Continued...
Day 4 of our Northern Sierra roadtrip saw us driving northwest of Portola on
SR70 to the area around Quincy for a pair of P1Ks on either side of the highway.
Later we drove down SR162 from Quincy to the foothills to pick up another one
near Lake Oroville.
Grizzly Mtn (Tower Rock)/Argentine Rock
Tower Rock is the highpoint of the much broader , with
both names being used by various internet sites. Jackie and I had tried to reach
it from the north on a previous trip in July, but after more than an hour of
being unable to find the correct road from that direction, we'd given up. This
time we approached from the south near Quincy and had no trouble at all. A
pretty decent dirt road climbs from SR89/SR70 at Squirrel Creek up to within a
mile of the summit. The area is heavily forested (though there has been
significant logging and thinning), making the summit not visible from anywhere
on the drive. When we got to the end of the driveable portion, we had only 0.8mi
to go to the summit. Jackie decided this was more than she cared for and
declined to join me even though I told her it would be a class 3 summit she'd
enjoy. On my own, I headed through the woods, with
little in the way of an understory and only modest elevation gain, taking less
than half an hour to reach the base of , about 50-60ft
in height. A bit imposing at first, I found there were multiple ways to reach
the top. I went up the boulders to the right and then some easy class 3 to find
to highpoint from the east. Haze muted the distant views, leaving
me with a view and along the top of Grizzly Mtn
covering a few miles before the scene melds into the blurry background. For fun,
I descended the summit off , a spicier bit of
scrambling but still class 3.
After returning back through the forest to the Jeep, I found Jackie more awake
than I'd left her. We drove back down about a mile before turning off for a
visit to Argentine Rock where an abandoned lookout tower is located. We
at the end of the road only a few hundred feet from the lookout,
finding a leading to . A good deal of
craftsmanship had gone into the pathway's construction, using local rock and
cement to give it a more natural look, but various steps are coming apart with
time and brush is starting to encroach. The lookout itself was in
. Part of the roof was missing and the wooden structure was in
a slow state of decay. The stairway to the second floor has been removed for
safety concerns. The lookout doesn't sit on the highest point, so I paid it
while Jackie checked out . She
on some of the surrounding rocks, practicing her
with some encouragement from Dad. In all we spent
about 30min at Argentine Rock, which Jackie found the most fun summit of the
day.
Claremont/East Claremont
These two summits are located at nearly 7,000ft, about 4-5mi south of Quincy.
Our first effort to reach them was from the north at Quincy where we found the
dirt forest road under a fire closure. The posted map showed that Claremont was
just outside the closure area which looked to have an alternative access. I got
out the computer and fired up TOPO! to plot a route from the east that worked
nicely, albeit a bit longer. Most of the road was good until the last few miles
when we forked off onto a poorer road that climbs up to
and our two summits. We visited the higher Claremont
first, featuring more than 1,700ft of prominence. There were
at the top, one with a viewing platforn about 30ft off
the ground that . Jackie wanted to climb the higher one, but
I was less than enthusiastic and we left it unmolested. There were some
on the broad summit a few yards from where
so I climbed those and called it good. Views weren't very
good, even from , as a result of the smokey haze. On our
way back we stopped at East Claremont, another with a few
summit rocks. was better defined and without active
telecom business, though there was and the remains of a
small antennae that once stood there.
Lots of driving to the last summit which was on our way home. We stopped in
Quincy to get a couple of shakes at the in Quincy. Mine was
(supposed to be) coffee and Jackie's peach, but there was almost no flavor in
either aside from the vanilla base. As I told Jackie, good thing I happen to
like vanilla too, or it would have been a complete disappointment.
Bloomer Hill
In addition to being a P1K, this summit is the most prominent point in Butte
County, overlooking Lake Oroville and the Sacramento Valley. A rough,
leads to from SR162 in about five
and half miles, servicing a number of residences along the route as well as
several scattered about the broad summit area.
Jackie had fallen asleep while we were driving down SR162 and continued to nap
even as the car was bouncing from side to side up the access road to the summit.
She woke up only when I had pulled up and shut off the engine. Most of the
mountain is private property, but the summit area lies within a small patch of
the Plumas NF. A announces when you've entered the forest
area just below the summit. We under the abandoned
, climbing the metal stairway to the tiny cab
on top surrounded by an observation walkway. A few empty beer cans made up most
of the modest materials found inside, though there was a chair and a notebook
with "Lookout Procedures" detailed inside. Thick haze ruled the sky, and
were exceedingly limited. I took a handful of pictures during our short
visit before eventually returning to the Jeep after Jackie had had enough
playtime in the lookout. We then visited the other bump just to the north that
may be slightly higher. It has a bunch of slash piled to one side and it is
easy to drive to the top, though there is nothing much to see. It would be
another 4hrs before we managed to find our way home to San Jose that evening,
arriving just before sunset. Traffic leaving the Bay Area had the Interstates
packed with miles of slow moving vehicles, while we were heading back to
rest up for the weekend - one of the advantages of retirement is you get
to pick and choose your days in the mountains...