Sierra Cascades: Which clothes?

[BikeFreak]

Hi,

As part of my cross country tour I will be doing the Sierra Cascades from North to South. Leaving the Transam in Sisters, OR, I will pick up the Sierra Cascades in the 1st week of July. I know it will be horrendously hot in the southern part. Having crossed the Rockies (where cold weather clothing is needed), I need to know around what location it would be advisable to send home some warm clothes? What about rain gear - what is the chance of rain?

Summer 2000 I did the Pacific Coast: On this trip however, it was often cold and rainy and warm clothes were mandatory.

Lucas

[bogiesan]

Let me put it this way: I would never ask this question and I'd never make my gear decision on what someone said here. I'd be prepared. Mountains. Westerlies. Sou'westers. Nor'easters.
To be prepared for anything in the wide the range of conditions you might encounter will ony cost you about four pounds. I'd carry the four pounds.

[DaveB]

I agree that trying to decide when you will no longer need cold weather gear is futile so keep it with you the entire trip.  The penalty for having it and not needing it is minor, the penalty for needing it and not having it can be severe. 

Remember: "Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get."

[staehpj1]

When we were there we had a daytime high of WAY over 100F (maybe as high as 115F) and an overnight low of 32F within a couple days of each other.  We were in Sequoia NF for the low temperature of the trip.  So you really can't count on it not getting cold until almost too late in the trip to bother sending stuff home.

That said it doesn't take all that much clothing to cover the range.  I had enough clothing to be good to at least 0F and was just a bit over 4 pounds of clothing not counting the minimum clothing that I always had on when riding.  This even included a pair of Crocs and a down vest that was only used as a pillow.

I took pretty much the same stuff on the ST and never wore it all even when it got down to 18F.

[PeteJack]

You can get enormous temperature ranges in 24 hours. Climbing up to Yosemite and when I went to bed it was in the 80s; at 3am I was scrambling to put on everything I could find; it was in the low 30s. Crater Lake was similar. As a general rule if it's not cloudy expect hot days and cold nights.