[pct-l] Trip Ideas

[hankm at mtinet.com (Hank Magnuski)]

On Mon, 3 May 2004, Turbeville, J. x50130 G3 wrote:

> Hello!  My name is John Turbeville.  I go to school in upstate New York
> where I do a good bit of camping and hiking.  I am planning a trip to
> California to do part of the PCT this summer.  I will be arriving on or
> around the 13th of June and I plan to hike between 15 and 20 days.  I
> visited a friend in Twain Harte last summer and fell in love with that
> region for obvious reasons, so I'd like to do it somewhere around there.
> I'll have one other relatively experienced friend with me.  I've been
> looking at the gear lists and I'm good on pretty much everything.  I
> will have to park my car somewhere, so I was looking at doing an out and
> back type of trip where I start and finish at the same point.  Here are
> some questions for starters:
> 
> 1.  Where could I park my car?
> 2.  Does anyone have a suggested route in that area that will work for
> the dates and length of time?
> 3.  Are there any suggested books for this sort of thing?
> 4.  Anything else you can think of.

In 2001 we did a loop starting at Kennedy Meadows (the northern one 
located on Route 108 just west of Sonora Pass).

Starting at Kennedy (where there is trailhead parking) we went south past 
Relief Reservoir, then southwest through Lower and Upper Relief Valley,
south through Salt Lick, Spring Meadow and Starvation Lake, to Deer Lake, 
Buck's Lake and then Emigrant Lake, and returning via Mosquito Pass and 
Sheeps Camp.

There are enough trails in this area that you can adjust your loop to fit 
your time requirements and/or pick up part of the PCT which is located 
just east of the Emigrant Lakes area.

A really good map of this area is the Yosemite National Park map sold by 
National Geographic Maps as part of their "Trails Illustrated" series 
(map 206).

The lakes are stunning, make sure you plan time to enjoy them.

Have a good trip,

Hank