As on Mother’s Day a few weeks ago, Father’s Day found us driving up the Kern River Canyon in the early morning, this time bound for Sherman Pass, a little more than an hour’s drive northeast of Kernville. Sherman Peak, elev. 9,909′, lies 2-1/2 trail miles northwest of the pass and was the destination of the 2010 Excellent Adventure – we had not been back here since that trip and were eager to try the hike again, certainly in better condition today than nearly six years ago and under full packs this time. Although temperatures in the valley were expected to hit 100 degrees, the forecast for the Kern Plateau was breezy weather with highs in the 60s, and indeed, though it was warm in the sunny spots, the conditions were excellent. We left the 9,180′ Sherman Pass trailhead about 9:30am, immediately picking our way up the initial steep pitches of the first bump north of the pass, then following the trail on its gentle ascent northwestward. This intervening ridge between the pass and the peak is a series of bumps and saddles, and the trail that traverses it predictably alternates between level sections in the saddles and low-gradient inclines around the bumps. The open forest is still thick enough to block most of the vistas in the trail’s lower portions, but views open up a bit as you gain elevation on the east shoulder of bump 3. After bump 3, the trail switches from the east side of the ridge to the west, and the trail passes through some old burns that are full of buckthorn and chinquapin. On our previous hike here, we had lost the trail in the buckthorn thickets, but this time we were able to follow the narrow path as it twisted and turned through the thorn bushes, many of them still blooming. Once through the buckthorn, we completed the ridge walk by arriving at the base of Sherman Peak’s southeast face and began climbing in earnest. Most of the hike’s 800′ of gain are made here – the trail switches back 7-8 times at a 1,000′-per-mile average gradient (some short pitches obviously even steeper than that), but the open views east and the freshening breeze made the climb a pleasant one. Soon, we reached the 4wd road that accesses the summit from the north, and we followed it up the last 1/4 mile to the summit area. The views were wonderful today with very little haze – west were the Greenhorn Mountains, and south and east was the whole of the Kern Plateau. The grandest visual, however, was found to the north, where the entire panorama of the Great Western Divide, the Kings-Kern Divide, and the Sierra Crest near Mount Whitney was visible in detail, from the Mineral King area in the west to Mount Langley in the east. Along the spectrum lay the serrated Kaweah Peaks Ridge, the deep Kern River trench that drains this whole basin, and, of course, Mount Whitney, still adorned with large white snow fields across its rounded western slopes. We ate an early lunch of salami and cheese at the summit, enjoying the cool breeze and having the place entirely to ourselves until a Jeep came up the road just as we prepared to leave. We had maintained a very leisurely pace on the way up, taking nearly two hours for the ascent – now, we headed back under a more typical head of steam, arriving back at the pass in just over an hour. It was great to be reminded of what a nice hike this is – the views, the high elevation, and the overall gentleness of the trail all serve to make the long drive well worth it.