With three days between volleyball matches, I headed to Northern California for
another visit to the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. I was after a handful
of P1Ks in the areas east and south of the Trinity Alps, none of them reaching
above 6,000ft. During the summer months these low elevation hikes can be hot,
but this weekend saw mild, Fall conditions that were quite pleasant.
East Shirt BM
This unnamed summit is one of the higher points of the Chappie Shasta OHV Area,
jointly managed by the BLM and USFS. Lying roughly in the middle of this 52,000
acre recreation area, there are no maintained OHV roads to reach it, though
there are a number of unmaintained ones that will do quite well for someone on
foot. I chose to approach from the south starting at the end of Whiskey Creek
Rd, probably the shortest way to reach the summit. There are two gates found
at pavement's end, both signed for No Trespassing as part of a hunting lodge
that occupies some land in a private inholding. The left gate goes to the
hunting lodge buildings about half a mile in. The , a better
choice, begins climbing the ridge between Whiskey Creek and Mad Ox Gulch. I
followed this decent road for about 3mi until it tops out on a main ridgeline
at around 3,700ft. The road continued over the ridge and down to parts further
east where it meets up with some of the publicly accessible OHV roads around
Spring Creek. A lesser-used road along the ridgeline,
climbing to 4,000ft+ and towards East Shirt BM another three miles further. I
left this secondary road where it reaches between Peak 4,243ft
and East Shirt BM, following an old firebreak more directly up the ridge to the
north and then to the summit. Almost the entire route is
of the surrounding . There
are found at the highest elevations but they seem confined
to the northern aspects, leaving the ridges mostly open. There was plenty of
bear scat found along the whole way with a nice little pile found at
- the bears here seem to find plenty of berries to
keep themselves fed. I was unable to find the benchmark depicted on the topo,
though I made a pretty decent search. I would have to be satisfied with a few
of the before starting down.
On the return I stopped off to tag the bonus summit of Peak 4,243ft, then
turned west
to make a loop of the return. The roads along the return route showed almost
no sign of use, though still in fine shape for hiking without having to resort
to bushwhacking. On a road leading down to Whiskey Creek, a simple
marks
the boundary with the lodge property and I was a bit concerned about running
into trouble as I got closer. There are more than half a dozen
along , one
overlooking a small lake and the others found on either side of the road I
walked. None of them are in particularly good shape. The windows are intact and
the roofs appear to keep water out, but the rest bespeaks a slow state of
decline. I imagine the dues one pays to join the private lodge are not high
enough to keep them in four star condition. One building in particular appears
to be occupied by a resident caretaker as
evidenced by several beat-up looking vehicles out front, but I simply walked
by without drawing notice and was happy to make it back to
without becoming a problem. The whole outing came in at just over 4.5hrs.
Monument Peak
The next three hours were spent in much driving, picking up some supplies in
Weaverville and eventually getting myself to Forest Road 16 (paved) and FS Road
4N11 (gravel/dirt, good condition). The latter leads west for 3mi until one
is south of Monument Peak at a junction with a poor road. A truck with an ATV
trailer was parked here, the owner out hunting no doubt. I
as well and followed the poor road upwards until it began to bypass the summit
around the south side. Some led cross-country up to
the summit, sticking close to the SE Ridge to avoid heavier brush on its south
side. The fallen and burned remains of a survey tower can be found among
with in all directions. The
roundtrip time was about 45min.
Chaparral Mountain
About 7mi further driving on 4N11 heading west gets one to
of Chaparral
Mtn, another P1K. Oddly, Monument Peak had far more chaparral than this one,
whose is forest-covered and offers . On
the plus side, the is easy through open forest
with a roundtrip time of
less than half an hour. By now it was nearly 6p and time to call it a day. I
came across another half dozen hunters on the long drive out on 4N11, none of
them seeming to have much luck. They asked if I had seen any deer (no, sorry)
and apparently had seen none themselves - might be a case of too many hunters
chasing too few deer in these parts. It would be dark before I was done,
eventually finding my way to Hayfork Divide where I parked off the pavement of
FS Road 16 to spend the night.
Continued...