Tahoe-Yosemite - Pacific Crest Trail

imported
#1

snow on Tahoe-Yos or PCT/fording streams

I am planning on either Tahoe-Yosemite or the PCT stretch from Tahoe to Yosemite (or South to North actually after reading this!). I have to start in mid-June! Does anyone know if there are more bridges on the PCT section from Yosemite to Tahoe, than on the Tahoe-Yos trail?

Also does anyone have any comparison opinions of these 2 routes (PCT vs T-Y for the same section - from Yos to Tahoe)? (I have both books of course)

By the way I just talked to one of the Tuolumne winter rangers and he told me its too early to tell (amt of snow) Thanks a lot! Bonnie

Bonnie

#2

Bonnie, I hiked the TYT in late summer 01, I know you’re looking for a comparison, but I can tell you personal experience from that trail if you’re interested. Email me or write back here and I’ll expand on that. It was a beautiful trail, we did it in 15 days and that was pushing it as a section type hike. I don’t recall many bridges, one coming out of Kennedy Meadows (the other one 8 miles down from Sonora Pass), it was a drought year (s) - water was an issue that late.

Bluebearee

#3

I also hiked in 2001. We hiked June 17 - June 24. My party hiked only the section from Toulumne Meadows to Sonora Pass and then on down one more day on a tributary trail.

Just to clarify, the Tahoe Yosemite Trail and the PCT are the same for 99% of the route.

There weren’t any bad water crossings that year, had to get the feet wet a couple of times, but nothing we couldn’t handle. Can’t remember any built bridges except the one just out of tuolumne meadows at Glen Aulin.

I wouldn’t worry about the river crossings on that section this year. It looks like things are going to be melting early. Check out the following link for real time data on sierra snow melt.

http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/reports/PAGE6.html

Also if you want a tip for a slightly off PCT section of trail that gives you some awesome scenary after days of bug infested forests look at the following route. At least check out the following on your maps: After hiking East through Grace Meadows, before you reach Dorothy Lake, take the trail North to Bond Pass. From Bond Pass follow the old jeep trail along the crest to where it meets up with the PCT again. The route passes High Emigrant Lake and passes over peak 10,825. This route is excelent! It gets you up out of the forest and has expansive views to the west and east. The PCT section you miss is similar to what you have already experienced from Tuolumne Meadows to this point. Getting up high was the pinacle of our trip!

Check out the map link of the deviated route. You also can follow the trail north on the map by clicking on the map.
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=11&n=4228262&e=271325&s=50&size=l&datum=nad83&layer=DRG25

I hope this helps :slight_smile:
Thinair

Thinair

#4

Snow data link cut and paste:
http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/reports/PAGE6.html

Map link cut and paste
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=11&n=4228262&e=271325&s=50&size=l&datum=nad83&layer=DRG25

Thinair

#5

Thinair, since you didn’t hike the Northern section perhaps you are unaware that the PCT is contiguous with the TYT route for only about 1/3. From the t/h @ Meeks Bay to before the Velmas is non-PCT past some gorgeous lakes - then it peels off past Echo Lake for a bit, rejoins before Carson Pass and then heads away again after Frog Lake. The entire part through the Mokelumne Wilderness is not the PCT at all, that was the most remote and where route finding became dicey (the FS ranger actually told us not to hike this part because it’s unmaintained), yet it was my favorite stretch. All the way past Alpine Lake and to Icewater Canyon and up and over Sonora Pass is non-PCT (which is on the ridgeline whereas the TYT is below it in that old growth Hemlock forest) topping out @ St. Mary’s Pass (where we spied a bear), down from Sonora Pass itself where the PCT continues on the crest and the TYT goes down into K/M and climbs back out to Bond Pass eventually in Yosemite (a day later)and meets back up with the PCT near Tilden Lake (where I was the morning of 9/11 happily in oblivion).

I have never put my journal up here due to some personal issues I was having with my hiking partners (a group of 3 is never a good idea).

Bluebearee

#6

Ok…but still…I would recommend the Bond Pass to Sonora Pass section! Very Nice !

I’ve never been a purest about trails. The trail is an arbitrary thing, the experience is what matters to me. I hiked from Tuolumne Meadows to the Sonora Pass area. Does it really matter what trail I took :boy

Thinair

#7

of course not, but Bonnie was looking for a comparison of the two trails. Thus I, in the vain of trying to answer the poster’s question, was trying to make the distinction that they do actually diverge and converge many times.

The entire TYT was extremely scenic, I don’t think you’d go wrong no matter what route it taken.

Bluebearee

#8

Is Kerrick Canyon also on the TYT? That one was a difficult crossing for early season PCT hikers, deep and very fast. Some of the other crossings were quite deep, but not fast. You may have to wander around a bit to find a passable crossing. I remember one stream on the PCT in northern Yosemite that had five separate channels - I think it took over half an hour to get across. Bridges are scarce out there.

Ginny

#9

Yes!! It is on the TYT. See, I went August 31-Sept 14th, 2001, MAJOR drought and fire time. These streams that are a ford normally during PCT thru-hiker time, were an afterthought at best. We had trouble finding water at times, I went back and read a journal of two guys who did this hike in 99 or 00 in June with spring run-off; fords they described I didn’t even remember as having water. Rock hops maybe. Obviously time of year of hiking makes a huge difference as well as the kind of snow year and rainy season (is there one in CA?). We saw 15 mins of rain in 15 days.

Bluebearee