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Hiking 23 miles non-stop: South Fork out of Three Rivers to Hockett then to Mineral King. Any condition beta would be helpful. Thanks.

~Swifty

No snow to worry about, watch for poison oak at the start below 5,500ft.

...and HOT if you go this week.

There is no snow at 12,000', a lot of flowers everywhere, the mosquitos were none on 6/17/2013, but are a bit more present as of 6/26/13. Few people on the trails, I guess the word (that the mountains are free of snow like in August) has not gotten out. The rangers speak about lack of water, we had no problems on the High Sierra Trail and over Colby Pass going back to Lodgepole, but one could see that given two months, there might be places in the Sequoia and Kings Canyon that will run dry. Go do it soon...

SeanReedy, that is the best rave hiking outfit ever. My buddy who makes rave wear owns a ranch at the end of the South Fork and last year we did this hike and he wore it...thought it would keep him toasty at night but he froze his ass off at Hockett! Haha.

Bob B - I think the largest poison oak patch in the world resides at the South Fork trailhead, but thanks for the reminder to Tecnu

FYI, my buddy who owns the ranch drinks out of the South Fork daily for several years and has never had any problems. I've seen wild cattle dung around and won't touch it without a filter, but just saying...

~Swifty

That will be a cool trip! What trail are you taking from Hockett to MK?

IhartMK,

My map list it as the COLD SPRINGS trail.
Head there in about an hour!

~Swifty

Finished the hike...hotter than blazes...streams down, but water still good to drink...trail is a mess with lots of down trees especially south of Hockett. Clocked the elevation gain 6354' and loss at 3568'. 13 hours trail head to trail head (which is kinda embarrassing).

If you feel badly about it, we could change your name to Pokey.

6,300ft of gain is not an easy day at any pace, btw.

Oh you did this as a day hike??