Roper's High Route, Sierra

I am doing Roper's High Route Aug 4- Sept 6.

If anyone is interested in all or any of this trip please send me a personal message. This is a difficult off-trail route. Several passes are difficult Class 2. I plan an average rate of 7-8 miles per day, with on section slower at 5 miles per day for fishing (my husband is joining me on this section).

I plan on a "non-purist" through-hike doing three approximate 10-day sections, north to south, in a leap-frog manner. To contiguously do the trip would add 750 miles of driving and an extra day of shuttling. I am not that much of a purist! So here is the tentative plan:

1) Aug 4 Drive to North Lake (out of Bishop)
2) Aug 5-14 Solo hike south to Cedar Grove (Kings Canyon)
3) Aug 15 Husband picks me up, we drive to Mammoth Lakes via Tioga Pass
4) Aug 16-26 Slow paced fishing trip hike Lake George (east approach to Mammoth Crest instead of from Reds Meadow) south to North Lake.
5) Aug 27 husband drops me off at Twin Lakes (out of Bridgeport) on his way home
6) Aug 28-Sept 6 Solo hike Twin Lakes to Devil's Postpile with food pick-up at Tioga Pass.

I can adjust this schedule +/- a few days if someone were to join me. Also, with an additional car, the route could be done contiguously (south to north) with reasonable driving logistics.

You are one tough lady Nancy. I was impressed with your Spring snow trip a few years ago over Piute Pass, Bear Basin area I believe it was. Solo! Go for it gal!

After days of agonizing over the route details I have finally landed on a plan. I will try to do the entire route north-to-south. I say "try" because I still have some arm-twisting to do with my husband to convince him he should drive an extra 500 miles and spend most of his Labor Day holiday picking me up and retreiving my car on the other side of the Sierra. If I can convince him, I can do the route as a pure contiguous through-hike. I have 11 days on our mid-section to convince him! If this does not work, then I will have to do the last section south-to-north.

The best thing about this plan is that I get to start out with a light pack for the 4-day 24-mile leg and will pick up food at Tuolumne Meadows. The next leg is a 7-day 43-mile hike to Devils Post Pile. Then is our 11-day 55-mile slow-paced fishing trip south to North Lake. The last 9-day 63-mile section is up in the air as to which direction. Daily miles are low because this is a very difficult off-trail route. I will do 9-12 miles a few of the days that I will be on trails.

I have previously done about 80% of the route as bits and pieces so there should be few surprises. I also have many detours figured out if needed. This will be a good test for my TarpTent Moment, new GoLite Quest pack and new Merell Radland shoes. What I am NOT taking- book, cell phone, any electronic gagets, personal locator, bear spray, GPS, compass. But based on a recent thread on this forum I am going to buy a loud whistle! Two of the heaviest, but unfortunately necessary items, bear cannister and ice axe preclude taking many other goodies.

Now all I have to do is pack up the car and make this trip happen!

Sounds fabulous, WD. Looking forward to a TR with lots of photos.