2016 goals / plans?

[psykokid]

Well, with the new year now upon us I'm interested to hear what everyone has planned as far as trips for the upcoming year.

I got solidly back into hiking starting with a trip to White Mountain Peak here in CA at the end of July. From there I managed to log around 300 miles on trail in the last 5 months of the year with a few 15+ mile day hikes thrown in with a trip to Mt Langley the first weekend of October.

For 2016 I've got the following on the radar:
- Socal's big 3 - Mt San Antonio, Mt San Jacinto, and Mt San Gorgonio.
- Mt Whitney either at the end of the High Sierra Trail or as the high point of a trip starting at Horseshoe Meadows and exiting via Shepherds Pass avoiding the whole Whitney Portal madness..
- Bagging as many CA 14er's as possible.
- Logging at least 800 miles on trail by the end of the year.

 

[tarditi]

I recently moved, and with it, moved away from my AT section hike buddy. I do want to explore some local trails and maybe hit the NJ section of the AT (delaware gap) next year or so.

 

[SDDiver5]

I really want to hit Laurel Lakes and the mammoth area as soon as the snow pack is manageable. But this will depend on my vehicle at the time...hopefully Ill do it with a brand new T4R Trail Edition Premium!

Edit: The goal is to hike to surrounding areas and do some fishing.

 

[762X39]

Bruce Trail end to end

I have some pretty modest goals for this year. Last year after a 26 year absence, I started trail hiking again. The Bruce trail passes within 1km of my home ( I live in downtown Hamilton, a former steeltown or "The Hammer"). I did the local section over 2 weekends (135km) and decided to do the whole trail over the next 4 years. This year I will hike the Niagara section (about 80km) and the Toronto section (about 50km) on 2 separate weekends. This is over and above all my other activities (hunting for a week or so up north, working on a new fence along the side of our house, cottage maintenance, canoeing, etc...)

 

[WildlandOutdoors]

We are planning multiple backpacking trips, various canoe trips (even looking at a 100 mile stretch), and lots of camping, fishing, and fun.

 

[2025 deleted member]

Well, with the new year now upon us I'm interested to hear what everyone has planned as far as trips for the upcoming year.

I got solidly back into hiking starting with a trip to White Mountain Peak here in CA at the end of July. From there I managed to log around 300 miles on trail in the last 5 months of the year with a few 15+ mile day hikes thrown in with a trip to Mt Langley the first weekend of October.

For 2016 I've got the following on the radar:
- Socal's big 3 - Mt San Antonio, Mt San Jacinto, and Mt San Gorgonio.
- Mt Whitney either at the end of the High Sierra Trail or as the high point of a trip starting at Horseshoe Meadows and exiting via Shepherds Pass avoiding the whole Whitney Portal madness..
- Bagging as many CA 14er's as possible.
- Logging at least 800 miles on trail by the end of the year.

Sounds like fun! You're going to wear out a pair of boots!

 

[Cobra_R]

Mt shasta
Mt Whitney
Death Valley
Moab

Those are my main plans

 

[psykokid]

I've been working on building up my stamina in order to tackle about half the High Sierra Trail as an out an back over a weekend later in the summer. Planning on leaving from Crescent Meadows or Wolverton depending on walkup permit availability. Going to leave LA on a Thursday evening, drive up to SEKI and sleep, wake up Friday morning and grab a walk up permit and hit the trail. The plan is to get to Big Arroyo by end of day on Friday, wake up early Saturday morning and bag Eagle Scout Peak and head back down the HST stopping at one of the campsites with a bear box @ Buck Creek for the evening. Wake up Sunday and make the last push back to the trail head.

We were planning on taking some of the boys in my son's scout troop up to Cottonwood Lakes the weekend before Memorial Day, but have had to postpone due to the road up to Horseshoe Meadows still not being open and about 2' of snow on the ground still in the basin. We're going to do a modified version of this trip in early July taking the Trail Pass entry since there is no qouta in place for that trail head. Day 1 will be Horseshoe Meadows to Chicken Springs Lake, Day 2 will be Chicken Springs Lake to either Soldier Lakes or if the boys are feeling up to it, push on over New Army Pass and camp somewhere in the Cottonwood Lakes Basin. Last day will be either Soldier Lakes or Cottonwood Lakes back to the TH.

The 4th of July weekend I'm leading an SCLR trip up to Coyote Flat, with one of the days involving a hike to bag Cloudripper and Vagabond peaks which are both 13ers.

Any of the big peaks are going to have to wait until the end of summer/early fall due to all of the snow we got this year.

 

[psykokid]

Well, Coyote Flats over the 4th went well enough. My son ended up getting a touch of AMS since we were camped around 10K feet. We ended up calling the trip and headed home early with one other family whose son wasnt feeling all that great due to the elevation as well. The rest of the group stayed, and two of the guys successfully bagged Vagabond and Cloudripper on Sunday Morning.

This past weekend I took my wife on her first backpacking trip up to Cottonwood Lakes. Stayed at the trailhead camp on Friday night and hiked into Muir Lake on Saturday where we camped for the evening. Turns out my wife isn't a big fan of hiking up hill and the altitude wasn't doing her any favors either. Hiked out Sunday morning and was back to the truck by noon. Weather was perfect the entire weekend, upper 60's during the day and mid 40's at night. The day after we hiked out a fire started along Horseshoe Meadows Road forcing Inyo NF to close all the trailheads and campgrounds at Horseshoe Meadows. As of today they have the fire around 50% contained.

Next weekend I plan on tackling part of the HST. Going to carry a bear can so I can camp wherever I like and not be restricted to areas with bear boxes. I was planning on fastpacking with a 24L pack but the bear can barely fits in there so I'm going to take my bigger pack and slow down a little.

Thinking about traversing from Shepherds Pass, tagging Tyndall and Williamson, then going cross country to Russell. The plan from there is to go up the north ridge of Russell and exiting via the east ridge, down and across to the MR on Whitney, and then up Whitney and tagging Muir on the way down. Depending on the parking situation at the Portal we'll either exit via the main trail or if that's not doable due to the road construction, head down from Discovery Pinnacle into Crabtree Lakes, up over the Crabtree Pass into the Miter Basin and exit via Horseshoe Meadows.

 

[johnwooden]

Well, with the new year now upon us I'm interested to hear what everyone has planned as far as trips for the upcoming year.

I got solidly back into hiking starting with a trip to White Mountain Peak here in CA at the end of July. From there I managed to log around 300 miles on trail in the last 5 months of the year with a few 15+ mile day hikes thrown in with a trip to Mt Langley the first weekend of October.

For 2016 I've got the following on the radar:
- Socal's big 3 - Mt San Antonio, Mt San Jacinto, and Mt San Gorgonio.
- Mt Whitney either at the end of the High Sierra Trail or as the high point of a trip starting at Horseshoe Meadows and exiting via Shepherds Pass avoiding the whole Whitney Portal madness..
- Bagging as many CA 14er's as possible.
- Logging at least 800 miles on trail by the end of the year.

Sound you have fun trips. Can you show detail of your plan

 

[psykokid]

Sound you have fun trips. Can you show detail of your plan

What kind of details are you looking for? As in training for the specific hikes or planning details?

I've managed to bag 2 of the 3 saints down here in Socal this year. Been up to the summit of San Antonio (Mt. Baldy) a few times this year and did a 24 mile loop dayhike of San Gorgonio a few weeks ago. That only leaves San Jacinto to bag before the end of the year.

HST trip ended up going bust, my hiking partner gave himself a hernia the week before the trip throwing his son up in the air and catching him. Ended up canceling it and hiking San Gorgonio that weekend.

Revised Whitney trip is coming up in 3 weeks. The plan is to hike up Shepherds Pass and camp, tag Tyndall & Williamson the next day, day after that traverse Trojan and Barnard, day 4 will be Russell, Whitney via MR and Muir then camp at Iceberg lake and hike out on Day 5. That will knock out all the southern 14ers and allow me to concentrate on Split and the Peaks in the Palisades next year. Not sure when I'll fit Shasta in as that peak is it's own little monster..

I've only managed to hit around 200 miles on trail so far this year. Will probably revise my goal for the year to 600 miles which is still double what I did last year.