Stream Crossings: Stream crossings vary greatly depending on snow-melt conditions. Often, June’s raging torrent becomes September’s placid creek. If a ford is described as “difficult in early season,” fording that creek may be difficult because it is hard to walk through deep or fast water, and getting caught in the current would be dangerous. Whether you attempt such a crossing depends on the presence or absence of logs or other bridges, downstream rapids or waterfalls, your ability and equipment, and your judgment. We mention manmade bridges and other manmade aids for you to cross on, but we usually don’t mention chance aids like logs and rocks, because they can vary from year to year. (See for tips for crossing streams more safely.)
Trail Type and Surface: Most of the trails described here are well maintained (the exceptions are noted) and are properly signed. If the trail becomes indistinct, look for blazes (peeled bark at eye level on trees) or ducks (two or more rocks piled one atop another). Trails may fade out in wet areas like meadows, and you may have to scout around to find where they resume. Continuing in the direction you were going when the trail faded out is often, but not always, a good bet.
Two other significant trail conditions have also been described in the text: the degree of openness (type and degree of forest cover, if any, or else “meadow,” “brush,” or whatever) and underfooting (talus, scree, pumice, sand, “duff”—a deep humus ground cover of rotting vegetation—or other material).
A “use trail” is an unmaintained, unofficial trail that is more or less easy to follow because it is well worn by use. For example, nearly every Sierra lakeshore has a use trail worn around it by anglers in search of their prey.
Landmarks: The text contains occasional references to points, peaks, and other landmarks. These places are shown on the appropriate topographic maps cited at the beginning of the trip. For example, “Point 9426” in the text would refer to a point designated simply “9426” on the map itself.
Fire Damage: The Forest Service and the Park Service have a policy of letting fires in the backcountry burn as long as they are not a threat to people or structures. One result has been some pretty poor-looking scenery on some trips in this book. However, most of the fire-damaged areas have begun to recover soon enough that we have chosen not to delete the affected trips from the book.
How This Book Is Organized
Trips in this book are organized according to the roads and highways you must drive to get to the trailheads in this book. Unlike the region covered in Sierra North, no road crosses the range south of Hwy. 120 for about 140 miles to the road that goes over Sherman Pass far to the south. Rather, in this region, roads penetrate the range from the west and from the east without crossing the range. Therefore, Sierra South is organized first by which side of the Sierra you must start on (west or east) and then, in north to south order, by the roads you must take into the range to get to the trailheads. The trailheads appear in the order you’ll find them as you drive into the range on that road.
Trailhead and Trip Organization: As previously noted, each trip is located within trailhead sections in the book. Those sections begin with a summary table, such as the fictitious one below, that uses the trailhead’s name, elevation, and UTM coordinates as its title. The table briefly summarizes each trip from this trailhead:
Black Powder Trailhead 7654’; 11S 736921 4328622
Following the table are details about information, permits, and driving directions to that trailhead.
Next comes the first trip from this trailhead. The trip data—UTM coordinates, total mileage, and hiking/layover days—are included with each trip entry. All trips include an elevation profile, a list of maps, and highlights. Some include HEADS UP!, or special considerations for that trip, and shuttle trips include directions to the take-out trailhead.
1 Bear Corral
Trip Data: 11S 735694 4338773; 18 miles; 2/1 days
Topos: Pickle Springs
Highlights: Follow a pair of delightful streams to a secluded basin rimmed by granite cliffs on the eastern fringe of XYZ Wilderness.
DAY 1 (Black Powder Trailhead to Bear Corral, 9 miles): From the trailhead, make a short climb northeast through a canopy of lodgepole, red fir, and white fir. Birds are abundant here, especially Steller’s jays, white-crowned sparrows, juncos, and chickadees. Soon the route reaches a junction with the PCT. Turn right (east) here and….
…to the good camping at forested Bear Corral (7654’; 11S 735694 4338773).
DAY 2 (Bear Corral to Black Powder Trailhead, 9 miles): Retrace your steps.
After this comes the next trip, if any, from this same trailhead. Trips in the same general area, especially multiple trips from the same trailhead, often build upon each other. For example, the first trip from a trailhead is usually the shortest—one day out to a destination, the next day back to the trailhead. The second trip will build on—extend—the first trip by following the first trip’s first day and then continuing on a second and subsequent days to more distant destinations. Rather than repeat the full, detailed description for the first trip’s first day, we recapitulate it as briefly as possible with the essential trail instructions to get you to that day’s destination. We also identify this as a recapitulation and give you a reference to the trip and day we’re recapitulating, like this: (Recap: Trip 1, Day 1.). If you wish, you can turn to that description to read everything we have to say about that day, which includes details about natural and human history—things that are fun to know but not essential for getting from the trailhead to the destination.
Trailhead Maps: Each trailhead section includes a map such as the one below. The legend that follows defines the symbols used in the maps in the book.
Great Western Divide from a rest stop at Panther Gap (Trip 30)
INTRODUCTION TO THE WEST SIDE
Getting to starting trailheads on the west side of the Sierra south of Yosemite means long, gradual, winding, scenic drives on mountain roads and highways from some major road in the western foothills or the Central Valley, like Hwy. 49 or Hwy. 99. Be sure to allow plenty of time to enjoy these beautiful drives. A few shuttle trips will end at roads not listed below. Along the way, small towns, tiny villages, and rustic resorts provide lodging and supplies. Especially for supplies, the larger towns nearer the roads’ west ends provide better lodging and shopping choices.
On the west side, you’ll enter the Sierra on these roads and highways:
State Hwy. 41 (through and then south of Yosemite)
State Hwy. 168 West Side (yes, there is an east side, too, but 168 doesn’t cross the range)
Kaiser Pass Road (in some respects, a continuation of State Hwy.