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09/6-12/2009 Annual Sierra backpack in Sequoia National Park with Larry and Ziv (saw John for 20 minutes) Slideshow

Larry's trip log:

I’m back from another great adventure in the High Sierra, and this one ranks right up there with the best trips I have taken in the Sierra Nevada Mountains . If you have never taken the High Sierra Trail over Kaweah Gap, you need to do it. The Kaweah River Canyon that you hike up thru, or down thru depending upon your direction of travel, is absolutely gorgeous and the trail is something else in itself.

I arrived early and did a solo day hike to Paradise Ridge. The following day we started the backpack from the Sawtooth Trailhead in Mineral King. The first day we hiked over Timber Gap and spent the night along Cliff Creek at the junction of Cliff and Timber Gap Creeks. On day two we packed up to Pinto Lake , and then did a day hike over to Spring Lake . Day three we packed over Black Rock Pass to Little Five Lakes. Day four we packed up the upper end of Big Arroyo to Nine Lake Basin . On day five the three of us, Me, Tom Strauch, and Ziv Horesh , split up. The original plan had been to spend two nights in Nine Lakes Basin to give ourselves a day to explore the basin. That made for a long day with lots of elevation gain to pack down near Redwood Meadow and meet up with Ed Legerton, John Strauch and a friend. Since my back had been speaking to me I decided to divide the trip down into two days, Ziv was going to stay in Nine Lakes Basin for the two days and meet us at the Redwood Meadow camp area, and Tom was going to climb Eagle Scout Peak and meet me for the night at Hamilton Lake . So for me day five was a pack over Kaweah Gap and down to Hamilton Lake . Tom later met me with news that he successfully climbed the peak south of Eagle Scout, thinking he was going up Eagle Scout. Still worth it though with great views. Day six we planned on packing down to the crossing of the Middle Fork of the Kaweah and camp with Ed, John and friend. We made radio contact with John from the Bear Paw High Sierra Camp. John was at the crossing of Granite Creek and agreed to hike to the Kaweah crossing and meet us. Ed and friend had already returned to their camp at the junction of Cliff Creek and Timber Gap Creek. Tom and I visited with John until around 2:00 PM when John needed to get hiking back to their camp. Ziv arrived later that evening. Since Tom had a long drive home to Salem Oregon he decided that in the morning he would hike all the way out, instead of doing it in two days as planned. He hiked out to Redwood Meadow, and then took the Paradise Ridge trail over to Atwell Camp and hitch hiked back up to his vehicle at the Sawtooth Trailhead. This route was about the same distance as the intended route over Timber Gap, but with about 1000 ft less elevation gain, and some new scenery. Ziv and I planned to hike out to the confluence of Cliff and Timber Gap Creeks and camp the night. We passed thru Redwood Meadow, which I also would encourage anyone that has not been there to go. You’re in a grove with several very large Sequoia trees, and you’re alone. Not another sole around. Ziv and I reached our intended camp location by about 1:30 or 2:00 in the afternoon and decided to continue on back to the trailhead instead of staying the night along Cliff Creek . This made for a long tough day going over Timber Gap, but we made it with no problems other than being tired. We stopped at Silver City for dinner. Each of us had a Mountain Burger, and after seven days of freeze dried, boy oh boy was that hamburger good.