Hiking the Rae lakes Loop

[Mick Lenahan]

Hi Jeff,
So some of my friends and I want to start backpacking and we always go to kings canyon to car camp and saw there is the rae lakes loop. Is this a good starting hike for beginners ? We were planning on going next summer of 2016. If not can you suggest any other 5 day backpacking trips ? Thank you in advance . I love you’re site and use it often to hike in southern California.

Mick

[Jeff Hester]

Welcome to SoCalHiker, Mick!

I love backpacking, and the Rae Lakes Loop is a beautiful (and very popular) route. Since you’re looking at doing this next summer, I’d say you have plenty of time to prepare.

I would recommend that you consider a couple shorter trips closer to home to get familiar with your gear — what works, what you want to change — before you head out for five days on the trail. You should also be confident that you are physically prepared to hike the mileage and vertical gain with a backpack.

One of my favorite local “shake-down” trips is the Trans-Catalina Trail. Really nice in the spring!

[Mick Lenahan]

Awesome! Thank you so much. I still have to earn up the money to get my gear, but I read your post on hiking the trans catalina trail and I think that would be a good shake down trip. Thank you so much for all your help and I hope to meet you someday to do a group hike .

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