On the last of a three-day roadtrip, the day's goals focused on finishing up
the last of some prominence summits I had left in the Diamond Mtns, a sub-range
of the far Northern Sierra. None of the hikes by themselves was very long, but
the combination, along with all the driving in-between, would keep me busy for
most of the day.
Babcock Peak
This summit divides the Indian and Last Chance Creek drainages in the middle
of the range, roughly between Lake Davis and Antelope Lake. I had camped the
night on the forest access road northwest of the summit
( for "Babcock
Xing"), resuming the drive in the morning. The roads I traveled were in
excellent condition, suitable for any vehicle. I could not drive all the roads
depicted on the topo map, but I got within about a mile of the summit before
finding the additional spur roads .
The old roads proved
quite helpful for navigating an otherwise brushy area for 2/3 of the distance
to the top. Fires have burned over most of the hills in the area over the past
decade, leaving lots of heavy brush. Where the road was ,
there was a convenient bypass through an ,
now dry for the rest of the season. Some care is needed for the final
to from the
north to avoid more brush. With all this in mind, it took me about 45min to
cover the mile distance to the summit. A summit register had been left there by
,
oddly undated. By other means, I was able to ascertain that
it was 2009 when they visited, with Gordon then 85yrs old - quite a remarkable
achievement at that age, to be sure. The only
since then were
John Vitz (& Donna) and John Ide. USFS surveyors had been to the summit in
1946, leaving
and the remains of a survey tower. Though partially
blocked by trees,
are nonetheless quite nice. With a better knowledge
of the route, I managed to shave off some time and in 30min.
Lone Rock
Following my success on Babcock, I began a long drive, first back out to the
pavement, then north to Antelope Lake, then dirt roads out towards Red Rock &
Diamond Mtn. Much of the area here has been logged and replanted, leaving the
landscape often looking like a giant christmas .
I was following a
route called the Diamond Mtn Motorway on the topo map, but got distracted when
I
of an unexpected rock outcrop rising from the gentle slopes and
decided it needed investigating. The motorway goes within a quarter mile of
on the northeast side, so I simply
and made my way up the open
slope to check it out (
my GPSr malfunctioned on the way up, so only the
descent route was acurately mapped). I first climbed to the notch on the
north side, but the 60 to 80-foot outcrop was too steep on
for unroped scrambling. Looking over the ,
that seemed impossibly steep as well, so I began circling around
to the south on the east side. I noted a possible route up
in the
shaded area, possibly class 4 or harder. I continued around to the south side
where there are some large trees abutting the feature and more steep faces. But
of the face just west of the trees looked like it might be class 3.
Here I found one of the great gems in all of the Northern Sierra, about 40ft of
exposed,
over solid rock, leading to and the summit. The
register had been placed by Suchoski C. , a
rock climber who put up three routes over a period of about a month (
there's
also a page on Mountain Project he put up). look over a
with few mature trees in sight. It took but 10min
to to once I had the route dialed in.
Red Rock/Diamond Mtn
Back at the motorway, I continued north towards Red Rock, suddenly coming to a
halt when I found the road blocked by .
The landslides are somewhat
old, judging by the tracks that have sprung up to circumvent the blockages. I
drove around the first but balked at the second. I got out and walked the
bypass section, thinking I
might be able to negotiate it, but it was
hardly what I would consider safe. After consulting the maps, I decided on a
detour route - 15mi of driving where the original route would have been only
2mi. At least the roads were in good condition on the detour. When I arrived
at the base of Red Rock, I found the road gated. Evidently the lookout was
closed for the season and one could no longer drive to the top of this one. No
matter - I had planned to hike between Red Rock and Diamond Mtn, so I simply
found a road getting me somewhere between the two and on foot.
I paid a visit to Red Rock first, up steep forested slopes until I intersected
the road for the last bit to the top.
is in decent shape, but was boarded up for the season. I walked around the
observation deck to of the ,
with good visibility - I could see Shasta more than 100mi to
. The lookout isn't actually on the highpoint, that
honor goes to a small nubbin just north of the peak, beyond the
. A geocache was placed here in 2010, the third I'd
found in the area in two days. Ron Moe had left a more normal notepad
.
I next turned my attention to the higher Diamond Mtn, a mile and a quarter to
along a connecting ridgeline. is
somewhat loose and steep in places, but all class 2 with modest brush in a few
places. I found of a that had burned here
sometime in the past, the engine making up most of what remained. Why anyone
would have a snowcat up here is a bit of a mystery. Continuing along the ridge,
I found there are two places vying for the highpoint. I first bypassed the more
interesting to the southwest to reach
marked on the GPSr. It did indeed appear to be the higher of the two, but
there was no register that I could find and the benchmark was buried under a
cairn. I left here before to visit
the other point. Though it looks imposing from three sides, there is an easy
class 3 route up . I found
there, pointing to the higher point I
had earlier visited. I spent the next half hour partially retracing my steps
along the ridgeline before dropping down and wandering through forest and
to find buried deep in the trees. The whole
outing took less than 2hrs.
Peak 5,464ft
This last summit was a bit of a leftover from an earlier trip with my daughter
when we stayed in the town of Greenville in Indian Valley, southeast of Lake
Almanor. Somehow I had left this P900 just south of town untrodden. I spent well
over an hour driving southwest to reach Greenville and then up the paved road to
Round Valley Reservoir on the west side of Peak 5,464ft. The mountain is a
patchwork of USFS and private lands (you can see the No Trespassing signs on
the drive up to the reservoir) but the route I traveled was all public lands -
not a fence or sign to dissuade you. Just past the picnic sites on the east
side of the lake there is an unsigned dirt road forking sharply off the
pavement, going up to an old water tank. The road was clear but not advisable
for low-clearance. There's just enough room to turn around at
of the
road by the water tank. Old logging roads continue up from there, but these are
no longer driveable. Starting less than a mile from the summit,
I climbed up through , sometimes on
old roads, mostly just directly upslope until I encountered a decent
above 5,200ft where the slope lessens. This trail joins others, with one branch
leading to the summit. I'm not sure if the trails are from local residences or
perhaps an extension of the USFS trail that is shown on the topo map where the
paved road first meets the shore of the reservoir. The summit features an old
fire ring, with a glass bottle wind chime (of sorts) and
a
overlooking Greenville to the north. It appears to be used
periodically as a party location, but seems to be kept reasonably clean. I went
back via the same route, finishing the day around 2:30p. I paused to take a
picture of the leaf-strewn
before starting my long drive
back out of the hills towards home.
Continued...