Backpacking Maps

The Pacific Crest & John Muir Trail Routes:

The Superhighway of Trails

The majority of the trail distance between Lake Tahoe to Mount Whitney is composed of the Pacific Crest and John Muir Trails. You can vary off in many place to take alternative routes, but these two routes are backpacking superhighways.

The Pacific Crest Trail has a trailbed that is so worn so deeply into the Earth that it will be visible for decades across huge stretches of the High Sierras, as the Oregon trail is still visible across great tracks of the Great Plains today. It is that deeply worn into the terrain. So too is the John Muir Trail route, though much of it crosses hard rock and leaves less impact on the terrain.

You have a wide variety of on-trail map options at your disposal but for planning trips I prefer to rely on the Original USGS 7.5 minute maps that every other commercial mapping system is based on.

Free Downloadable USGS Topo Maps

You can obtain and download every 7.5, 15, and 30 minute map, as well as the 1 x 2 degree large-scale maps that the USGS has compiled at the USGS store. Follow the instructions to navigate the Google Map to the Sierra, zoom in, click "mark points," and the USGS map grid will appear. Select the specific maps at the different scales your desire, and download.

Downloading the TerraGo tool with the maps allows you to accurately measure the mileage of the mapped routes. Be aware that trail route have changed since the maps were last updated. These maps and the Geo-tool both operate on the Adobe Reader.

This will allow you to build up a library of the USGS maps covering the High Sierra. These maps are excellent for planning trips and making yourself familiar with the surrounding terrain. But USGS 7.5 minute maps are not the best for on-trail use. They are plain paper and break down quickly, and their 7.5 minute scale is much too detailed for long-distance backpacking. The number and weight of maps necessary to cover the Sierra would be too prohibitive to carry.

It is the classic conflict between scale and accuracy.

The Regional Maps

A most fundamental map for the first time backpacking visitor to a region is an excellent big-scale trail map. These maps are indispensable for travel across even the highest use trails in the Sierras.

There are a number of regional map options available. The first are the commercial and non-profit map printing services. National Geographic offers the software necessary to view, select, and print out your own custom sets of maps covering your specific trip.

The National Geographic software is based on the same USGS mapping information as the USGS series of maps, but the information is "smoothed out," and made scaleable and printable. The same is true of all the commercial mapping services.

The next option is the printed regional map. These are generally the maps I use on the trail. These maps generally span from 30 to 130 miles of our North to South trail route. But you have some options. The Forest Service offers maps that cover each wilderness in their forest as well as maps of their whole National Forest. Private and non-profit vendors also offer regional maps, such as Wilderness Press and Sierra Maps dot Com.

Here's the maps I typically carry on a Tahoe to Whitney backpacking trip

1>The Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit offers a map of the Desolation Wilderness, and I use the USGS maps for the remainder of the Tahoe Basin through the Meiss Roadless Area to Carson Pass. One USGS 7.5 minute map covers almost the whole Meiss Roadless Area.

From Carson Pass to Sonora Pass the Carson-Iceberg and Mokelumne Wilderness Maps from the Forest Service cover both the Pacific Crest and Tahoe to Yosemite Trails as each passes through a different part of both wilderness.

For the short distance from Highway 108 to the Yosemite Boundary on both routes I consult the Wilderness Press map of the Emigrant Wilderness.

From the Yosemite Boundary down to Reds Meadow I use the Wilderness Press Yosemite map.

From Reds Meadow down to the Kings Canyon National Park Boundary the Forest Service Map of the John Muir Wilderness in the Sierra National Forest is preferable.

Again, National Geographic offers an excellent hand held map covering Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park in the South Sierra from the Boundary near Piute Creek down to where you end your trip at the Whitney Portal.

Always Carry Good Maps

There are four reasons you should always have an accurate map of the local terrain you are backpacking through.

First, ascertaining the location of water, both to drink and to ford. Second, to analyze the upcoming terrain to determine how far you can get, and where you will find the best campsite location at the end of your day. Third, your map, properly situated, will identify the local mountains, rivers, and passes if you lose the trail or reach an unmarked trail junction. Fourth, Shit Happens.

If a freak monster snowstorm blows in and completely covers the trail, you will really want be able to use your map skills to follow the trail course until you can recover the trail itself. You can get lost. There are many high use unmarked trail junctions which the inattentive hiker could accidentally follow, or misidentify the junction without a map.

Once you backpack a few times through a region of the Sierras with map awareness, you will gain an understanding of how the local drainages come off the Crest, and where they go to. After a few years crossing Emigrant Wilderness on the Tahoe to Yosemite Trail, I took a trip to Grizzley Peak Lake and followed a series of drainage cross-country successfully down to Pinecrest Lake and the Ranger Station on Highway 108 just West of Strawberry. What a blast that was!

Proper map reading skills will also allow you to easily follow non-maintained High Sierra trails and routes through some of the most remote areas of the range.

Your best source for maps:

U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior

The USGS

USGS MAP LOCATOR

Use the USGS map locator to download FREE geo-pdf's of all the various available scales of USGS topographic maps.

Why?

Because the USGS 7.5 minute maps give you detailed information about the areas around the trail, as well as about the trail route itself.

When you study the terrain surrounding the Tahoe to Yosemite Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail, or the John Muir Trail on the USGS 7.5 minute maps you are going to find dozens, if not hundreds, of opportunities to scramble into amazing terrain, hanging valleys, and hidden lake basins just off the main routes.

For instance, look at Center Basin on a regional map of King's Canyon. Center Basin sits to the East of the John Muir Trail on the North side of Forester Pass. To know just what kind of scramble it is to hike up there and explore you should consult the USGS 7.5 topo map to ascertain accurate distance and elevation figures for this side trip.

You can make yourself familiar enough with the terrain that you will be comfortable scrambling in with your low-detail regional map.

There are so many side trips off of each section of all the trails between Tahoe and Whitney it provides an endless source of new experiences along the same trail.

Studying the actual 7.5 minute detailed map of the basin you want to explore is a really good idea before hiking into there during your trip with your general regional map in hand. This previous study time will make your general map more effective.

Resources:

National Geographic Mapping Software

National Geographic Hand Maps

Wilderness Press Maps

National Forest Service Maps

Specific Forests in the Sierra Nevada

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