Trip report - Two Kings Loop, Kings Canyon NP

Sasha - I am not an ultralight hiker by any stretch of the imagination. I like having a full coverage tent (those tarps don't do much good when the mosquitoes are out, or during a hard rain that splashes in from the edges). I believe in comfort and use a full length insulated air mattress (Insulmat, only weighs about 1.5 lb). My pack started the trip at 45 lb, including 3L water. At the end of the trip it weighed 32 lb with my 3L camelbak half full. And I weighed 7 lb less, it was a workout.

One other thing that handicaps us for weight is the required bear canister for our food. I currently use a Bear Vault BV400, which weighs 2.5 lb empty. Some day I may spring for one of the Bearikade models. For $225 I can get a fancy carbon fiber canister that will cut 10 oz off the total weight.
 
lotoblades said:
Those are some BIG trees!

Great pics,thank you!
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Next time I visit the sequoia groves up the road, I'll take some more pictures of some really big trees. They dwarf the sugar pines. Some are 20' diameter at 180' above the ground. Pictures just can't capture them properly. In the meantime, look at this shot. It is the only decent one on my hard drive right now (by coincidence, I deleted a bunch of sequoia pictures a few days ago). This particular tree is only medium size, probably about 15' diameter - look how it dwarfs the saplings to the right.

RedwoodCanyon142.jpg


If you go to the General Sherman tree (the biggest in the world) you can see a branch that fell from it about 1.5 years ago, from a point about 200' up the tree. The branch is about 5' diameter, and when you look at the spot it fell from, that 5' diameter looks like just a small mark on the tree.
 
Thanks for posting this. Incredible pictures. My family used to go to Kings Canyon and Sequoia Nat'l Parks every year. I'm trying to convince my family to go again next year for my parents 50th wedding anniversary.

I also did some hiking in high Sierras with the scouts when I was a kid. I think that is one of my favorite landscapes.
 
Wow, thanks for posting those pics. It really makes me jealous. I've been wanting to get into backpacking, and backpack out of Wishon on one of the trails. I just need to get away from all the frigin people that have infested Wishon over the last few years. I've been camping at Wishon and Courtright reseviors since I was still in the womb, and my dad has been camping there since he was a kid, when the only people up there were the PG&E workers(my grandpa), and the road was dirt.

Man, I hope someday I can afford to get into backpacking and I meet someone who's willing to do it with me. Maybe my brother will when he moves out here in a couple of years. Dang, I haven't even been camping or fishing at all this year, hopefully I'll get to go to Courtright labor day weekend, if my dad's buddy can get there during the week to get a spot.

Hey did you go with a group or just by yourself? 8 days?! Cool! Sounds like a heck of a trip.

Anyways, great pics, and again, I'm jealous.
 
What a sweet trip. Inspiring. I want to follow the trip with a map to get ideas. And that fire is a real bitch. It's massive. If you want to see how big it is, go to geomac.gov and click on Wildfire Mapping. Then jump to the Zaca fire. Probably won't stop until it rains down here, and could be for a while...
 
Stingray - If you want to get away from people, this route is a good one. We saw two people after we left Wishon, but after going through Crown Valley around noon on the first day, we saw no one else for the next three days, until we met the John Muir Trail. After that we saw anywhere from 4 to 20 people each day (that big day we encountered a 14-person scout group). Look at the picture of Tehipite Valley - we had it all to ourselves. All the way past Simpson Meadow, past Devil's Washbowl, and five miles upstream from that. No one else there. It was a nice change from the Whitney trip I took the scouts on - Whitney is a zoo.
 
I really miss being out in that part of the country. These pics remind me of how much fun I had on the JMT a few years ago.
 
Thanks for sharing your wonderful pics. I like your blade choices, very functional. How do you like your opinel saw does is saw real good?
 
I need to find some of the pics i got of the trees. In one of them i stand beside the tree. No one even notices me untill i point my self out. The next reaction is WOW DAMN thats a big tree. Need to stand next to one to realy get the size into the head.

Sasha
 
Diamond Dog said:
Thanks for sharing your wonderful pics. I like your blade choices, very functional. How do you like your opinel saw does is saw real good?
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The Opinel saw cuts well. I also have a Silky Pocketboy, but opted for the Opinel on this trip to cut weight. I have taken a lot of wood off the handle to make it slimmer and lighter.
 
Great pics! Going up tho the Sierra back in my Scouting days is really what started my love of the area. It's great you live in Visalia too, the "Gateway to the Sequoias"!
 
lambertiana, that first section you did up the Tehipite Valley looks like it's an unmaintained trail (according to the Tom Harrison map). What was it like with a full pack? And how did you shuttle back to the Wishon Reservoir? Following your trip with a map makes me tired just looking at it.
 
Great photos. Thanks for posting them. With my knees I'll never be able to do something like that so I appreciate seeing what's out there. Thanks for being a scout leader too. Boys need someone like you willing to volunteer your time for something like that.
 
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