Visiting During the Spring
The time of year you plan to take your trip is limited to times when the Twin Lakes trail is open. The Lodgepole campground is open April 18 to November 28 mainly due to the amount of snow that is on the ground outside of this window. We visited mid-March 2017 and the road to Lodgepole was closed at the General Sherman tree due to the high levels of snow. The drifts were easily above 6 feet high in many areas.
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| The snow drifts at the General Sherman in the parking area in mid-March |
There should be no problem accessing the Twin Lakes trail during the summer months. If your trip is planned for parts of the year other than summer, have a back-up plan as trails and campsites may not be accessible.
Despite the heavy snow and closed roads in the Spring, there are backpacking opportunities. The open trails are found in the lower elevation foothills where the snow has melted and the weather conditions are more compatible with humans not accustomed to living in Siberia.
For spring break 2017, we backpacked the Middle Fork Trail in the foothills and found the main challenge to be the crossing of the small streams encountered along the trail. The "small" streams were swollen, swift, and icy cold from the snow melt at the higher elevations. We encountered people on the trail that turned around to hike out rather than cross a swift stream. Below are pictures of the first stream crossing on the Middle Fork Trail.
Visiting During the Summer
Summer months are the ideal time to visit despite the crowds of tourists. You'll be in the wilderness while most tourists will stick to "glamping" in an RV parked at the Lodgepole campground. We encountered very few people along the trail, and only 2-3 other campers at each lake. We decided to stay one day at each lake, and we had the lake to ourselves until the late afternoon groups arrived and began to set up camp for the night.Wilderness permits are required for any overnight trek outside of an official campground. A reservation is not required outside of the normal season; you can arrive at an official permit station and self-register your wilderness permit in the off-season. The season where reservations is required is from May 25th to September 22nd, and you can send in reservations starting at 12:01am Pacific Time on March 1st. See the permit page for exact details.
I chose to set my reservation early so that there would be no issues with scheduling travel early enough for it to be cost effective. I received a response to my reservation within roughly 2 weeks of submission. The only downside is that it appears that the campground reservations can be made much farther in advance than the wilderness permits. We would have ideally camped a single night at Lodgepole to acclimatize to the elevation, but all campgrounds were completely booked by the time we had our wilderness permit reservation confirmed.
Acclimatization
If you are someone that gets sick at high altitudes, you may have some trouble without proper acclimatization. Ideally you'll want to stay a night at a drive-up campground before setting out on your hike so that your body becomes accustomed to a higher than normal altitude before climbing higher.You'll want to do what is best for you in terms of altitude acclimatization. We come from a city that is at about 100 feet above sea level but did not have the opportunity to sleep over night at a high altitude camp. We spent one day before touring some of the high altitude sites before sleeping in a hotel at the bottom of the hill in Fresno. None of us had a problem during the hike other than maybe some shortness of breath as we crossed the 10,000 ft level of the Silliman Pass.
Conclusion
As with any trip, planning ahead is the key to success. Learn how to navigate the reservation process to ensure you have the proper permits for your wilderness hike.Part 4 will cover outfitting for the trip....stay tuned!
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