Tag Archives: hiking
Hockett Trail Notes: Devils Ladder and Coyote Pass
Taking a moment to process some minutia of Hockett Trail history … This early account of the rerouting of a short segment of the Hockett Trail appears to corroborate my understanding that the Hockett Trail followed the same route that Horseshoe Meadows Road follows today, only with shorter switchbacks: From Round Valley down to where [...]
Valley to Valley
Here’s a tribute to Hockett country that I recently threw together, to the music of U2′s song “Elevation”. Yes, we take the song quite literally, as it serves our present purposes.
A Hockett Trail Guide: 11. Hockett Hill
Welcome to LA. No, there’s not a big green road sign announcing “Los Angeles City Limit” at Trail Pass, but maybe if there were it would not be entirely inaccurate. It is, after all, the City of Los Angeles that runs this place. It’s their water, and their power. The Hockett Trail proceeded from Trail [...]
A Hockett Trail Guide: 10. South Fork Kern
At Tunnel or “Chickenfoot” junction we enter the domain of a slightly different subspecies of golden trout native to the South Fork Kern. This junction was once known as the turnoff to Mount Whitney, but today it is better known as the boundary of two very special watersheds; a boundary that was once infamously compromised [...]
A Hockett Trail Guide: 9. Golden Trout Creek
From here we head up the second native golden trout stream along the Hockett Trail, Golden Trout Creek. The original Hockett Trail was without bridges. Its strategy for crossing the Kern River—the river that drowned John Jordan in 1862—was to follow the river upstream to a broad ford above two major tributaries: Coyote Creek, and [...]
A Hockett Trail Guide: 8. Kern Canyon Fault
Trout Meadows: the old crossroads of the southern Sierra. Here’s where three trans-Sierra trails crossed: the Dennison, the Jordan, and our Hockett Trail. This is also where the eastern leg of the Hockett Trail begins, and the western leg ends. This is no arbitrary division: the Hockett Trail can very easily be seen as two [...]
A Hockett Trail Guide: 7. Little Kern Valley
Here, near the headwaters of the Little Kern, is where the Golden Trout leg of the Hockett Trail begins, and the native country of my favorite variety of golden trout. Ladies and gentlemen, present … fly rods! … or just sit by the stream and enjoy the show. The Little Kern descends quickly, then levels [...]
A Hockett Trail Guide: 6. The Western Divide
After crossing Hunter Creek, the incline increases as the Hockett Trail leaves the Hockett Plateau for the Western Divide. After ascending 850 feet, the trail reaches a ridgecrest that might deceive a traveler into thinking he’s reached the top, but he has another 300-foot climb ahead. All-in-all, it’s not a difficult ascent to the divide [...]
A Hockett Trail Guide: 5. Hockett Plateau
The Hockett Plateau is a glacier-carved plateau at an elevation of about 8500 feet, from 8200 feet along the South Fork Kaweah River to 9500 feet near Summit Lake. This sub-alpine tableland can be covered in snow—not to mention mosquitoes—into summer. It features a wealth of meadows, plus a number of glacial tarns well on [...]
A Hockett Trail Guide: 4. Ladybug vs. Garfield
Clough Cave is not the only cave in the South Fork area. There are four that I have heard of, one of which was discovered in 2006 and featured in National Geographic. Hundreds of such caves occur in marble outcrops which appear in the Sierra’s eroding meta-sedimentary shell. There are at least a half dozen [...]