Continued...
Day 2 of my Southern Sierra roadtrip saw me tagging a collection of
unnamed peaks in the Sequoia National Forest, none of them far from the paved
Sherman Pass Road. To keep the nighttime chill to a minimum, I had slept the
night off this road not far from the Kern River at less than 5,000ft. Still,
it got down to the high 30s, fairly chilly but probably not unusual for this
time of year.
Peak 5,180ft/Peak 6,180ft
These two hadn't been on my radar before the trip began and were done on a
whim as I started driving up Sherman Pass Rd from my campsite. They are located
on the west side of the Rincon Trail. This motorcycle trail travels along an
ancient channel of the Kern River before it was diverted to its current location
to the west. The Kern River has cut a much deeper channel since that time,
leaving a dozen peaks in a North-South line between the Kern River and the
Rincon Trail. Both of these peaks are part of that collection. Peak 5,180ft is
located just off the roadway about a quarter mile. The going up from
looks to be a brush-fest, but someone had cut a trail through the brush
at some time in the past making things considerably easier. I was up and down
in a short time. From , Peak 6,180ft to
looks much more impressive so I decided to pay it a visit as well.
Though the South Ridge looks to be
an interesting route, I decided on the easier way up from the east where I
could use a mile of the Rincon Trail to reach a high saddle on
of the peak. Again, the cross-country looks to be brushy, but there is a
partially clear route up from the saddle that gets through the thickest brush.
The
of the peak is more open grass slopes with . There
are nice views of the Kern River drainage from the summit, with
standing out sharply to .
Peak 9,978ft/Peak 9,737ft/Peak 9,180ft
This was the main event I had planned for the day, a seven mile romp through
high forest country. Shortly before reaching
Sherman Pass, there is a paved road that forks south off the main road,
leading to Mosquito Meadow and another motorcycle route, the Cannell Meadow
Trail.
These three summits had been orphaned on several other trips I'd made to the
area and this seemed a good time to finish them. I parked about 3/4mi from the
end of the pavement at a wide spot in the road. I then
up steep, forested slopes to the first summit, Peak 9,978ft about half a
mile away. The summit had a modest
to mark the highpoint with
views limited due to forest cover. I then began a fun bit of
as I headed to the saddle east of Peak 9,737ft. The cross-country above 8,000ft
in the Southern Sierra is pretty easy with forest cover since little is able
to grow under it. I eventually crossed the Cannell Meadow
Trail near the saddle and
made my way up to the second summit. Peak 9,737ft had a
with and mostly
. To could just be
seen the third summit, Peak 9,180ft almost 600ft lower. I continued my forest
wandering, this time down the rounded South Ridge of Peak 9,737ft, more easy
going. A stiff, cool breeze was countered by a warm sun, making for nearly
ideal hiking conditions. I crossed another trail at the saddle between the two
peaks before making the final quarter mile climb up to Peak 9,180ft. This one
had the best summit rocks, to reach <
P21>a tiny perch with . I descended the northeast
side of the summit to reach which I was able to
follow back over the saddle and down to . The last
3/4mi of the hike was along to get me back to the
jeep, for a three and a quarter hour outing.
Peak 9,100ft
It was just past 1p so I decided to tack on some additional summits on the east
side of Sherman Pass, all of them fairly short. A spur dirt road got me to
of Peak 9,100ft. The area around
had suffered
from fire in the past decade, brush adding to the challenge to reach the rocky
summit. There was left by Nathan Schultz in 2011, but it
was sopping wet despite a decently it had been left in.
This was the only register I found on the day.
Peak 8,888ft
Another off the Sherman Pass Rd leads to within half a mile of
Peak 8,888ft. One has to first go over an intermediate bump to get
of the peak, then an easy stretch down to a saddle and up to
. were weak from the summit, but by
hiking a short distance down the south side, one gets a nice view looking into
, Taylor,
Rockhouse, Stegasaurus and other summits visible.
Beach Ridge
This summit is found just off Sherman Pass Rd about 1/3mi. A spur dirt
road leading to a nice campsite gets you . The hike up
from the
northeast side is somewhat brushy, but not too bad. Fire again has allowed
the brush to thrive nicely. The views are mostly open at
,
with a good view of the smoke billowing from the Mountaineers Fire to
.
To the north one can see an array of summits in the High Sierra,
around the Mineral King area, the Kaweahs, Olancha, and Langley far to the
northeast. I was
to the jeep around 4p and decided it was time to call it a day.
Peak 8,818ft
Or so I thought. I took a shower where I'd parked for Beach Ridge, then spent
about an hour writing up the day's events. With sunset near, I headed out to
Bonita Meadow where I planned to spend the night, with plans for two easy
peaks in the morning before the Smatko hike. I found that I could drive the
jeep to within 1/6mi of this last summit, so I
right at sunset to
finish it off. The rounded, grassy and partially forested was
uninspiring, but through the trees I caught a distance view of sunset on
to the northeast. Closer and to the southeast,
looked
nice in the shade of the setting sun with a faint orange glow around it. I
was back down in just a few minutes and finally called it a day. It would be
quite dark before I found a place to camp around 8,800ft on the side of Peak
9,470ft. None of the day's peaks by themselves were memorable, but the
collection made for a very enjoyable day with beautiful Fall weather...
Continued...