Why does nobody talk about how hard the Sierra High Route actually is?

Last summer I ran into a guy named Tom up at McClure Meadow in Kings Canyon. He had done the whole Sierra High Route end to end three times, and we got to talking about the section between Ionian Basin and Mount Goddard. He told me flat out that most people underestimate the cross-country navigation there, especially when the weather closes in. I had always heard the route was manageable if you brought good maps and a solid head for routefinding, but he explained it in a way that made me rethink everything. He said he spent two full days scrambling over loose talus just to make 6 miles, and that was on a clear day. That stuck with me because I had been planning to try it solo this fall. Has anyone else found that section way harder than the guidebooks suggest?

2 comments

2 Comments

cole_patel4111d ago

Hearing "two full days scrambling over loose talus just to make 6 miles" makes me rethink my entire life plan, since my typical pace is already just crawling over flat ground while questioning my fitness choices. I tried a similar stretch near Mount Goddard last year and ended up doing more sitting on rocks wondering where I went wrong than actual hiking. So yeah, the guidebooks definitely leave out the part where you'll curse every step and question your sanity for about 48 hours straight.

julia_jones7210d ago

Nah, I gotta be the one to push back on this. lol. Honestly, that kind of suffering is exactly why I love hiking in the first place. The guidebooks aren't hiding anything, they're just not written for people who want everything handed to them. That stretch of talus, the cursing, the sitting on rocks wondering what went wrong, that's the whole point for me. It's a test of how bad you want it, and when you finally make those 6 miles after two days, it hits different than any easy stroll. You remember every sketchy move and every moment you thought about turning back, and that memory is way better than a flat trail with a nice view. So yeah, I'd take a soul-crushing scramble over a boring path any day.