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Camping on Yocum Ridge?

Posted: July 20th, 2020, 9:19 am
by leiavoia
Have you spent the night on Yocum Ridge? I want to hear about your experience and see any pictures you have.

I want to know if staying up there would be a cool experience or a howling nightmare. I can do this as a day hike and get back down to safer places, but i thought it might be fun to stay overnight.

- Are there are tent sites?
- Lacking tent sites, are there trees big enough for a hammock (6"+) ?
- Lacking either of these, could i just cowboy camp?
- Anywhere to get water on the way up?
- Campsites with a view?
- Exposure concerns?

Thanks for your feedback!

Re: Camping on Yocum Ridge?

Posted: July 20th, 2020, 10:59 am
by Chip Down
If you want to actually camp on the ridgecrest, I suspect your last sensible tent site would be around 6800'. See picture below. This was from a November trip; you'll have less snow.

Higher, there are plenty of opportunities to throw down a sleeping bag. I found a nice sheltered moat around a boulder.

On any ridge hike, water can be a problem. I was looking at Yocum just a couple days ago and noticed there's still lots of snow on the north side, but with the steep crest bare. You might find you're constantly 20' from snow as you ascend the crest, but no safe way to get to it! The south side of the crest is gentler, but won't hold as much snow. For what it's worth, when I spent a warm summer night up high I don't recall any water problems. That was July 10 (many years ago).

Re: Camping on Yocum Ridge?

Posted: July 20th, 2020, 11:43 am
by cfm
Sounds like there are camp spots according to this report from this past weekend.

Re: Camping on Yocum Ridge?

Posted: July 21st, 2020, 5:41 am
by mjirving
Yeah there are a few camps up there. And a couple that are reasonably sheltered. It’s a beautiful spot. You can get water dropping down to the saddle just a bit down and then drop the short distance down to the Sandy Glacier side and there are some small, clear creeks in there that are certainly running right now.
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Re: Camping on Yocum Ridge?

Posted: July 21st, 2020, 7:36 am
by BurnsideBob
We stayed just below the ridge crest where the trail ends. Here's our trip report: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=19721&p=146630&hilit=Yocum#p146630

At trail's end there are several campsites in the krumholz trees overlooking a shallow basin. There was water in the basin. Across the basin there is another area of krumholz trees and, according to a trip report by Fred, there are campsites there that he preferred.

The trail section after the Reid Glacier overlook till the trail's end can be hard to find in the meadow with late spring growth. In broad view, the trail switch backs north from the Reid Glacier overlook on a rising traverse till it reaches the crest of a spur ridge, where it turns nearly 180 to follow that spur ridge's crest till it ends as a buttress to Yocum Ridge.

We did not get onto the upper portion of Yocum Ridge that mjirving illustrates. As you can see from his photo, there isn't much wind shelter on the main Ridge all the way up.

Have a great trip--it is a majestic area.

BurnsideBob

Re: Camping on Yocum Ridge?

Posted: July 21st, 2020, 2:59 pm
by Charley
Yes! It's amazing to see the sunset from up there. :)
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