[pct-l] Trail Report Tuolumne to Sonora Pass

[Molly Barth]

Just arrived in Bridgeport after getting off the trail at Sonora Pass.
 Successfully made it through Northern Yosemite, so I figured I'd pass
along some notes in case other thru or section hikers are unsure of
whether or not they should jump ahead.  Miles 942-1018 were definitely
the most intense and challenging of the hike in terms of terrain,  but
they are doable.  For a reference to river depths,  I am a 130 lb, 6
ft tall female and definitely needed help crossing a few of the
rivers.  Traveling with a buddy is a really good idea, although we ran
into a few hikers who made it through alone.  Here's what we found:

Tuolumne River: most of the bridge is walkable, last section was
flooded over to thigh depth.   Not super strong,  but you would go
over Tuolumne Falls if you fell in.  The trail was really flooded in
he Glen Aulin area.  Lots of wading (at times waist deep).

McCabe Creek:  I thought this was the hardest ford,  but then again we
did it at 4pm.  Ended up going upstream for 10 minutes, then
downclimbing through the whitewater to cross a log.  Eggman did it the
next morning and said that the whitewater had decreased significantly.

Return Creek:  Strong current but no whitewater.  Waist deep at 5 pm.
Totally doable if you do a tandem crossing with the stronger person
upstream.  I found this to be one of the easiest fords.

Spiller Creek:  crossed at 7:30 am. Tandem crossing at the trail.
Strong current, but pretty easy with 2 people.

Matterhorn Creek:  ankle deep.  No big deal.

Wilson Creek:  crossed individually at the trail.

Feed for Benson Lake:  crossed 3 times.  First was done individually
and was fairly easy, second we crossed at the trail tandemly, 3rd time
was the worst and we found a log unstream to walk across.

Piute:  wow.  This river was HUGE but was also really spread out.
Took us a solid 45 minutes to cross the whole thing.  The water wasn't
very swift, but it was deep.  Up to my chest a few times. Not sure of
the best route for this one.  It just took forever but was pretty low
consequence.

Kerrick Canyon:  icy/steep traverse for a mile next to Rancheria
Creek.  Used ice axes and microspikes to avoid sliding into the raging
creek.  Crossed the creek just upstream of the trail where the water
was in 2 branches.  First branch was very strong... I definitely
couldn't have done it alone.

Stubblefield Canyon:  Nearly chest high ford, but water was not super swift.

Feed to Wilma Lake:  plan on swimming unless your tall.  Current
minimal but water deep and cold! Wilma Lake itself is flooded over by
Falls Creek.  The bridge across the outlet of the lake is about 2.5
feet underwater.  You'll see it if you look carefully. The forest is
also flooded and involved a lot of wading.

Falls Creek: where the trail crosses, this creek looks like the
Tuolumne River.  You don't need to cross it until much much later
since the trail follows the creek up to Dorothy Lakes.  The terrain on
each side of the creek is shit, so you don't need to cross the creek
to travel on the trail.  A number of us did cross, and did it a bit to
early so it was pretty challenging.

Well, best of luck to those who choose to enter... It's not impassable
but definitely challenging! See you down the trail,

-- Gang$ta Rap