Thanks to Patrick Paul for the write up and to Gary Schenk for the great pictures!
Getting to Bart Dome
From Kernville take the river road north to Sherman Pass road #21s05, (approx. 18 mi).
Take the Sherman Pass road about 5-6 miles to the Cherry Hill road #22s12.
Take the Cherry Hill road (approx. 12 mi.) to the Big Meadow intersection.
Now you can turn left on #23s07 loop road or continue along the west edge of the meadow and turn left on the loop road a mile and one-half further down the Cherry Hill road.
There are two trails that go to Manter Meadow and Bart Dome from the Big Meadow loop road. If you take the left turn on to road #23s07 you pass by trail #33E32 to Sirretta Peak first then come to trail #34E14, (should be marked Manter Meadow Trail) the first of two trails that get you to Bart. This is the shortest of the two routes. The next trail, #34E37 can be found about a mile and one-half farther down the Big Meadow loop road, but the trail is longer and is better for accessing Taylor Dome.
Water--you should hydrate the heck out of yourself before leaving the parking area, take a couple of pints with you on the trail, and take a couple of extra empties for later. There will be water at or near Manter meadow on the way. There will most likely be some water in Manter Creek which parallels the trail for some way. It might be a hassle to go and get water in the evening but it will give you something to do before or after dinner (possibly 1 to 2 hours effort). There have traditionally been very small springs in the area around Bart. You might have to have a search party to find one. Take a filter and cheap radios for communications. I will give a prize to the person who finds the closest water to Bart Dome.
Here are some links to trip reports on Bart Dome published in 1995 and later, and some conversation about this year's trip on Summit Post.
My knees don't like long, heavily weighted hiking any more and are not up to the hike out to Bart Dome, but have a great time.
http://www.alpinistas.org/archives/1995/bart.html
http://www.summitpost.org/area/range/170934/domeland-wilderness.html
http://www.summitpost.org/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=14&sid=a2ba280c5090c0b316fe308058a9ae76
Patrick Paul
