Camping North of Leviathan Lake?

[treybomb]

This summer I will be hiking north to south past Lake Silex, Leviathan Lake, Sunlight Lake, etc. and am trying to scout-out camp options past/south-of Lake Silex but ideally not past Leviathan Lake. We will be in a 3P tent so need a good-sized patch of flat ground.

map-smaller.jpg (161.62 KiB) Viewed 508 times

From the searching I've done it sounds like "A" (top-left of image above) is a great option but ideally I'd like to avoid that detour/descent/ascent if possible.

I'd also like to avoid dropping down to the lake below Peak Eight but am curious whether there are good camp options at that lake ("B").

Any good options at the little puddles "C", "D", or "E"?

This video (~18:57) shows them camping at Leviathan Lake ("F") so I know that's an option; are the sites there good and worth the detour/descent/ascent?

I'm a little hesitant to camp high and exposed so thinking "A" or "F" (or "B" maybe?) are the best options. Any others I should consider?

Thanks in advance!

[supranihilest]

I haven't been as high as Leviathan Lake, but the smaller lake east of and a few hundred feet below point F had a small amount of camping on the northwest side of the lake. There wasn't much in the way of flat spots, there's rocks in the trees, and a larger tent will be more difficult. The east side of that lake is a cliff, and the south side of both lakes is a mess of talus and boulders that have come off the peaks. Treeline isn't too much higher than that, so if you're actually camping up at Leviathan Lake you'll be fairly exposed. Depending on when you go this summer you might still be camping on snow which could be lumpy and uneven.

[cottonmountaineering]

This is one of my favorite areas im sure you're going to have a good trip

I would skip going down to A, there are creeks, flat ground and grass once you get past storm king saddle so you could just drop down a little bit and camp if you're tired. If it were me i would like to camp at the outlet of B on day one, there is a little protected nook just below the lake that is sheltered and flat, its only a few hundred feet down from your route

I dont remember any good options at C/D/E, too high/exposed/rocky

At leviathan lake there are a lot of willows at the west side of the lake, near the east side of the lake there are some areas where you could camp, and water here and there

[BKS]

There are endless camping options with water along that route. With the exception of descent into leviathan lake area,it’s all fairly level with lots of grass.

We camped to west/downhill of SK-8/9 saddle to north of little lake below peak 8. That little lake is gorgeous under pk 8 and has good camping.

A is off trail and didn’t go there. C and E are mostly gravel/rocky if I remember correctly. I think D had some grass around lake. Didn’t go to F, but it would have good camping.

Can’t go wrong here, it’s not like if you miss a spot you’ll be hiking for hours to find another

My TR. on jagged has lots of pics and description of KHR if interested

[dwoodward13]

I have camped at A and it is a great spot, although probably doesn't make a lot of sense for you. I have scoped out B, and there looked to be promising spots on the east end of lake B. At Leviathan lake itself would be challenging as one side is all rocks and the other sides I remember being sloped pretty heavily. I'm sure you can find a less than ideal spot to cram in, but I remember getting up there and being glad that we didn't try and camp there. Around the unnamed lake supra mentions I do remember being much more feasible, although the obvious flat spot on the topo just west of that lake was a complete marsh in late August last year, so don't be fooled by that.

[HikerGuy]

To help search for camp sites, I created a custom layer in CalTopo that displays level ground.

Click the Add button in the Map Objects window.
Click on DEM Shading under Custom Layers.
Enter a name for your layer, I used Level Ground.
Paste the following in the rules box: s0-8 FF0000-0000FF
Click the Save button.

This layer should now be listed in the Map Layers window under Your Layers. Check it to display and you should see shading on your map that shows level areas. I use this layer with the satellite base map to look for good camping areas.

[dwoodward13]

To help search for camp sites, I created a custom layer in CalTopo that displays level ground.

Click the Add button in the Map Objects window.
Click on DEM Shading under Custom Layers.
Enter a name for your layer, I used Level Ground.
Paste the following in the rules box: s0-8 FF0000-0000FF
Click the Save button.

This layer should now be listed in the Map Layers window under Your Layers. Check it to display and you should see shading on your map that shows level areas. I use this layer with the satellite base map to look for good camping areas.

Ok this is pretty sweet. Thanks!

Looks like for areas that have Lidar data uploaded to Caltopo have a much higher resolution than those that don't (which makes sense, slope angle shading has the same issue).

[supranihilest]

To help search for camp sites, I created a custom layer in CalTopo that displays level ground.

Click the Add button in the Map Objects window.
Click on DEM Shading under Custom Layers.
Enter a name for your layer, I used Level Ground.
Paste the following in the rules box: s0-8 FF0000-0000FF
Click the Save button.

This layer should now be listed in the Map Layers window under Your Layers. Check it to display and you should see shading on your map that shows level areas. I use this layer with the satellite base map to look for good camping areas.

What sorcery is this? This is sick, mind explaining how this works and where the custom rule came from?

[two lunches]

can i piggyback on this thread? where are my forum fishing friends? leviathan is on my medium-list and i haven't done any casting in the SJs but it's on my radar this year. not asking for your honey hole, but if you have anything to share (PM is also fine) i'd be grateful

[HikerGuy]

To help search for camp sites, I created a custom layer in CalTopo that displays level ground.

Click the Add button in the Map Objects window.
Click on DEM Shading under Custom Layers.
Enter a name for your layer, I used Level Ground.
Paste the following in the rules box: s0-8 FF0000-0000FF
Click the Save button.

This layer should now be listed in the Map Layers window under Your Layers. Check it to display and you should see shading on your map that shows level areas. I use this layer with the satellite base map to look for good camping areas.

What sorcery is this? This is sick, mind explaining how this works and where the custom rule came from?

It's just a variation of the slope angle shading layer, https://blog.caltopo.com/2013/02/13/custom-dem-shading/

s0-8 FF0000-0000FF

s = slope angle, 0 to 8 degrees, shade gradient from red to blue

[k_fergie]

What sorcery is this? This is sick, mind explaining how this works and where the custom rule came from?

In Caltopo you can make custom layers, one of them is custom DEM shading. "Add" --> "Custom Layers" --> "DEM Shading" is the menu sequence I think. I assume we all know of the standard caltop0 slope angle shading (27-29deg = yellow, and so on). So I like to add layers that pair with that one. Avalanches are rare on slopes 20-27deg, and that angle has some of the best skiing during high danger, so I made a layer to have that show up green. I then look for zones to ski with lots of green and little red. But, thats a little steep to skin up, so I added a layer for 10-20deg to show up blue for looking for optimal uptracks. And being an unsophisticated splitboarder, nothing is worse than flats, so I leave anything less than 10 degrees as unshaded, as that is about the cutoff for getting stuck bad in deep now. Avoiding exits with unshaded areas helps avoid painful exits. I call this layer setup, paired with caltopo's default, Splitboard Shading TM. Its very useful in winter/spring and still good in summer for planning hikes.

Hiker Guy's method for finding camp spots works just like this, just a different target variable. I haven't tried it out, but I may this summer, as I suspect its quite effective particularly with the new LiDAR.

EDIT: You can also use color gradients or solid colors. You can also name and save all of these custom layers to your account for use on all of your maps to avoid re-making them each time. You can use the little GUI/widget to add the layer, or you can edit the text like HikerGuy showed. Awesome tool feature.

[supranihilest]

Awesome, thanks for the explanation y'all. I'm basically the meme of the guy who can't hold all his limes but instead they're Caltopo maps so I'll have to explore this feature more in depth and put it to good use. Nifty feature!