Continued...
The last of a four day roadtrip had me in the far northwest corner of the
Sierra National Forest chasing down a bunch of minor summits, most with little
prominence. It was more an exercise in driving Forest roads than it was in
hiking, as none were more than about a mile to the summit. It was not without
its challenges, however, and an interesting part of the forest with deep,
rugged canyons. Much, but not all of the area was burned in the 2018 Ferguson
Fire, leaving many square miles of charred forest with snags that are beginning
to fall down, making for challenging road conditions. Other areas escaped
entirely, still mantled in thick forest or chaparral.
Kirby Peak
I had camped the night at a saddle west of Crow Peak, on FR5S25, high on a
ridgeline overlooking the Central Valley. I was happy to find in the morning
that this road had been cleared heading northwest along the ridge, unlike many
of the roads I'd found the previous day. I drove through Round Tree Saddle and
then a few miles further to , really just a bump along the
ridge. The hike was just a six minute over downfall
and new brush to with lots of standing snags. Views were
hazy, as they would be for much of the day.
Windless Ridge
Northwest of Kirby Peak, a road junction is encountered. FR5S63 heads north
along Windless Ridge. LoJ identifies Pt. 4,251ft as "Windless Ridge", though
its barely even a bump, low on the ridge (which is really just the NW Ridge of
Kirby Peak) with less than 20ft of prominence. I left the Jeep parked in the
road (nowhere to park here) and thrashed my way to in less
than two minutes. This was the silliest of the day's summits, by far.
Footman Ridge
This is the next ridge west of Windless, across Owl Creek. The LoJ designation
is at with several hundred feet of prominence. FR4S08 goes
nearly over the top, leaving of less than a minute to
covered in a tangle of brush and
downfall. Good views looking north and east, though.
Peak 4,125ft
This one is interesting only because access is rather tricky. It lies on forest
lands, but is nearly surrounded by private property around Jerseydale. Unsigned
FR3S25 forks off paved Best Rd, going down a tributary of Skelton Creek a short
distance to a dead-end inside the national forest at the abandoned Comet Mine.
I . The proved challenging not
because there was significant water, but because the banks are quite steep and
brushy. Once across, the opposite bank is , with
that must be manuevered around. Poison oak adds another
dimension to the fun. Homes and buildings can be seen to the right (north), so
it helps to stay left to avoid the private property (I think I veered a bit
outside the ). After climbing about half the distance
to the summit, the slopes eases some as does the brush. is
a jumble of standing and fallen snags, and new brush, all the result of the
Ferguson Fire. are limited. It took about
20min to reach the top and about the same to get back down again.
Snyder Ridge
This was probably the most challenging peak of the day with more than 750ft of
prominence. The topo map shows FR3S28 and a spur road winding up from Best Rd
to get one high on Synder Ridge. The access off Best Rd appears to go right
through someone's property and I quickly drove back out. I guessed the road
is no longer accessible, but later I reviewed the satellite view and there
might be a way from a junction just southeast of the property I drove into. As
an alternative, I looked for an all cross-country route from the west along
Synder Ridge Rd. Homes seemed to line the entire street on that side, but I
eventually found between two homes that I could slip
through. A dog at the home to the north barked for some time, but no one came
out to see
what was going on. Eventually I was out of sight higher in the forest and all
was quiet. The Ferguson Fire had burned the forest lands right to the edge of
the private property, leaving more tangled mess of and
, sometimes heavy, sometimes easier traveling. The distance to
the summit was only about half a mile, but it was more than 700ft of gain.
was covered in thick manzanita, forcing me to crawl under it
to reach the highest point, and had me laughing at myself. There is a spot
elevation further north that LoJ had identified as the highpoint, so I dutifully
made my way a few hundred feet more in , finding it 5-8ft
lower. It did have which the
actual highpoint didn't afford. I spent about an hour on the roundtrip effort.
Portuguese Ridge
This one is found about a mile south of Jerseydale, separating that community
from Clarks Valley to the southwest. The ridge was spared in the 2013 Carstens
Fire as well as the Ferguson Fire, though it has seen fire sometime before
2000. I used Jerseydale Rd and FR4S38 to get fairly close to the summit before
I was stopped by uncleared downfall. After parking, I
to a junction south of the summit. The road had huge logs across it, making for
quite the obstacle course. Avoiding the road looked even worse, so I stuck to
it. Where I expected, or rather hoped, to find spur road "B" going over the
summit, I found almost no trace of the old road. I went up through very
to find buried in trees and more brush
with nary a view. There were signs of the old road heading off the northeast
side, but I knew it wouldn't take me back to the Jeep. Rather than reverse the
route I'd plowed through, I decided to drop more directly back to FR4S38 heading
northwest. This worked, but not without , and if it saved
any time, it wasn't much. About 50min for the roundtrip.
Peak 4,575ft
The summit is found about a mile west of Jerseydale, the topo map showing
FR4S35 going right over the summit. I expected it to be very quick. The Forest
road forks off the much better FR5S24 (that any vehicle can manage), but I
initially missed the junction, finding it upon backtracking. I should have
parked right there and walked the mile distance to the summit, but equipped with
the Jeep, I figured I could just drive it. The road was very poorly maintained.
I found downed logs cut to barely allow the Jeep to pass through and manzanita
heavily encroaching on . Things got worse quickly and I came
to a halt at a cut I didn't think I could pass through without damaging the
Jeep. I found a spot to make an 11-point turn (or something like that, I'm sure
I lost count) and left the Jeep parked facing the right way
for an easier exit. I figured it would take about 20min to get to the summit and
back, and didn't expect to find anyone coming up this crappy road. As I set out
, I came to find the road soon narrowed to
. The track followed the topo map for about half the
distance to the summit,
then veered left to drop off the northwest side of the ridge. After some
, I found the remains of , now badly
overgrown. I followed this with some effort up to the summit, climbing over and
around heavy downfall. is found in a jumble of manzanita
and downfall and no views, so I made a hasty retreat after finding the
highpoint. I wasn't far off my estimate, taking about 25min for the roundtrip.
Ferguson Ridge - Gimasol Ridge
These two ridges overlook the rugged South Fork Merced River, about 5mi north
of Jerseydale. It took about 30min of driving on well-graded FR3S04 to reach
of Ferguson Ridge, a drive-up. takes one in
about a mile from a junction just south of Ferguson Ridge's summit to
. The road looked poorly maintained, and not wanting a
repeat of what I
encountered on Peak 4,575ft, I decided to just hike it. It turned out to be in
better condition than I first guessed and could have driven most of it, but it
made for a very pleasant walk, down to a saddle then up to
of Gimasol Ridge. Both ridges were badly burned in the
Ferguson Fire (named for Ferguson Ridge, presumeably because the fire started
somewhere near there, probably along SR140), but and
have begun adding color back to the landscape.
Sweetwater Ridge
The highpoint of this ridgeline is found several miles west of Ferguson Ridge,
across Sweetwater Creek. I first tried to reach it via FR4S16 along Sweetwater
Creek, but found that ended in and downfall. I backtracked
and found another series of Forest roads, Feliciana Mtn Rd (FR4S24) and
Sweetwater Ridge Rd (FR3S12) that lead north on Sweetwater Ridge. I was
several miles short of my goal by a private inholding that
barred further access to the ridge. It did not appear possible
to reach the highpoint from this way, so I gave up.
Feliciana Mountain
I returned to Feliciana Mtn Rd and drove that to a junction just southwest of
, then used spur road "B" to get
, within a few hundred feet. A casual walk across
brought me to the highpoint in a few minutes' time.
There's a nice view of Chowchilla Mtn to and partial
views north across the Merced River drainage to the Stanislaus NF.
Peak 3,775ft - Peak 3,725ft
These last two summits are low elevation peaks found just outside the forest
boundary. I drove Feliciana Mtn Rd down to SR140, taking that south about 5mi
to Triangle Rd and Buckingham Rd. I parked at the saddle between the two summits
and set out on foot for Peak 3,775ft to . The first thing I
noticed was that there was everywhere. An unsigned,
single-strand barbed wire fence is encountered with private property on the
other side. The landowner bulldozed and burned all the brush sometime in the
past year, leaving only the trees. However, new growth is already evident and
almost all of it is poison oak. I danced around the new sprouts as I followed
one bulldozed track up to and an alternate one on the way
down. The summit is mostly open with a few oak trees for company, taking in the
rolling, forested foothills to . After returning to the road,
I hiked north up the road a few hundred yards to then head cross-country up to
Peak 3,725ft . This summit had no similar
geo-engineering and is covered in thick brush and trees. There is some poison
oak, but thankfully only a modest amount. With patience, I was able to make my
way to the top up steep slopes without
any serious bushwhacking. offers no views and more poison
oak than I'd seen in getting there. I carefully assembled a small rock cairn
amongst the poison oak and left . I suspect this one will
see only a couple ascents over the next few decades. I returned
the same way and finished up
just before 4:30p, taking a bit over an hour
for the two summits. I showered where I had parked and then set off on the
3hr+ drive for home...