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micronut
Trad climber
Fresno/Clovis, ca
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Topic Author's Original Post - Sep 21, 2018 - 11:50am PT
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Looking to plan a three day mission to go get lost with some buddies and do some fishing and scrambling and adventurin'.
Anybody here ever walked up into the North Fork of the Kings/Helms Creek drainage from the back side of Wishon headed North? Or from Courtright down past Power Dome all the way to the fork or to Wishon itself? Looks pretty rad down in there but I don't want this thing to turn into a cliff out death march.
Got beta? Bring it on! All I have right now is a clear schedule and Google Earth. Trip is planned for the third week of October.
Looks wild down in there....
Here's the fork of Helms and the North Fork. Cool lookin' terrain...
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Batrock
Trad climber
Burbank
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Sep 21, 2018 - 12:11pm PT
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I've been up there like infinity of times.
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micronut
Trad climber
Fresno/Clovis, ca
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 21, 2018 - 12:18pm PT
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Batrock that actually made me laugh out loud.
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ground_up
Trad climber
mt. hood /baja
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Sep 21, 2018 - 12:49pm PT
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Gonna be tough deciding between fishing and climbing. Looks awesome !
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Sep 21, 2018 - 12:50pm PT
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Fishing gear is a lot lighter.
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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Sep 21, 2018 - 01:17pm PT
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Herb Laeger's been up there, at least up the N Fork. He and Jan McCollum did a death march up there once chasing fish. I'm not sure exactly where they went. I'm not sure they are either.
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Sep 21, 2018 - 01:27pm PT
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Tim Schiller and I hiked in that area around 1980 or '81, scouting for projects. There were plenty of climbing possibilities, but I was still living in Pasadena then, and when I came back to Fresno, I had too much else on my mind (you know her name, Scott). You'll enjoy it once you're there, but it does have a certain death march quality in the approach. Perhaps fishing may take a lot of the sting out of the walk. Tim and I aren't fishermen, so I can't comment further.
John
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doughnutnational
Gym climber
its nice here in the spring
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Sep 21, 2018 - 01:36pm PT
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Death march, fishing is mediocre, climbing might be ok.
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doughnutnational
Gym climber
its nice here in the spring
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Sep 21, 2018 - 01:51pm PT
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$30 gets 600lbs of people/gear a round trip to the back of wishon. Have "fun"!
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Sep 21, 2018 - 02:35pm PT
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I guarantee you the fishing does knott suck. 🐋
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FRUMY
Trad climber
Bishop,CA
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Sep 21, 2018 - 03:37pm PT
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Death march, fishing mediocre, hahaha you don't know Herb & Jan.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Sep 21, 2018 - 03:39pm PT
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Wanna bet? I also know that area intimately. Good buzzworm populace in those canyons too!
Lotsa nice big puddy cats too.
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FRUMY
Trad climber
Bishop,CA
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Sep 21, 2018 - 03:54pm PT
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Wanna Bet about what? I'm fairly familiar with the area.
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Radish
Trad climber
SeKi, California
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Sep 21, 2018 - 04:20pm PT
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Pretty sure Dwight and Bruce hiked way in there about a month ago. I think they know something....
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Sep 21, 2018 - 04:23pm PT
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Frumster, mebbe you jess dunno how to fish? It’s all relative... 😈
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doughnutnational
Gym climber
its nice here in the spring
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Sep 21, 2018 - 04:52pm PT
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Well I know I don't know how to fish (spin fisherman who even uses bait) and I want to see a picture of a decent sized fish caught on the north fork of the Kings between the gorge section and post corral creek. Not even micronut will can make those fish look big. Above there it's better.
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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Sep 21, 2018 - 06:30pm PT
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We need Jan to chime in on this thread. Calling G-Gnome...
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Kalimon
Social climber
Ridgway, CO
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Sep 21, 2018 - 08:11pm PT
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I don't want this thing to turn into a cliff out death march
You're not much fun then are you.
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G_Gnome
Trad climber
Cali
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Sep 21, 2018 - 09:23pm PT
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Ok, here is the scoop, Reilly is sort of right. Herb and I went in out of Courtright past Dome with a View and down into the North Fork. We went up until we got domed on both sides of the river then soloed a 3 pitch 5.7 or so to get past there. We continued for another few hours. The fishing is mediocre at best. Lots of fish but all with big heads and no bodies. There aren't any nutrients up there so there aren't any bugs and the fish are stunted. I did have my best puddy tat view ever staring across the river at a large male mountain lion for about a minute before he decided it wasn't worth trying to cross the river to eat me.
The slog out was a serious mistake. We didn't want to deal with the dome we soloed so we stayed north of it. Instead we did up and down and up and down for ever finally topping out on Penstemon Dome. I did see the largest rattler I've ever seen. I would be he was at least 7 feet long and bigger around than my arm. He was very dark green and thankfully he rattled just before I got to him. I was walking up the back of a dome next to a tiny creek and he was in the way. Finally he worked his way back toward a tree away from the water and I ran past. There was no other way around because of the thick as sh#t manzanita.
There are lots of rivers that I would suggest before I would ever tell someone to go up there.
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G_Gnome
Trad climber
Cali
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Sep 21, 2018 - 10:23pm PT
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^^^^ Go for it. It is beautiful and pristine back there.
But if you want to catch lots of large, feisty trout, go here.
But you might not get out alive.
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