Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Day-Hiking The JMT - OV -> Taboose Pass - 06.08.12

Ahh, I see what I did... the 4.7 is only the miles from Kearsarge Pass to Onion Valley... NOT the JMT intersection (Duh... yah, I can read a map ), I didn’t add the additional miles to the JMT from the Pass.

But on looking at the map, I also have to wonder if part of the difference in my mileage charts is due to which of the three "intersection" they're using that lead to Kearsarge. I would have thought that the mileage charts would have used the most northern intersection (rather than the trail leading by Bullfrog Lake) but that may be the difference in the charts.

The 7.6 that my GPS measured was the high trail (without using the alternate that cuts a little distance to Glenn Pass).

When I've done the OV-WP, I've used the Bullfrog Lake trail to cut off some of the distance and make it a more direct line to the JMT. For the "one-day," we missed the BL junction and caught the JMT on the high trail.

I have to doubt that many people have hiked the JMT on weekends like you are, Richard, and have had to deal with those miles and miles of approaches. There are certainly some shorter approaches on the west side, but the logistics of getting to and fro are the headaches.

Oh, Richard… just take a week off from work and finish it!

Rosabella: "Interesting - Mt. Whitney is getting taller and the JMT is getting shorter."

This reminds me of an essay that Mark Twain wrote about the Mississippi River. Via exprapolation, he humorously estimated that, because of annual erosion, the Mississippi River would be about a mile long in a hundred years.

Richard,

Does your new map show a trail from JMT up Wallace creek to the area around wallace or Wales Lake? I'm going to be wandering in the area in Sept and wanted to take a side trip up there and spend the night. Does anyone know if I can make my way up there with a backpack. By the way Richard, awesome pictures.

Thanks Joe

There is an old trail that will get you to Wallace Lake. It disappears in one spot, so you need to pay attention as you head in.

If you go to my photo website, look in California Mountains - Mt. Whitney and you should see a bunch of albums for the Wallace Lake drainage.

It's class 3 if you want to get over to the NF, but you can get to Tulainyo via a gully above the center of Wales Lake that stays class 2. Again you can find photos of this in my albums.


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http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/forum/...=true#Post53897


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Thanks for the info, I will check it out. I have an old Inyo map that shows a trail, but none of my newer maps show it. So with that and your site I should be alright.

A photo of Mike Pyle coming down the gully:




An overview of the gully looking up:




An overview of the Wallace Lake drainage:




It would be pretty hard to get lost in there since your surrounded by steep cliffs on both sides...

The funnest way to do the drainage is to follow the water... there are great cascades and pools along the way. I don't ever recall running into anything that didn't have an alternate route if things got steep.

I've been looking through some of the pictures on your site, looks like an explorers' dream. Now i've got to fit in Tulainyo Lake too. I hate it when that happens, haha. Thanks for the info Richard

It is another of the magical places in the Sierra. Enjoy it.

Package with the bug proof clothes arrived last night... I hope this stuff works!