Continued...
Day two of a NorCal roadtrip in the North Coast ranges saw me exploring
a large area between Scott Valley and the Oregon border. I had hoped to get to
Happy Camp by evening but didn't even get close. I didn't get to the last
4-5 summits I'd planned because I got distracted by other things in the
areas I was exploring first. That's one of the advantages of being out on
your own - you can change the itinerary on a whim and no one will
complain.
Peak 4,356ft
This is a pretty minor peak that lies above McAdams Creek north of Scott Valley
on the edge of the Klamath NF. I had driven up a lonely road to spend the night
and climbed this one first thing the next morning. I on a
rough, brushy 4WD road that I had backed off on driving the evening before, then
up steeply to a ridgeline where is found. It seems likely
to be a logging road for the timber interest that owns the land adjacent to
the NF. My various devices had varying opinions as to whether the summit
is inside or outside the NF. I think its safe to say my route from the
north was pretty out of the way and unlikely to attract attention. Not much
from as it lies a bit too low.
Quartz Hill
I thought this was going to be easy. Quartz Hill lies on the northern
edge of Scott Valley and has a lookout on the summit. Dennis Poulin's report
on PB made it seem a walk in the park. I found no such love. The topo map shows
an east and west approach to the the lookout, so I tried the east approach
first. About a mile before the
summit, the road is gated for Private Property and No Trespassing. It was
only after driving up here that I recalled doing the same thing on a
previous trip in May when I tried it on a whim without researching it. So
I drove back to Scott Valley and tried the west approach. The turnoff to
start climbing up the hill is completely unsigned and not located where
the topo indicates (I had run into this problem back in May, too). This
time I found that if you drive a hundred yards further north you'll
find two options that skirt the homesteads along the roadway. Several unfenced
dogs came out to up the road - probably not a good
idea to walk this if you don't have high-clearance. A is
reached with half a mile to go, but it's difficult to turn your vehicle
around here. Lots of backwards driving before I could manage it. On the
walk up to the lookout there's another gate (closed but not locked) and a
menacing "Premises under video surveilance". That's almost certainly untrue.
at the top was closed up either for good or for the
season, hard to tell. I took some pictures of and
before returning the way I came. The dogs of course
chased me again on the drive down.
Scott Mtns Lookout/Anderson Peak/West Point BM
These three are located at the southwest end of the Scott Bar Mountains.
Good forest roads climb from Scott River Road to all three destinations, though
only the lookout is a drive-up. I visited it first and found it
by the USFS to which are doing a
decent job of making it forever unusable. I next visited Anderson Peak, the
P1K several miles to the northeast. I was able to drive to of
the road at the forest boundary, about 2/3mi from the summit. The summit lies
outside the national forest, but there's almost no chance anyone would
find you - there aren't other roads on the private timber lands around the
summit area. Most of is open slopes or easy forest
understory. I did find some to struggle through that were
easy to bypass as I found on the way down. There are 2-3 small
vying for the highest point, the eastern one appears
highest. It
also has the best views, with Mt. Shasta seen far to .
After to the jeep, I paid a visit to West Point BM, located
roughly between the lookout and Anderson. A decent road gets one within a
quarter mile of the summit with some sort of running
all the way to . I had no luck locating the benchmark,
however, and were somewhat limited by trees.
White Cloud
After returning to the paved Scott River Rd, I spent some time driving
north to SR96, following the meandering Scott River. The river joins the
much larger Klamath River at SR96. Here I drove northeast about 8mi to
find my way to Forest Road 12. This excellently graded dirt/gravel road
winds its way up into the Siskiyou Mountains north of the highway. White Cloud
was a named summit with more than 700ft of prominence that had grabbed my
attention when I was looking around on maps before the trip. A rougher
spur road gets one within a very of the summit on the
southwest side, a mildly brushy but short hike gets one to .
The area burned badly in the 2016 Gap Fire, leaving more brush and
less forest years later, and not very pretty.
Condrey Mountain
After returning to the jeep from White Cloud, my plans took an abrupt
turn. I recalled that there was a P1K somewhere thousands of feet higher
to the north. Encouraged by the good condition of Forest Road 12, I
decided to go up to Condrey Mountain. Road 12 doesn't go the whole way,
but other roads also in good condition made the long drive not nearly as
time-consuming as it might otherwise have been. I parked where the road
comes within 1/3mi of the summit, surprised to find
parked there, one a 12 passenger van and guessed it was a geology class
field trip. I met up with the professor and one of the students on
the way down, though never saw the others that had signed
found at . Condrey is very unpeak-like, large, rounded
and sprawling, and the hike to reach it was rather uninteresting. The
mountain has incredible , however, easily making up for its other
deficiencies. In all directions were ridgeline and mountain folds, one
behind the other, stretching off for almost 100mi, a most sublime scene.
One of the nearby peaks to the northwest looked rather craggy and got my
attention.
Scraggy Mountain
I found out it had a name, more than 700ft of prominence and was only
a couple of miles from the road network I had driven in. I drove back the way
I'd come a few miles to find myself within a mile and a half of the peak. I
parked and was soon starting off. Almost immediately I was loving this. Quite
unexpectedly, I found myself on where it runs along the crest
of the Siskiyou Mtns. It was a nice bit of and
then , but I had to leave it after less than 1/3mi. I
followed along a connecting spur ridgeline that had
- , brush, scrambling, and sometimes all at once. Lots of downed
trees, large boulders, confusing terrain, , in a word -
adventure. It was easily the most fun
I had in the last two days and I'd come across it quite by accident. After
some time and effort, I found my way to the craggy summit which turned out
to be a collection of 4-5 summit pinnacles stretched out over 300yds. I
was making my way along the ridge to the one furthest north, indicated on
my GPSr (and derived from the LoJ database), when I had to climb over an
because I couldn't get around it easily. I was then
surprised to find the pinnacle I'd climbed was higher than the two
, saving me some effort. , it
appeared the one furthest
in that direction was higher yet. As compensation, I found a glass jar holding
a register on the pinnacle I'd climbed. It dated and had more
than a dozen entries, mostly from before 2000, the last .
After photographing the pages and returning it, I went back along the
ridgeline to climb the higher summit, also class 3. This higher point
had no register, a little to my disappointment. It seems Scraggy used to be
somewhat popular but has fallen into obscurity. I have to say, it was one
of the better summits I've come across in this part of the state. It would
be after 5:30p by the time and time to call it a day. It
seems a cold front had come through during the day, dropping temperatures
20 degrees or more. It was 35F when I started back down the mountain. I
had to drop about 3,000ft until it was 45F and more reasonable for taking
a shower. I then drove all the way down to the Klamath River where the
temperature was 52F, and found a place to spend the night by the river.
Much better...
Continued...