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Sierra Nevada - Jerkey Meadows - 1993

In July of this year, I had invited my dad to go backpacking with me. Our destination was Jerkey Meadows in the Golden Trout Wilderness. This location was near the Little Kern Creek which feeds into the Kern River.

We left early in the morning and drove up to the Jerkey Meadow Trailhead. The road to this grew smaller and narrower as we went along. Finally at the end of the road was a small paring area with a few established car camping spots. We parked and loaded our packs and headed out. Going from sea level to that elevation was hard on the lungs be we hiked on. We hiked a few miles until we reached a plateau near jug spring. We made camp and then went to get some water. The spring was mostly a seeping hill but we had enough flow to get the water we needed. We enjoyed climbing around some of the rocks. Overall the area was pretty dry. The elevation was about 6700 feet so we were still in the trees but in the lower drier section of the Sierra Nevada.

The next day we did some day hiking up the trail to the trout meadows spring area. To get there we crossed the Little Kern River via a stock bridge. Very nice river to relax at. We proceeded to hike to the Trout Meadows Ranger Station and stopped to chat with the ranger there. It was just a small 10x14 hut which he lived at for a few weeks at a time. We continued hiking up to the Trout Meadows and enjoyed the lovely green meadow and scenery. On the way back we stopped again at the ranger hut and chatted some more.

We hiked back to our tent and ate dinner. The next morning we packed up and headed back down to the car. Overall, we only passed a few people on the trail. This was generally a nice remote trailhead to hike from and very few people. The downside, is the dry terrain. However, there are enough springs and creeks around to get water from.

I enjoyed this trip with my Dad. We had done a lot of car camping over the years as a family but this was the first backpacking trip with Dad and it was a special time. I believe he still has the picture of us at his office at work.