My daughter decided to join me on a 4-day peakbagging mission to Plumas
National Forest, north of Lake Tahoe, though it may not have been what she'd
hoped for. The first day was mostly a lot of driving, both to reach the area
around Sierra Valley from San Jose, and to reach most of the peaks. The
smokey haze
hanging over the area is pervasive, not thick smoke like I'd seen earlier,
but enough to mute most of the views and give everything a drab appearance. One
gentleman I spoke said it had been like this all summer, the worst he'd seen in
the area, ever.
The forest roads were dusty and sometimes rough, a bit trying as a passenger
in the jeep. None of the first day's peaks were memorable, rather on the
forgettable side, even for me.
TV Hill/Peak 6,815ft/Loyalton BM
The peak of interest here was the unnamed Peak 6,815ft, a P1K south of Loyalton
and Sierra Valley. We drove paved Smithneck Rd south from Loyalton, then onto
good dirt Antelope Valley Rd, super dusty but suitable for most vehicles.
Where we turned north to head towards our summits, the spur road becomes quite
rough and shows little sign of usage, definitely suitable only for
high-clearance 4WD. We drove a little more than a mile and a half of this up
to the summit crest, parking between TV Hill and Peak 6,815ft. We then hiked
the short distance to TV Hill, about 1/8mi, found little of interest at
the summit rocks, then turned south to hike 1/3mi to the
brushy top of Peak 6,815ft. No views on the latter, and hazy views on
the former. Back in the
Jeep we drove less than half a mile further towards Loyalton BM, an obvious
bonus, before grinding to a halt, the road shown on the topo map continuing
to the summit is no longer driveable. We found another version of road
along the crest
that we could walk, but it was barely distinguishable for the old road it
once was.
The highpoint is found before reaching the benchmark as the ridge becomes
covered in a denser layer of stubby trees and brush. Jackie declined to follow
me on my quest to find the benchmark,
which I did, at a slightly lower point
to the north. There were the remains of a wooden survey tower and some modest
views overlooking Sierra Valley. No registers on any of these summits and we
left none.
Dixie Mountain
This was the only P2K we would visit on this roadtrip. There is a road reaching
all the way to the top where a manned lookout is located. The peak used to be
on the SPS list, but was removed because the drive-up nature is unbecoming of
that exalted list, unlike the HPS version. The dirt access road gets rough in
places and is suitable only for high-clearance vehicles. It starts at the north
end of Frenchman Lake, off paved Frenchman Rd. There is a sign at the start but
there is not a corresponding one at a critical junction a few miles up the road.
It helps to know where you're going ahead of time. The lookout is a bit
weathered, but sits majestically atop a volcanic rock outcrop,
one of many that
are common in this area. We spoke to the caretaker for 10-15min about views,
peaks, lookouts and other fun stuff before taking our leave. It's a long drive
to this one.
Smith Peak
This one is a shorter drive, but still dusty and sometimes rough, to reach
another manned lookout atop Smith Peak. I drove as far as the truck
I saw
parked 1/4mi down from the top, but could probably have just as easily driven
to the base of the tower. Jackie had had enough by this time and declined to
join me for the short walk to the top. I took a few pictures,
but didn't bother to disturb the caretaker in the cab. Views
again were so-so due to the high
level of haze. We retreated back down the roads to the small town of Portola
where we would spend the next three evenings. I'm hoping we don't have four
days of such peaks or I might have to write off this part of the Sierra for
the summer season...