Yesterday Milo and I did a long one. We parked at Southfork and began by walking the road down to Foresee trailhead. Then John’s Meadow to Manzanita Flats and up to SB peak. From SB, we crossed the Divide hitting East, Anderson, Shields, and Alta Diablo. We wanted to hit the Chareltons but we were 18 + miles in at that point and figured the earliest we’d get to the car was by 10:00 p.m. So by the time we got to route up to the saddle between the two, we just decided to move on. Those two remain, I think, the only two peaks in the Wilderness, we haven’t hit. Another day.
We hit the summit of SG about 5:30 p.m. Hung out until six and then just bailed off the north side and hit the Sky High Trail right near Mineshaft Saddle. Then out! Long day. Milo’s Garmin at 22 mi, just above where we met back up with the Sky High Trail.
Water, Trail conditions, Bear report etc.:
John’s Meadow. Lot’s of water sources–three creeks before and one after. We met a guy coming out who camped Friday night a John’s Meadow. He told us a bear had ravaged his camp and destroyed all his food. So good reminder to hang.
John’s Meadow to Manzanita Flats: Trail is very faint in spots. We lost it a couple of times. But very pretty, burn damage not too bad.
Limber Pine Bench: Water is flowing well. We filled about 6 liters there.
Trail Fork Springs: We did not go down to spring, but we ran in to a group on women on Anderson Peak who said it water was flowing well.
High Meadow Springs: We did take a little detour here and dropped down to the spring. It’s not super strong but certainly enough to get your fill.
Lodgepole: just confirmed that is dry as a bone.
Southfork: It was pretty dark when got to Southfork Meadows but we were struck by how low the crossing were. Never seen them so low even in late fall.
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