Continued...
Cold Spring Mountain
On the third day of a roadtrip in NE California chasing P1Ks, I was up before
sunrise a few miles west of Cold Spring Mtn, having camped there for the night.
The peak rises in an area of lower hills south of the Warner Range, part of
the Great Basin. With far more acreage covered in grass and brush than trees,
the BLM lands around here are primarily used for grazing. There had been a small
herd of cattle not 100ft from my camp when I had pulled in, but they had moved
on by morning. After breakfasting, I drove another mile and a half before
off the dirt road on of the
mountain, the summit not visible from below. My ascent route up
went more left than it should have, landing me on the
summit ridge still half a mile from the top. I wasn't using the GPSr to
navigate by as I usually do, relying instead on dead reckoning, and it amply
showed up how much I've come to rely on the GPSr. The
was brushier than the slopes I had ascended, but not annoyingly so and I enjoyed
the stroll along it with looking off both sides. The highpoint
is found at the eastern end of the ridgeline, atop a pile of volcanic rock about
30-40ft higher than the rest of the ridge. I found a and
some from the survey tower that once stood here.
The views are so-so, mostly low hills all around, Red Rock Valley and Lake
to the north and northeast. With 900ft of prominence, I figured Cold Spring Mtn
was deserving of a register so I before starting back. My
return was much more direct, getting me back to the jeep in less than half an
hour.
Olson Mountain
After returning from Cold Spring Mtn, I drove back west towards US395, intending
to hit up Tule Mtn next. I got distracted before reaching the highway when I
spotted Olson Mtn, another standalone summit with almost 800ft of prominence.
I turned south off the excellent dirt/gravel Blue Lake Rd I'd been following,
driving about 4mi on various through
to get me within a mile of Olson on
. The hike goes up ,
climbing about 800ft in the process. There was a badly tattered American flag
on a pole at
with views looking and north. After to
the jeep I attempted to drive about 4-5mi of dirt roads to MacDonald Peak to the
south but got stopped after about a mile by signed for No
Trespassing. There are other all-legal ways to reach it, I believe,
so I gave up this effort and returned to Blue Lake Rd.
Mitchell Hill
This minor summit is located on the north side of Blue Lake Rd, only a few miles
north of Olson Mtn. I parked on south of the peak,
leaving to the summit while climbing 650ft. This one has
more lava rock and some weaving is necessary to avoid the larger fields of the
stuff. The highpoint is found at among the many trees
that cover the upper part of the mountain. Though it doesn't really deserve one,
I anyway, just for fun.
Tule Mountain
This P1K is located on the east side of US395, about 25mi south of Alturas. This
is where this current roadtrip had started a few days earlier and was supposed
to be the first peak climbed that day. Overnight rain and light snow left a
wet mess that I didn't want to wallow through on the two-mile hike to the
summit. was dry and far nicer, making for a
taking an hour and a quarter to reach the top. Several
are found coming up from the north to the saddle just west
of , but these no longer see any vehicle travel and would
make for a longer hike, compared to the cross-country route I used from the
southwest. I found a 1957 at
and in all directions. This one deserved
, so I obliged before taking another hour to make the
descent .
Knox Mountain
This P1K showed no ascents on LoJ and doesn't appear on PB,
a bit odd since it was located within publicly
accessible forest lands. One would have expected John Vitz to have paid it a
visit, for example. The difficulties lay in the driving as it's a long way from
the pavement. I drove about 20mi from Madeline at US395, about half of this on
the good Ash Valley dirt road, the other half on a rougher road through
BLM and USFS lands heading north. A spur road took me higher to get within
about half a mile of the summit on . Though short, the
hike had some heavy brush to , but not so much
as to become tedious or unpleasant. There is an old barbed-wire
along the ridge, though no longer
maintained. My route near the top followed on one side or the other of this
fence to minimize the brush. The hike follows mostly through forest with only
at the summit, though there are some decent views looking
west on the way there. It was after 5p by the time ,
expecting this to be the last peak of the day.
Manzanita Mountain
This was an unexpected freebie on my way back from Knox Mtn. I had taken a
shower where I was parked before looking for where to drive next. I needed to
get to Adin on SR139 to get gas and was looking for a shorter way without
driving back
down south to Ash Valley Rd. Manzanita popped up on my map showing a lookout
tower, so I figured I could do it as a drive-up as it wasn't out of the way.
The roads heading northwest from Knox Mtn were better than those I had driven in
on from the south and I made good time to reach Manzanita before sunset. There
was 1/3mi from the top, so I quickly parked and hoofed
it up to only minutes before sunset. The lookout was
shuttered closed, but the friendly design allows one to
to the observation deck
around the central cab. Through an unshuttered window I could see an uncovered
mattress and the cab tidied up, perhaps closed for the season now. There are
far-reaching views from the summit with the Warner Range far to
, Mt. Shasta far to ,
and Mt. Lassen far to the southwest. The sun would
set before I had returned to the jeep only five minutes later - excellent timing
on this one. 10 more miles of driving got me down to SR139 where I fueled up in
Adin before continuing south on the highway. I had a few more peaks planned for
the morning before I headed home, so I drove partway up one of these before
finding a place to camp for the night...
Continued...