Every summer, I take a backpacking trip with my dad. This year’s excursion was planned for the Mineral King area of Sequoia National Park. He lives in Fresno, so that’s not too far from his front door, and one of the places I was still able to get a backpacking permit during this COVID-impacted year. Our permit was to enter over Franklin Pass after which point we could more or less hike where we pleased. Our plan was to make a figure 8 loop by crossing Franklin Pass then heading north to the Nine Lakes Basin and then crossing cross country Pants Pass, then over to Picket Creek and across the Kaweah Basin before rejoining the High Sierra Trail and heading back out past Little and Big Five Lakes to Sawtooth Pass. As usual, we intended to climb some of the peaks in the area as well. This area has a dozen or so SPS-listed peaks along the southern reaches of the Great Western Divide and the Kaweahs, so we figured we’d just pick them as we went along.

As usual, it wouldn’t exactly work out to plan, but that’s part of the fun, especially for these DIY-routes.