunk at the north, and hiked subsequent chunks moving south by a chunk from that. I had the luxury to be able to take chunks over the course of several months, when I felt up to them. However, as I approached the southernmost chunk, smoke from the expansive (80,000 acres and only 25% at the time of writing in early September) Rough Fire filled the Kings Canyon and closed the southern terminus at Cedar Grove. It’s uncertain when I will be able to hike the remaining 30 miles from Land’s End to Taboose Pass (the SHR near the southern foot of Mathers Pass).

I kept my camper van in Lone Pine, a wild frontier town in the Eastern Sierra, and resupplied from there. All trail access was done by hitchhiking and the Eastern Sierra Transit bus. As I already had the gear from my PCT thru-hike, this hike cost me very little money (mostly just food expense).


June 13-15th: Tuolumne Meadows to Twin Lakes
July 15-19th: Reds Meadow to Tuolumne Meadows
July 24-27th: Piute Pass to Reds Meadow
August 16-20th: Taboose Pass to Piute Pass
October 18-22nd: Kearsarge Pass to Taboose Pass

Total trail miles: ~195 of 195 (Roper’s main suggested route almost completed; two “major” alternates used: Alpine Col and Cartridge Pass)
Total miles hiked (access trails included): 233
Total days on trail: 21
Today days on the SHR: 19

talus

SHR Talus Report

I wouldn’t say I had too many surprises this summer on the Sierra High Route (SHR). I was fairly lucky with weather, I had warm gear, almost enough food, and navigation worked out well. I only had two death-defying falls. One thing stands out about this hike and that thing is exceptional amounts of talus. Now that I think about it, talus caused both of my falls (1, 2). Talus, Talus, Talus So much talus. Talus fields. More talus than you can shake a stick at. Talus coming out your ears. Talus rainbows. Talus, talus, talus. What is talus? ta·lus: a sloping mass of rock fragments at the foot of a cliff. Pics of SHR talus will give you the idea: Talus is tricky. Over time, as one hikes over miles and miles of talus field, one might become a continue reading…

More Sierra High Route “Bonus Miles”

Abram – the mysterious fellow I met on my L2H hike in October – introduced me to the concept of “bonus miles.” We’re lucky enough as it is to be hiking, thus, any extra miles hiked to get here or there that aren’t on the itinerary are “bonus miles.” Bonus Miles – Pics These are shots from the bonus miles tagged to the end of my Sierra High Route trek. I was done with this epic route at around 1pm October 21st, but I was still deep in the Sierra. A matter of note – the old Taboose Pass trail is very cool. It’s marked on topo maps but little-traveled, a tiny bit hard to find in spots, and quite steep, but I loved it. I took it on the way out for variety. It wasn’t until about 1pm on continue reading…

Sierra High Route Part 1: Roads End to Taboose Pass

October 19 – Road’s End to Granite Basin This 35-mile bit of the SHR took me 5 days (an extra day to hike 20 miles to the trailhead, and an extra day to hike 10+ miles out). On the afternoon of October 19th, I made it to Road’s End. I had already covered ten miles in the morning; here are the next ten. Going up Copper Creek Trail made for one of the more difficult days I’ve had on trail. It was a gorgeous, groomed trail, even after angry storms blew through the week before. But this trail is straight up. From 5036 feet at the trailhead to of something like that to the 10,347 feet at the Granite Basin lip – that’s 5312 feet in under 7 miles. Even having just completed one of the world’s steepest climbs the continue reading…

A Walk from Onion Valley to Road’s End

In the middle of October, after having finished an amazing L2H hike with two great guys (Bulldozer and Abram), I was looking at wrapping up my season and heading back to Portland to spend the holidays with my mother. But it was driving me crazy that I hadn’t finished my Sierra High Route hike. I walked around Mt. Williamson, summiting two 14ers to compensate, and I made some excuses, but still it was driving me crazy when I wasn’t trying to put it out of my mind. I’m not sure I’d feel right if I didn’t complete the SHR in one season as I intended. LoveNote showed up in Lone Pine and planted the seed again, a few days later. When I told her my excuses, she (and her dog) gave me this look: And that did it. Next thing continue reading…

Marion Lake

In 1901 Joseph LeConte married Helen Marion Gompertz, a fellow member of the Sierra Club. In 1902 they backpacked up the little known Cartridge Creek and discovered a beautiful unnamed lake. LeConte named the lake Marion after his wife, and when she died in 1924, a formal plaque was placed on a rock on the shore (it’s still there), with this view. 💐😭 Marion Lake might be one of the most gorgeous and unique alpine lakes in the Sierra, and is fittingly extremely difficult to access – high and remote. I was charmed by this sweet love story, and camped near the lake outlet* *But not too near! I was at least 200 feet away from the water, @elisabitch!

Cloudbreak

5300 vertical feet and 5 hours later (whew, did it really take me that long to climb the Copper Creek Trail?) I reached Granite Basin. I took this SHR alternate with more established trail due to snow on the ground and weather conditions (cold, possible snow). Also, supposedly there’s a ranger station nearby (I didn’t find it). I just didn’t want to take any chances since I was solo and without an emergency beacon. Granite Basin is spectacularly granite-y and features a Yosemite-ish dome. I made camp as quickly as possible at 10,250ft near Monarch Divide, and dove into my down bag. Many coyotes sang me to sleep, and I woke up briefly at some point to a hail storm.

Making Steve Roper Proud

The Sierra High Route is a 195-mile long route charted through the backcountry — and along some existing trails — of the High Sierra Nevada. It was devised by noted Sierra climber and historian Steve Roper, and originally, discreetly, published in book form in 1982. I first learned about it in 2013 during my thru-hike when the wonderfully thought-full hiker “Manchurian.” Manchurian hiked a section of the Sierra High Route between Reds Meadow and Tuolumne, I’m not sure how much of it he conquered but I remember him telling me it wasn’t too hard, and that the only sign of humanity he found out there was a deflated helium balloon. When the Pacific Crest Trail and it’s burgeoning “culture” totally disenfranchised me earlier this year, I made a rather knee-jerk decision to ditch the PCT and instead tackle that remote continue reading…

SHR me and the muir hut

Sierra High Route Part 2: Taboose Pass to Piute Pass

Day 1: Taboose Pass to Taboose Pass August 16th. I started the day having leftover apple pie, cinnamon rolls, and fresh hot coffee with LoveNote and Burly White’s wedding party near South Lake. This was a beautiful wedding, a marriage of two great people who met while hiking the Continental Divide trail and fell in love. They crowned their hike and sealed the deal by adopting a puppy together, and this great dog, “Huckleberry,” dug holes between the two as they voiced their oaths. Behind them the backdrop of the Inconsolable Range and Bishop Pass Mountains Mt. Goode, Mt. Johnson, and Mt. Thompson seemed only painted on canvas — it was that perfect. I was watching them get married and looking at familiar High Sierra at the same time. I was something of the “wedding crasher,” having not only just continue reading…

Sierra High Route Part 3: Piute Pass to Reds Meadow

Day 1: Piute Pass Trailhead to French Canyon July 24th. This hike was kicked off with a pleasant hitch in a big truck from a fellow named Kelly. Kelly had just dropped his niece “Sierra” off at Mt. Whitney so that she could summit, and was headed back to Bishop where he was visiting family. Kelly and his niece had just finished the John Muir Trail (JMT) and had themselves hitch hiked, so he was eager to “pay it forward.” He was not only super fun to chat with, but he stopped by Great Basin bakery in Bishop (so much better than Schatz FWIW) and bought me a coffee, a muffin, and a baguette to pack out, AND he drove me all the way to the Puite Pass trailhead. With such luck and grace in the morning, it was inconceivable continue reading…

Sierra High Route Part 4: Reds Meadow to Tuolumne Meadows

This ~50-mile stretch of the Sierra High Route took me four days. I left from Reds Meadows near Mammoth Lakes on a Wednesday afternoon at 12:30pm and came out in Tuolumne Meadows on a Sunday at 11:00am with heels on fire – I wanted to make breakfast at the diner! Day 1: Devil’s Postpile to Superior Lake July 15th. It began with a pleasant enough jaunt along the PCT/JMT towards Devil’s Postpile, a mind-bogglingly geometric statue sculpted by no other force than Mother Nature. Mostly hexagonal (44.5%) and pentagonal (37.5%) rock posts — some of them near perfect — arise out of the ground up a couple hundred feet. They cracked into this shape when a mass of volcanic lava cooled slowly gazillions of years ago, and then were smoothed off by glacier movement at the top to show their continue reading…

Rough Fire

I’m trying to stay cool about the fact that the Rough Fire might keep me from finishing the last 30 miles of my 195-mile Sierra High Route hike this season. I’ve hitch-hiked 850 miles to Portland to visit family and friends and wait it out a bit, but it’s now the biggest wildfire in California, 85,000 acres and only 31% contained (135,000, 36% on Sep 13). I hiked a good amount of this trail in smoke, but the part I’m missing is dangerously close to the fire and probably hellishly smoky. And the trailhead area is officially closed. Keep an eye out though, I’ll be hiking the Lowest to Highest with fellow PCT hikers and copperheads Ariel and Kevin few weeks! Photo taken of the northern tip of the Black Divide on the way up Muir Pass on the JMT continue reading…

Sierra High Route, 2015

The Sierra High Route (SHR) is an alternate route — not a trail — through the high Sierra Nevada suggested by Steve Roper in his 1990 book Sierra High Route: Traversing Timberline County. It somewhat parallels the John Muir Trail (JMT) for most its length, and briefly uses the JMT to move from one crest to another. Steve Roper agonized over whether to share the route in a book; he feared its pristine nature would be damaged by overuse. Between the months of June and August 2015, I had the privilege to take on every mile of the SHR, solo. I attacked it in a south to north fashion; however, I started with a chunk at the north, and hiked subsequent chunks moving south by a chunk from that. I had the luxury to be able to take chunks over continue reading…

Sierra High Route Part 5: Tuolumne Meadows to Twin Lakes

This 23-mile stretch of the Sierra High Route took me almost three days. I left Tuolumne Meadows Saturday June 13th at 7am and came out at Twin Lakes on Monday the 15th at 4:30pm. Granted, I’m usually able to hike 23 miles in one day, that’s when there’s a trail and I don’t have three unusually steep mountain passes to get over. Over three days I had my ass handed to me by this route and once finished, tentatively decided to not continue hiking it. Day 1: Tuolumne Meadows to Cascade Lake June 13th. I was originally set to leave on June 5, and was posted up in Tuolumne acclimating to the elevation, but rain came in and wasn’t letting up so I postponed. I’m actually glad it worked out this way, because I not only avoided rain but snow, continue reading…

How to Do Trail Magic Right

This is a post about trail angeling and trail magic on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), and why perhaps it has become detrimental to the trail and trail culture.* Between 2013 and 2015, whether because of the “Wild” movie effect or due to an influx of Appalachian Trail (AT) hikers wanting more trail time or even triple crowns, the population of thru-hikers on the PCT doubled. The Pacific Crest Trail Association (PCTA), a governing body of sorts in charge of maintaining access to the trail, again issued permits arbitrarily and for free — several thousand of them. Between April 6 and May 1 this year, I camped out at mile 42 of the trail, doing backpack shake-outs at Mt. Laguna Sports and washing dishes at the Pine House Café. Between May 1 and May 15, I worked with trail angels continue reading…

Goeth Lake

One from Thursday, my last day on the Sierra High Route for a while (while I wait for the Rough Fire to fizzle out). I was in a rush and over-confident over this massive field of gigantic talus, and I took a serious fall. I bruised my left pinky finger and almost lost my water and spoon. I was so thankful it wasn’t worse; at the moment my legs went over my head I was certain I would at least get knocked unconscious as these boulders were on average 10 feet across and down. I need chiropractic but otherwise I’m fine. But let me say it again: this route is extremely difficult and super hairy at times. I’m happy to have only 30 miles left to complete, and don’t plan on doing it again. I’m looking at more difficult things. continue reading…

Prayer Flags at Muir Hut

Muir Pass hut, view of smoke from the Rough fire Wednesday night. Pray even harder for rain! Everything south of Muir Pass on the JMT/Pacific Crest Trail is pretty bad smoke-wise for hikers, with many of them abandoning their hikes. I stayed up there, looking at it this way: most inner city children have worse air quality 365 days a year with not nearly as beautiful or safe a scenery. Who would I be to complain? I had a lovely time, and for the first time in a while actually resented returning to town. Would have stayed an extra day but didn’t want anyone to worry. Aside: The Muir shelter was paid for by a forestry magnate, which is humorous to me given that Muir Pass is one of the only passes in the Sierra without a view of a continue reading…