Waking up on our fifth morning, we were already a day ahead of schedule and still technically had that Guitar Lake rest day built-in, so we decided to break up that section with a night at Crabtree Ranger Station before continuing on the Guitar Lake.
Leaving camp at Moraine Lake, the trail meandered east, south of Funston Creek and after a quick mile or so, we crossed the creek and rejoined the official High Sierra Trail at Sky Parlor Meadow.
From Kaweah Gap, the High Sierra Trail began a long, gradual descent through drastically different terrain going from the the barren alpine zone to a flourishing tundra.
Right from camp, the trail crossed Hamilton Creek and quickly started switch-backing along the side of the northern wall of Hamilton Lake’s basin.
In under a quarter mile, we quickly found ourselves at the Bearpaw High Sierra Camp, a wilderness lodge (glamping) perched on a cliffside high atop a 7,800′ granite saddle overlooking the Great Western Divide.
The High Sierra Trail in Sequoia National Park begins in Crescent Meadow on the southeast edge of the Giant Forest and for the first mile, it travels through this tick forest.
Packing for the High Sierra Trail was one of the harder parts about the entire trip. It was a careful balancing act of not carrying more weight than I had to for a week, but also not being in the middle of nowhere and not have something I needed or wanted.
I would argue that planning for the High Sierra Trail was more difficult than the hike itself…
he High Sierra Trail is a spectacular 72 mile trek across the famed Sierra Nevada mountain range in California, arguably the finest mountain scenery in the United States.