On August 21 and 22, I hiked from "Road's End" in Kings Canyon to Mt. Brewer. This was my first solo backpacking trip and also my first backpacking trip with a bivy sack. I very much like hiking with friends, but enjoyed the experience of perfect solitude as well.
2 days, roughly 30 miles total, start and finish at 5100 ft, camp at 11850 ft (that's 6750 ft of climbing on a single day with full backpack including bear can, bivy, sleeping bag), summit in the morning of the second day at 13570 ft, off-trail section that included bush whacking, up to class 3 rock scrambling, swamp, and some route finding challenges due to inaccurate USGS maps. A piece of cake of course - B. Burd did it as a day hike. His trip description and map were very useful in planning this hike, as was Arturo's advice. Thanks!
I like flipping through the Picasa album in the
map, since all photos are accurately geo-tagged.