63Chevy: I think I erred on the Kern River crossing. There is a bridge to cross it, just S of Kern Hot Springs. It is the Big Arroyo crossing that could be an issue in the early summer of a high water year. By the way, Kern Hot Spring is a nice attraction on the HST trip, but you are guaranteed there will be significant numbers of people there.
You can always vary your HST trip and leave out some of the trail. Both the Pants Pass shortcut and the Whitney Creek shortcut would guarantee you miles and miles of solitude.
Now, no matter which of the three hikes you take, there is a sweet "wilderness solitude" experience on Whitney Creek, about an hour down from the Crabtree R.S. area. It is the
old packers camp I found last summer. I am extremely interested in seeing what the spring looks like that ranger Rob P mentioned near there. I want to get back there and check it out, or maybe someone like you (or Paul) could do it.
