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Ebbetts Pass backpacker resources and information:
THE PACIFIC CREST TRAIL

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Video: Ebbetts Pass. 1:17.

Ebbetts Pass

Where We Are in relation to Services and Resupply

For the Pacific Crest Trailer

I've met very few Pacific Crest Trail hikers who resupply at Lake Alpine over the years. A few.

The typical resupply pattern for the PCTer across the North Sierra is Tuolumne Meadows, Kennedy Meadows (75 miles North of Tuolumne Meadows), and then the Echo Chalet (70 miles North of KM).

PCT section hikers are much more likely to take advantage of Lake Alpine's hospitality and services.

Most PCTers bypass Ebbetts Pass as a resupply point. They are biting off 70+ miles of the trail between resupply points at a time, and for good reason. They are racing against the calendar to beat the late-season snows up North in the Cascades. And they have already crossed big distances hiking up to Muir Ranch as well as the Five Canyons North of Tuolumne.

PCT hikers really begin to pick up speed and distance as the elevation and trail difficulty decreases North of Sonora Pass. But hitching down to Lake Alpine has its advantages.

Lake Alpine and Bear Valley
Resupply Resources

Lake Alpine Lodge will accept your resupply package sent through UPS and hold it for you at no charge.

There are also showers, laundry, a poor backpacker's store, restaurant, bar, and bar menu at Lake Alpine. The restaurant is expensive, but a Pacific Crest Trail hiker could hitch the three extra miles down to Bear Valley instead of Lake Alpine and still do laundry, shower, eat a bunch of food at the deli, and then hitch back up to Ebbetts Pass to continue hiking the next day.

I like to visit both places when I can. Nice folks at both.

We basically have the same services at Lake Alpine as at the Bear Valley, but Bear Valley lacks the centrality of all the services as provided by the Lake Alpine Lodge, and has no shower or free resupply service. But the Bear Valley Deli is a heck of a lot cheaper than the Lake Alpine Lodge's fancy restaurant.

But, Lake Alpine provides free backpacker resupply services, so I always treat myself to a breakfast and dinner there when I hike through, both for the great food and to pay them back for their long-time support for local and long distance backpackers.

Nice folks.

For the Tahoe to Whitney or Section Backpacker

I've both bypassed and resupplied at Lake Alpine when backpacking the long trails between Lake Tahoe to Tuolumne Meadows, and on down to the Whitney Portal. Most times I stop at Lake Alpine for a day off or two. You can plan your trip to suit your tastes. But there's more to life on the trail than high mileage days.

I have made a point of exploring the mountain outposts and communities that support backpackers, if I resupply or not. I've done this both to build this trail guide, and because I really enjoy spending a day sitting on the deck at the Lake Alpine Lodge having a beer while talking to their cool staff, the fishermen and campers from all around California who pass through there, and the tourists from all around the country and world who go there to see Highway 4's famous narrow track through the close-up beauties of the High Sierra.

It's just relaxing fun with cool folks in a beautiful spot at the Lake Alpine Lodge. You're going to need a crowbar to pry my ass off of the Lodge's deck, because I almost always take a day off the trail at Lake Alpine.

My thought is that I will spend the money on one of the Lake Alpine Lodge's expensive dinners because they go out of their way to take care of backpackers. It's the least I can do. If I have the money. If I'm running broke I head down to Bear Valley...

Details-Details
Resupply-Gear-Repair-Full Medical

The Lake Alpine Lodge sits 15 miles West of Ebbetts Pass, and is where we could have sent ourselves a free resupply package via UPS, if that was in our plans. Bear Valley, which has a couple of outdoors-sports shops (socks, shoes, water bottles; they are ski shops in Winter, and mountain bike shops during Summer...) and an excellent store-deli, sits 3 miles to the West of Lake Alpine.

The town of Arnold, where there are full grocery, medical, gear and repair services sits 42.4 miles West of Ebbetts Pass down Highway 4. It's an easy hitch-hike West to any of these destinations.

I've met lots of good local folk hitching down to Lake Alpine, Bear Valley, and Arnold to explore local backpacker support during my hikes up and down the Sierra trails. You find some pretty cool people and things just off the trail. I can almost smell the massive bacon cheese burger swimming in a huge plate of fries at Suzie's Diner in Arnold from Ebbetts Pass...

Tell Suzie and her uber-cool staff "Hey" from Alex if you stop in for a bite on the way into or back from Ebbetts Pass on Highway 4...

East of Ebbetts Pass

Markleeville and Gardnerville
To our East sits no significant services for 39 miles, until we reach the Carson Valley Medical Center in the fine little town of Gardnerville in Nevada. Gardnerville is a full-service town, but is too far away for my tastes. I may be insulting the fine little biker bar in the tiny town of Markleeville by not mentioning it as a significant service. That biker bar certainly is a significant service...

Roadmap

The Biker Bar was the turn-around point for the Markleeville Death Ride last I heard, and is always a destination for packs of Harley riders. Last I was there the ceiling of the bar was decorated with hundreds of bras contributed by biker babes over the years, but I heard that they took them down.

Markleeville sits a mere 17 miles to our East from Ebbetts Pass. I've never resupplied in Markleeville, though I suppose you could. They have a tiny store, and if their Post Office is still open you might be able to send yourself a package... But you'd be a lot better off resupplying on the Western slope of the Sierra at Lake Alpine.

Markleeville is five miles Left, North, up Highway 89 from the Highway 4 junction with Highway 89, which is located about 12 miles to the East of Ebbetts Pass. Highway 89 North is also the route to Gardnerville, while its Southbound end drops through Monitor Pass into the amazing little canyon down to Highway 395 crossing Antelope Valley a bit South of Lake Topaz and the California-Nevada boundary.

There are great people up and down Antelope Valley, but little in the way of re supply resources. I've spent time during all four seasons in the fine little towns of Walker, Holbrook Junction, and Gardnerville resting from the last trip to begin the next.

Country Folk are Refreshing
In fact, I've spent a lot of time kicking back with friends who live along the Highway 395 corridor between Coleville down to Walker, generally on my way to or from backpacking trips in the Eastern Sierra. Fine people live out there who I really enjoy seeing. They are as much fun as my backpacking, but in a different way. The good country folk out there make every trip better. But the Carson and Antelope Valleys are not good resupply options from Ebbetts Pass.

If you plan on using Highway 4 at Ebbetts Pass as an opportunity to resupply, I strongly suggest sending a resupply package to Lake Alpine.

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Hitching to and from Ebbetts Pass

There is no public transportation across Highway 4. Either you drive or you hitch.

During late Spring and early Fall the traffic on Highway 4 across Ebbetts Pass goes down to 3 cars an hour, by my count. I have found that one of every three cars will stop to say hello, and make sure that you are O.K. Nice people up there. During mid-Summer there is regular traffic across Ebbetts Pass. Up to 15 cars an hour.

The real problem is getting to Ebbetts Pass from the West, across The Valley. The farmers and cowboys in The Valley rarely pick up hitch-hikers, and the idiot city yuppies driving across The Valley generally drive right past everyone, including backpackers. We've grown some pretty weird urban idiots/creeps is our mega-cities during the past half-century of unrestricted greed and growth. Try to hook-up with a Craig's List ride to get across The Valley if at all possible.

Once you get across The Valley to Highways 49 and Highway 4 heading up-mountain you will easily get a ride. The country folk are still cool, and not afraid to meet and greet their fellow-citizens.

If you are planning on starting a backpacking trip from Ebbetts Pass note that you cannot park at Ebbetts Pass. The sign below says, "Please do not park here."

The sign points towards the parking area located .03 of a mile East of Ebbetts Pass.

Mileage North

26.78 miles North
to
Carson Pass

28.71 miles North to where the PCT and TYT rejoin in the Carson Gap, the entrance to the Lake Tahoe Basin.

38.78 total miles North to Echo Summit. We can hitch East on Highway 50 down to South Lake Tahoe from Echo Summit for some R&R.

40.78 miles North to Echo Lake Chalet, where we can pick up our resupply

57.99 miles North to PCT-TYT split at Velma Lakes, where the PCT continues North, and our Trail Guide follows the Tahoe to Yosemite Trail to where it begins at Meeks Bay...

69.49 miles
North
to the
TYT Trailhead at Meeks Bay

Mileage Information
Carson Pass to Ebbetts Pass

Mileage South

29.44 miles South
to
Sonora Pass.

From Sonora Pass we have a 9 mile hitch West down to Kennedy Meadows, where we can pick up our resupply package.

48.57 miles South to where the PCT & TYT routes rejoin below Bond Pass in Jack Main Canyon

103.24 miles South to Tuolumne Meadows (Hwy 120), where we can pick up a resupply package

miles South to Reds Meadow and Mammoth Lakes, where we can pick up a resupply package.

Mileage information

Carson-Iceberg Mileages Stanislaus NF Miles Map

Ebbetts to Sonora Pass

Campsites North

Sherrold Lake

Upper Kinney Lake

Camp on N Side of Raymond Peak

Sunset Lake

Tamarack lake

Campsites South

Noble Lake

Asa Lake

Wolf Creek Pass

Wolf Creek

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Ebbetts Pass

Ebbetts Pass is a part of the tides of Western History which first washed over the mountains from the East during the early 1840s.

Though the Spanish colonized the coast in 1776, the same year the American Colonies on the other coast decolonized themselves, the Spanish did not penetrate far into the interior off their costal redoubts.

The breakaway of Mexico from Spanish control by 1820 left the Spaniards on the Coast of California feeling obedient neither to Mexico City nor Madrid. It was during these years after 1820 when the grip of the Spanish Church and State slide off California that Americans first ventured Westward to California.

I have an essay up that traces the early Spanish history of California through the Gold and Silver Rushes you may find interesting.

During 1848 the wealth of the Gold Rush, the proximity of the rising power of America, and the social belief in Manifest Destiny almost assured that the wealth and resources of California, let alone the territory between California and Saint Louis, would be absorbed into the United States.

An excellent reprise of the first early explorations of the Sierra Nevada by Americans is contained in the preface of this PDF of the History of the Toiyabe National Forest.

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Sierra History

Recent names of topographic features represent the character of our Western interaction with the terrain.

The Old
There were people moving up into the Sierra Nevada every Spring and back down the flanks long before the Spanish sailed in from the West and Americans surged in from the East.

These folks had names for all their local terrain features. The folks from the East met the folks from the West and traded their respective assets with each other at meadows along the Sierra Passes. These old names are broadly forgotten, as far as I know. Maybe not.

There are extensive tribal folk up and down the Highway 395 corridor, but I've never had the chance to ask about ancient naming. Recent naming is a lot easier.

Hit up the comments or History Forum if you have information on naming, or just to share some High Sierra history.

The New
Silver Creek, Silver Peak, and the Silver Trailhead all hearken back to the great Silver Boom of the late 1850s that followed on the coattails of the Gold Rush.

These mountains were overrun first by gold prospectors during the early 1850s, and then by seekers of silver in the late 1850s through the 1860s.

Settlers
Prior to the frenzy of the Gold Rush and Silver Boom explorers and early settlers probed the Sierra for a path to the Pacific, and many met hard ends.

Disasters
As we hike South we will encounter Disaster Peak, Relief Peak, along with a series of terrain features that broke many wagons and tested the fortitude while exposing the apparent lack of common-sense of many of the people who attempted to cross the Sierra with a wagon before the main roads were established.
The Clamper's Historical monument at Sonora Pass and the story of the Donner Party attests to these ill-fated and unwise attempts to cross the Sierra Nevada.

Contemporary View
If you have hiked or driven the lengths of Highways 4 or 108 across their East-West vectors that roughly mark out the Northern and Southern limits of the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness, you know what I mean. Those are a couple of mean hikes as well as mean roads!

Changing Time Changing Naming
Further South we enter spaces explored much later, and given names which reflected the expansion of scientific imagination with Evolution Basin and the surrounding peaks named after the fathers of evolution.

Still Fun
I can see crossing the Sierra without road or trail by hiking, or with a well-equipped and well-provisioned horse and mule team. But not with a wagon. I can say one thing about the early attempts to cross the Sierra with a wagon: they did not scout the route, or they would not have attempted it with a wagon.

Sierra Nevada History Basics

Ebbetts Pass History

Ebbetts Pass
&
Highway 4
Historical Resources

Ebbetts Pass National Scenic Byway
History of Highway 4

Ebbetts Pass
Historical Association

Ebbetts Pass History
Wikipedia

Tahoe to Whitney Historical Resources
for
Backpackers

High Sierra History Forum

Ebbetts Pass History Forum

High Sierra Historical Monuments

History Forum Intro-Info
Comments

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This Section
of the
Pacific Crest Trail

From Ebbetts Pass we have a 29.44 mile hike on the Pacific Crest Trail South to Sonora Pass on Highway 108. From there we will easily hitch 9 miles West to access our next resupply package at the Kennedy Meadows Pack Station. I'm looking forward to that already...

Kennedy Meadows has an excellent restaurant that serves three squares a day, a store, a bar, laundry facilities, and excellent showers. Best of all I like the people who work there, and the family who owns the operation. But your trip South into the Carson Iceberg Wilderness doesn't have to go all the way down to Kennedy Meadows from Ebbetts to Sonora Pass.

There's all sorts of excellent short, medium, and long distance hikes we can carve out of the Carson Iceberg Wilderness from Ebbetts Pass.

Explore the Carson Iceberg Wilderness

Not Only Section Hiking
We don't have to hike the whole length of the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness as part of a long distance hike from Tahoe to Whitney, or as a short section of the Pacific Crest Trail.
There are many possibilities to craft awesome short, medium, and even very long distance backpacking trips South into the Carson Iceberg Wilderness from Ebbetts Pass.

I've laid out a trip report about a Carson-Iceberg loop you might find interesting. This loop was planned as a 79 mile loop around the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness weaving together elements of the Tahoe to Yosemite and Pacific Crest Trails around the Carson-Iceberg. It finally ended up as a shorter 4 night 51 mile loop, but it was a gas nonetheless.

Loop Trips using PCT and TYT
This trip depended on the fact that the route of the Tahoe to Yosemite Trail roughly parallels the route of the Pacific Crest Trail down the length of the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness. On Highway 4 the trail heads for the Tahoe to Yosemite at Lake Alpine and the Pacific Crest Trail at Ebbetts Pass are separated by 14 miles.

It gets better. As we head South these two classic trails are connected by four trails along their routes from Highway 4 to Highway 108.
Each of these connector trails gets shorter as we hike further South, as the Pacific Crest and Tahoe to Yosemite Trails draw closer and closer together as their respective routes approach Highway 108. Though these trails are separated by 14 miles up North on Highway 4, their respective trail heads are only a mile apart on Highway 108, and connected by four major connector trails between Highways 4 and 108.

This means that we can craft a huge range of short to medium distance backpacking loops around the Carson-Iceberg incorporating sections of the Pacific Crest Trail in one direction, then crossing over to the Tahoe to Yosemite for the return leg. Or visa-versa...

Check out our potential routes on this map:

Carson Iceberg Wilderness
30 minute backpacking Map

The Highland, Arnot, Disaster, and the Boulder Creek trails are the trails that connect the Pacific Crest Trail to the Tahoe to Yosemite Trail.

Starting at Ebbetts Pass on the PCT (or at any of the four PCT-TYT trailheads around the Carson Iceberg Wilderness) we can hike down the PCT to any of these trails to connect with the TYT to hike down to Lake Alpine or loop back to Ebbetts Pass for a hike who's length is determined by which connector trails we choose.
We craft longer loops by hiking further South on the PCT before turning down to the TYT for the return leg.
Or we can craft a grand circle route around the Carson Iceberg Wilderness up to 90 miles in length. We can hike the PCT down to Sonora Pass, then hike down to the Saint Marys Pass Trailhead for our return hike to Ebbetts Pass via the Northbound TYT. We hike North until we reach the last trail allowing us to return to the PCT and our start point at Ebbetts Pass.

The Carson-Iceberg is completely awesome. It contains classic sections of both the Pacific Crest and Tahoe to Yosemite Trails which can be hiked in short bits or woven together into substantial backpacking trips remaining within the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness, pushing North to Lake Tahoe, or South to Tuolumne Meadows.

The Carson-Iceberg Wilderness offers a remarkable range of experiences for all levels of backpackers, from short trips for the checked-out novice to isolated cross-country routes perfect for the grizzled old expert backpacker. As we head South on this trail guide I will point out the Murray and Golden Canyon trails down to the East Carson River, and take a look at some of our potential Eastern entries into the Carson Iceberg Wilderness.

The Carson-Iceberg Wilderness? It's real good.

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Echo Lake Chalet
To the North on the Pacific Crest Trail our next possibility of resupply from Ebbetts Pass is 40.78 miles North at Echo Lake Chalet, where we may have sent ourselves a re supply package.

South Lake Tahoe
If not, we can easily hitch East on Highway 50 from Echo Summit (38.78 miles N of Ebbetts Pass) the short distance down to South Lake Tahoe, which offers a full range of full Rest and Resupply Services. South Lake Tahoe mixes the liberality of California with the legal corruption of Nevada. You can get anything there.

Two Full Service Cities on the Trail
Along the trails between Lake Tahoe and Mount Whitney there are two full-service resort "towns" right next to the trail: South Lake Tahoe in the North Sierra, and Mammoth Lakes in the South Sierra. I like to take advantage of both during a long Summer hike.

Though re supply is distant from Ebbetts Pass to the North and to the South, good camping is available near the pass. Nice campsites sit just North of Ebbetts Pass at Sherrold and Upper Kinney Lakes. Ebbetts Pass itself has a small stream flowing through. If you arrive late you will have water.

Terrain North
Hiking North from Upper Kinney Lake we will shortly rise out of the forest to pass below and around the strangely carved flanks of Reynolds Peak and then across Raymond Peak's eroded barren terrain. After passing these peaks we will be rewarded with a fine series of little forest-shaded lakes. Follow the trail guide North for more information. The red dots along the trail route on the Ebbetts Pass to Carson Pass topo map will bring you to particular locations along the trail.

Administratively, heading North from Ebbetts Pass on the Pacific Crest Trail we will cross in and out of the Toiyabe managed Eastern section of the Mokelumne Wilderness many times as we repeatedly cross its highly convoluted boundary with Toiyabe National Forest lands.

This means that we will encounter a series of 4-wheel roads and 4-wheel campsites if we look around the territory from Raymond Peak to Forestdale Divide.

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The Pacific Crest Trail at Ebbetts Pass is 15 miles East of the TYT at Lake Alpine.

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Backpacking Trail Guide

PCT
North

Raymond Peak
to
Ebbetts Pass

Backpacking Trail Guide

PCT
South

Ebbetts Pass
to
Tyron Peak