In the summer of 1994 we went hiking into the Sierra mountains, on the eastern side near Virginia Lakes.  Our goods (food, tent, etc.) were packed in by horses and all of us hiked in and found our pile of goods, and assembled our tent for the week-long stay.  As I recall, we did this at the very end of September.  We enjoyed fantastic fall weather, with warm sunny days and cool nights.  Derek, age 3 and a few months, walked the entire 6 miles like a champion with a great attitude until the very end, when he collapsed sobbing horribly.  I'd guess we hiked up about 1000 feet from the trailhead.  I carried Grace (18 months) and Sara carried Emilie (5 months) on our backs.