Conditions out of Kibbie Lake

[jdhobbs]

Can anyone report on the conditions out of Kibbie Lake towards Many Island, Boundary, Spotted Fawn, Flora Lake areas? Also interested to know if there is vehicle access to the Shingle Springs trailhead? Thanks!

[balzaccom]

Snow level right now is about 8000-8500 feet, but that is only an estimate. As I remember that trail out Kibbie Ridge, you shouldn't have too much trouble with that section---maybe a little snow near the end of the ridge where the trail edges over the north side.

But the trail down from Styx Pass into Cherry Creek will almost certainly still be chock full of snow...and that's pretty steep terrain. You could always just cross country to Many Island, and then try to continue on from there...

[jdhobbs]

Thanks for the insight about the current snow level. Our intention is to go cross country from Kibbie towards Many Island and stay within the Park. Does anyone have information about the cross country routes between Kibbie, Many Island, Spotted Fawn and Flora?

[bill-e-g]

Yes Shingle Spring parking is accessible.

You can call Groveland and ask for current conditions.
209 962-7825

What you get from them will probably be useless though.
But who knows... (ok, I know they didn't even mention snow
to me over Memorial Day... although maybe the lady
realized I could care less about it).

Anyway, the typical route is up Kibbie Ridge ... over to Boundary..
east of Little Bear... then follow the creek down to Flora...
I personally have not gone up Kibbie Creek to Many Islands.

don't worry... it won't look like this:
http://picasaweb.google.com/yosemite.chick.on/Nance

(not sure I posted that link here anywhere)

Have fun

[oakroscoe]

I just got back from there yesterday (the 29th). There's just patches of snow left, and thats only in the high parts. Styx Pass is passable (although the most snow we came across was there). I've never worked up the backside of Kibbie to Many Island, although I am sure it is doable, but it might be easier to hook into to trail halfway between Lookout Point and Sachse Springs and then drop down to Many Island from the trail in Styx Pass instead of working up directly from Kibbie to Many Island.

We went to Styx Pass and then dropped down to Many Island. After a night at Many Island (there is an established fire ring/campsite there, however it wasn't a great site in my opinion) we went cross country to Spotted Fawn lake. After a night at Spotted Fawn we went back up to Boundary. From Boundary we dayhiked to Inferno (which was a little work, but definitely doable and worth the work). Everything is melting rapidly. In the 2 days we spent at Boundary we definitely could see the snow on the opposite side of the lake melting.

Like Bill, I personally have not gone out from Kibbie to Many Island, but it appeared that it might be easier to go out from Kibbie and hook up with the trail between Lookout Point and Sachse Springs. I have gone up from Kibbie into Flora Lake and then from Flora gone to Boundary, and I definitely enjoyed that trip.

Also, I would recommend you bring your DEET with you because the mosquitoes are definitely out now. Last week wasn't too bad, but the last 2 days we were in (monday and tuesday the 28 & 29) the mosquitoes definitely made their presence known.

I generally bypass going to Kibbie because thats where the majority of backpackers go. This again proved true as a group of 15 boy scout types going in yesterday as we were coming out to the trailhead.

Oh and vehicle access to the trailhead is fine. The road is in good condition. Trucks or vehicles with high clearance will have no problems at all. I would go slow on a couple sections if I had a car, but there were plenty of cars in parking lot that made it with no problems.

Of course this information is probably obsolete now, since it is 2 days old, but when my group left there was one other group at Boundary (boyfriend and girlfriend), we saw one solo old man who said he was going to Huckleberry. We saw 2 tents at the small unnamed lake/pond on the ridge behind Boundary as we went from Many Island to Spotted Fawn (but we didnt see any people, and the tents were gone Monday when we dayhiked out that direction). There was an insanely large group of boy scout types going to Kibbie as well as 4 or 5 more cars in the parking lot that we assumed had gone to Kibbie.

Hope this helps...

[orion]

you can hike from kibbie to many island lake, either up kibbie creek staying to the south side of the creek, or the other drainage that comes into the north side of kibbie.

i've done this several times, though i noticed that it tends to make my fellow hikers pretty grumpy. boulders, bushwack, and mosquitoes, if you're into that. the payoff is the granite bowl before you reach many island.

give yourself a full day, and good luck with the route finding - it's there, just not always what you'd want. in fact it's easier with snow, because the snow covers the bush and levels out the short cliffs. i'd do it again, but don't expect to impress anyone you drag along. they'll think your either crazy or masochistic or plain mean-spirited for getting them into it.

[Sierrasteve]

what trails/route would you guys recommend in the kibbie area for someone who's not looking for off trail/cross country travel? (I've never hiked there but am in great shape with backpacking experience under my belt)

[orion]

almost everything worth seeing or knowing is off the trail. once you get the habit, the trail seems like a highway, a trudge looking at your feet and the occaisional vista.

the kibbie trail burnt down one october about six years ago after the ridge caught fire by lightning. they dropped in a jump team by helicopter at the lake to watch it burn. this made me wax in philosophical irony over the fire restrictions at the lake itself (which didn't burn.) i still miss those old firs in dead mule gulch. they were too big to let burn, leaving it to the vagaries of late season weather was a plain shame.

then the loggers came in to the part outside yosemite, cut down what big healthy trees remained, pulled up and burnt the stumps in a pile next to the trailhead. seems those stumps (or the trees themselves) would have mitigated erosion into cherry lake, but what do i know, i just have two eyes and a brain, not some forestry degree and money on the line.

when you drive into cherry lake, all those bare mountainsides across the way were forests a decade ago, pulled by helicopter due to steep terrain. these days, china camp isn't the tree cemetery it used to be.

[jishaq]

Also interested to know if there is vehicle access to the Shingle Springs trailhead? Thanks!

If you are referring to the gate at the end of the Cherry Lake spillway, I'm not sure what time of year they usually open it. But I did find out their algorithm for when to close it. They try to close the spillway gate the weekend after Labor Day, and definitely before hunting season begins -- apparently these two dates are typically close to eachother. The end goal is to have the gate closed before hunters come out, so it's almost like the gate operates as a hunting restriction more than anything else.

I always save my Kibbie Ridge hikes for after the gate has closed. It adds about 5 miles in each direction, but it lessens the 'other people' factor greatly.

A word of caution: My wife and I rode our bikes up past the gate once, and locked them up at the Shingle Springs trailhead. When then backpacked for four days, and came back to Shingle Springs trailhead right as the sun was setting, after a BIG hike straight up out of Cherry Creek Canyon to Lookout Point. Our bikes were gone, and there were tire tracks where a truck had backed up as if to load them into the bed. So much for a mellow bikeride down to the car as the grand finale; instead, we got to hike the fireroad in the dark.

When we got down to the spillway gate, our bikes were stacked against the side of the gate, our locks having been cut. Fortunately nobody had taken them, since they were unlocked.

When I called the rangers to ask what happened, since I certainly made damn sure bikes were legal on that road after gate closure as part of my trip planning, they had no idea who would have done this, or why. Nobody had filed a report, nobody knew anything. They offered no explanations. Pretty lame if you ask me, since the only people who have keys to the gate and thus could have trucked the bikes down were either water company employees or a ranger. And I don't think water company employees would have futzed with our bikes (or if so, they would have simply stolen them outright).

But anyway, I don't suggest locking bikes up at Shingle Springs trailhead!

-Jeff

[bill-e-g]

Road opens around April 15th. Closes around Sept. 15.

It's national forest. So they cut the crap out of it.
Just look when you drive in. If not in the wilderness then
they don't give a crap how it looks. It's all about cutting
the trees. They actually did a prescribed burn on Kibbie Ridge
a few years before the fire. Nice job guys. Well done.
But hey, it makes hiking around the lake easier. Yeah!

No fires at Kibbie is the way to go. Still baffles me why
so many feel the need to scar everywhere they go making
fire rings, etc. Seems every time I go there there's a new
fire ring or someone having a fire.

btw... there's a trail to Shingle Springs from the N. Eleanor TH.

[jdhobbs]

Thanks to all for your thoughts. They made the trip planning easier. We went around the backside of Kibbie Lake and approached Many Island from the beautiful granite bowl to the south. The weather and scenery were beautiful. The route has been accurately described by others. It's an adventure. Biggest surprise was the lack of water in the inlet and outlet streams.

Ran into a fellow named Maury who provided some additional insight into the route. He was heading along the same path a day ahead of us. Remarkably we found his camera in the thick underbrush as we forged up a steep section before the final approach to Many Island. If anyone knows this nice fellow you might pass along this posting and we'll make arrangements to get his camera back to him.

Thanks again for your advice.

[oakroscoe]

Jishaq,

That certainly sucks about your bike incident. I would be extremely upset if I had been counting on coasting down the road to Cherry Lake and my bike was gone.

There could always be the 3rd option, someone was in there poaching (i cant remember if that gate is a key or combination, I know that Eleanor's gate is a combination lock), but I am sure other people who aren't supposed to either have a key or know the combination. Regardless who did it, I would have been livid too.