I rose with the sun, cooked a quick breakfast, and hit the trail.

Piute Creek near the Benson Lake inlet.

Another, less cloudy, view of Volunteer Peak and the unnamed (on my map) peaks to the west.

Tarns near the top of Seavey Pass.

One of the sources of the footprints along the trail from yesterday.

A gorgeous section of Rancheria Creek.

This is where the trail crosses Rancheria Creek. Despite it still being early season, the crossing was trivial, the creek was not even knee deep and very slow through here.

Gorgeous granite formations in the morning light along Rancheria Creek.

Morning view looking upstream at Kerrick Meadow.

Looking back downstream across Kerrick Meadow.

The view of the Sawtooth Ridge across Peeler Lake.

More wildlife.

Another shot of Barney Lake and Crown Point, this time with less wind.

The view up Little Slide Canyon and a close-up with the Incredible Hulk.

The great views continued all the way to the gas station, and for much of the drive back as well.

I made good time on the fairly uneventful hike back, leaving me with time for a Jolly Kone burger and a lovely run through the forest near Peaceful Pines on my way back over Sonora Pass. Despite not managing to complete my original objective, it was still a fun weekend out, and I was happy to be able to do this trip so early in the season.

I’ll only comment on a couple of things, first the route itself. Even though I wasn’t able to complete the full loop, I still thought this area was awesome. On this hike, you’ll pass by the spectacular Sawtooth region of the Hoover Wilderness, explore several of North Yosemite’s long canyons, and visit a Sierra Nevada alpine lake with a large sandy beach. I’ve heard Smedberg Lake is quite scenic as well, but didn’t get the chance to visit it this trip. On top of that, you’ll avoid Yosemite’s infamous crowds and some of its backpacking red-tape.

Second, the conditions. I’ll talk about the three things that every Sierra Nevada backpacker should consider: snow, creeks, and bugs. As a reminder, this trip was June 9-10, 2018, which was a relatively low snow year, the snowpack peaked around 60% of April 1 average. I found only a few small patches of snow near Peeler Lake and the north side of Seavey Pass. While there was some walking on snow, it was not difficult by any means. The unbridged crossing of Rancheria Creek was equally uneventful. The trail crosses in a large, flat meadow. The water was only 2 feet deep or so and slow moving. I noticed the bugs were beginning to come out, especially in some of the swampy areas along Piute Creek, but they were still a ways from peaking and I was perfectly comfortable bivying and lazing around without a headnet.