Jim Loco …

• 3.5 Trail Miles
• 51′ Elevation Gain
• 2242 Elevation Loss
• No cumulative elevation gain

This is the easiest day of the trip, 3.5 miles and you’re out.

Looking down into Lone Pine

Whitney Portal Trailhead, and our awaiting crew to drive us home

Mt Whitney viewed from Lone Pine

• 9.25 Trail Miles
• 3,293′ Elevation Gain
• 4,344′ Elevation Loss
• 14 Total Miles (includes cumulative elevation gain)

Guitar Lake from the point of ascending Mt Whitney.

Bouncing out of Guitar Lake at the crack of dawn and make a dash for Mt Whitney. At least, that should be your plan. Be aware that afternoon thunder storms could spoil your attempt to make the summit, so start early. As you ascend out of Guitar Lake, you’ll get a really good look at Hitchcock Lake and many of the surrounding peaks. One thing you’ll need to be prepared for, is the trail east of Guitar Lake requires the use of WAG bags. They hand them out at Crabtree Meadows, but it might be a good idea to take a few extras in the event they run out.

You’ll want to ascend to the trail junction and drop your gear. Being sure to cover up your gear in the likely event of rain, and grabbing some foul weather gear for yourself along with plenty of water. When you approach the top, you’ll see the inclement weather shelter, right in front is a log book you can sign.

Mt. Whitney Summit

After you mess around, and decide to head back, you’ll pick up your gear and make for the long trek down to Outpost camp. If you’re tired, you can choose to stop at Consultation Lake, but quite honestly Outpost camp is much nicer as its in the trees and gives you some protection from the elements.

Hitchcock Lake	Group Photo on top of Whitney	Heading down the other side towards Consultation Lake
Outpost Camp

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• 10.25 Trail Miles
• 4,158′ Elevation Gain
• 692′ Elevation Loss
• 16 Total Miles (includes cumulative elevation gain)

Leaving the Kern River Valley

This is a big day. You move from 8,000ft to 11,500ft in around 10.5 miles as you climb out of the Kern River Valley to the base of the west side of Mt. Whitney. Given the lack of cover when ascending Mt Whitney, you’ll want to leave as early as possible the next morning to avoid being caught in the afternoon thunder storms. While we were there, we saw people leaving as early as 3am, we held off until 8am. Ultimately that proved to be a mistake as we only had about 15 minutes on the summit and got caught in a thunder storm down at Trail Crest. You’ll want to be sure and fill your water bottles as water might get a little scarce before approaching the top. Otherwise, its an awesome walk as you slow ascend out of the Kern.

Going up!	Once you get up some, you start going back, as it levels off for a bit	Last bump before Crabtree Meadows
Crabtree Meadows	Timberline Lake	Guitar Lake

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• 7.25 Trail Miles
• 1,196′ Elevation Gain
• 22′ Elevation Loss
• 9 Total Miles (includes cumulative elevation gain)

Fishing the Kern River at Junction Meadows

This is an easy day, you’ll walk around 7.5 miles on a gentle up slope to gain about 1500 ft. Following the Kern River the entire way. There is nothing remarkable about this area other than decent fishing and a pleasant altitude. You’re likely to get afternoon showers during monsoon season as all the moisture tends to accumulate in the deep valley. It can be a tad hot during the day, but it does cool off during the evenings and the Kern River provides a multitude of locations to cool down.

Hiking up the Kern to Junction Meadows

Looking back down the trail we just covered

Campground at Junction Meadows

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• 12.75 Miles
• 1,189′ Elevation Gain
• 3,902′ Elevation Loss
• 14 Total Miles (includes cumulative elevation gain)

Plateau prior to dropping into the Kern River Valley

If you’re starting from Big Arroyo Junction, then you have a climb that goes slightly higher than Kaweah Gap (but your start elevation is much higher than Hamilton Lakes), otherwise if you went further the night prior then its just a short bump and a long way down. The trail is mostly high altitude before you drop down into the Kern River valley and its pretty dry and hot. Once you start dropping, it drops very fast and before you know it you’re on the valley floor. Once on the valley floor its a 2 mile hike up to Kern Hotsprings. Camping spots really don’t exist before getting into Kern Hotsprings, so you really need to make the push.

Kern Hotsprings, privacy wall surrounding the tub

Once you’re in Kern Hotsprings, you suddenly realize it was worth the effort. The water temperature was easily over 100dgrs, and made quick work of our sore muscles. There is a small privacy wall, and you can easily jump between a hot pool, warm pool, and ass cold pool (the Kern).

The top before the drop into the Kern River Valley	Burnt out forest near Funston Meadow	Looking down into the Kern River Valley
Looking back up from Kern Hot Springs

Big Arroyo Junction to Kern Hotsprings

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• 6.75 Trail Miles
• 2,692′ Elevation Gain
• 1,358′ Elevation Loss
• 10 Total Miles (includes cumulative elevation gain)

Climbing out of Hamilton Lakes

This is a big day, you’ll hike over Kaweah Gap, and down through the Big Arroyo. There is water all through the Big Arroyo, and once you get into the Big Arroyo junction area you can have campfires. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can continue on the trail towards Kern Hotsprings. There is a couple springs, and one in particular towards the top at around 10,200 ft. Its roughly an hour hike from the junction, so be sure to water up before leaving. Otherwise you can just camp at the junction, but it means a longer haul the following day.

As you approach the top, you’ll pass Precipice Lake, and a series of small meadows. Once at the top, you can see down the entire Big Arroyo.

Trail in the Cliffs, going up to Kaweah Gap	10 yard tunnel through the rock.	Looking back over the trail we just came up
Pricipice Lake as we approach the top	One of the meadows approaching Kaweah Gap	My boys and me on top of Kaweah Gap

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• 3.6 Trail Miles
• 1,681′ Elevation Gain
• 1,168′ Elevation Loss
• 6 Miles Total (includes cumulative elevation gain)

This is a relatively short day, the point is to recuperate from the pull to Bearpaw meadows, and prepare for the haul over Kaweah Gap.

Looking into Kaweah Gap from Bearpaw Meadows

Foot Bridge crossing Middle Fork Kaweah River

There is a slight descent to a foot bridge crossing Middle Fork Kaweah River, and then a sharp ascent into Hamilton Lakes. While the actual trail mileage is only 3.5 miles, with the elevation change it works out closer to 5 miles and ends up being closer to a 3 hour hike. This should put you into Hamilton Lakes before lunch where you can enjoy fishing and swimming.

Leaving Bearpaw Meadows and looking up towards Kaweah Gap	The trail coming up from Kaweah Middle Fork into Hamilton Lakes	Waterfall below Hamilton Lakes
Need to figure out what peak this, coming out of Hamilton Lake	Overlooking Hamilton Lake towards Kaweah Gap	Fishing at Hamilton Lakes

Bearpaw Meadows to Hamilton Lake

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• 10.25 Trail Miles
• 3,122′ Elevation Gain
• 2,672′ Elevation Loss
• 14 Total Miles (includes cumulative elevation gain)

The whole crew starting at Wolverton Parking lot

My family was leaving from the Bay Area, and my brother’s family was coming from LA County. We decided to leave early on the morning of our first day and meet at the trail head in Sequoia National Park. We started hiking at 10am, and we needed to cover 10.5 miles to Bearpaw Meadows before dark.

Top of Panther Gap

We started our ascent up, and peaked out at the top of Panther Gap by lunch.  We got a little rain in the afternoon, and it threatened to dump on us during dinner. Towards the late evening it cleared up and left us with plenty of stars and a near full moon for the rest of the night.

This first day in is fairly aggressive, and we planned a shorter day to Hamilton Lakes for the following day. There is the initial climb to Panther Gap, and then it drops down to Buck Creek. From there, there is one more heavy ascent into Bearpaw meadows. There are several campgrounds before that heavy ascent before and at Buck Creek that have bear containers if you feel the push to Bearpaw Meadows is to difficult.

Looking uo the High Sierra Trail from Panther Gap	Beginning of the downhill into Buck Creek	Buck Creek, the campsites appear before the creek.
Bearpaw Meadows Campsite, the next morning.

Wolverton To Bearpaw Meadows

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My brother and I are both avid backpackers and we routinely hike with our children. This summer, we joined forces and took our two families along with my nephew (of our sister) and we did the High Sierra Trail (Also known as the Trans-Sierra). Starting from Wolverton trail head in Sequoia National Park we hiked 66 miles in 8 days to Whitney Portal. At the Trail Crest in Whitney wilderness, we dropped our gear and bagged Mt Whitney to boot. This is the first article in a series of articles detailing our trip.

Quick Details

• 64 Trail Miles
• 17,170′ Total Elevation Gain
• 16,141′ Total Elevation Loss
• 90 Total Miles (includes cumulative elevation gain)

Wilderness Permit

Since this trip starts in the Sequoia National Park, you need to visit their website to get any updated information.  The wilderness permit application we used required a $15 fee for the entire group for the entire trip. When entering the park, there is a entrance fee of $20. Additionally, you’ll need bear canisters for a couple nights of the hike. Bearpaw meadows, and Hamilton Lakes have bear boxes on site. We started from the Wolverton Parking lot, using the Alta trail head and following the Lakes Trail out to Panther Gap.

Splitting up the trip into sections

We decided to do this hike in 8 days (Saturday in, Saturday out), and we also decided to just meet at the trail head Saturday morning after I picked up the wilderness permit. This required me leaving my home in San Jose at 4am Saturday morning to be able to start hiking at 9am. The following was our itinerary:

1. Bearpaw Meadows
2. Hamilton Lakes
3. Big Arroyo Junction
4. Kern Hotsprings
5. Junction Meadows
6. Guitar Lake
7. Outpost Camp
8. Whitney Portal Trail Head

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