Continued...
I was camped in the back of the Jeep in the heart of the Shasta Trinity National
Forest. The peaks in this part of the forest, northeast of Lake Shasta, are
rugged and contain more than a dozen P1Ks. They aren't particularly high, all
less than 5,000ft, which means no snow in mid-May, but they are also loaded with
poison oak which had me failing at almost half of the P1Ks I attempted. Today
started off with two nice successes, then four failures, then finishing off
with three successes, overall not a bad day...
Salt Creek Mountain
As a P2K, there have been a number of TRs written about this one, so I didn't
have much concern about whether it would work out. This and Hogback Mtn were
the two "gimmies" I had planned for the day, one at the beginning, one at the
end. As reported by others, the access road from the north is
, and with downfall , I was
able to drive no further than others had managed in the past few years.
I hiked 1.3mi of the remaining road, easily done
on foot, until I was below the start of the NE/N Ridge used by others and
reported to not be too brushy. Though steep, the route is indeed
of poison oak and there was very little brush to
be pushed aside. There are some remnants of
that can be used, but these were often choked with young trees and not much
better than the roadless options on either side.
The ridge goes up about 800ft in a mile, bringing one to the summit area
where there are three equal contours shown on the map. In visiting all three, I
found the middle one to be the lowest, the western one to be about 10ft higher,
the eastern one (marked on the map and identified on LoJ and PB as the summit)
10ft higher still. There is a minor view to
of Minnesota and Town
Mtns, most of the other directions blocked by trees. I was surprised to find
no register on this one, so I left one of my own before heading back down the
same route. Others have reported brushier conditions in trying to shortcut the
route back to the road so I chose to follow the same line I had ascended. The
whole outing took just over 2hrs, getting me to the Jeep by 8:15a.
Minnesota Mountain
Though only two miles south of Salt Creek Mtn, it took me an hour and a half of
driving to get from one starting point to the next. I drove up to Dekkas Creek
Saddle between the two summits, then further south until I could drive no
further, about 0.4mi due east of the summit. There is more brush on this one
than the first summit and it is necessary to choose one's route carefully. I
followed the overgrown continuation of
to the ESE Ridge and went up
from there, finding convenient breaks through the forest and brush to minimize
the bushwhacking effort. I was very happy to find the summit area open and easy
to navigate over , bringing me to the highpoint at the
western edge of the summit ridge, overlooking Salt Creek Mtn to
and Town Mtn to . Finding no register
again, I on this summit before returning via the same
route. The outing took only an hour, before
11a. With two success in row, I was feeling pretty good.
Town Mountain
Fail - This was a navigational failure. I didn't notice the turnoff on
my way down from Dekkas Creek Saddle and by the time I got down to the lower
junction
and figured it out, I didn't want to drive back up the road - I wasn't sure my
gas was going to last as it was. It appears one can drive fairly close on the
northeast side. I'll have to go back again some day to try this. There's
another P1K southeast of Town (Horse Mtn), but it appears to be one of the
more difficult undertakings in the area with
way more driving and no
close approach.
Winnibulli Mountain
Fail - This one looked too tough - almost 1,000ft up the NW Ridge for
0.6mi over what looked like poison oak-covered slopes. The place needs a good
fire to clear it out. I couldn't even start up the mountain without stepping
over the PO. I barely went 30ft from the Jeep before giving up.
Devils Rock
Fail - This was one of the more interesting P1Ks I was hoping would be
successful. Forest Service maps show a trail going south from Low Pass Creek,
just past the summit and then south to Gray Rocks. Other maps don't show it. If
it exists, it's one helluva steep trail. The maps also show a dirt spur road
going along Low Pass Creek, but this is no longer driveable. I followed this
old road on foot for about a mile, the easily navigated,
but then it becomes
where it crosses Low Pass Creek to the south
side. Once across the creek it gets better as a use trail, but try as I might,
I found no sign of a trail forking off towards Devils Rock. I don't know if
this trail is long overgrown or just a figment of someone's imagination.
Cross-country travel here is through terrain heavily populated with poison oak.
I .
Brock Butte
Fail - A heartbreaker. Road 27 goes over a saddle 2.5mi north of Brock
Butte, another P1K. Maps show a spur road going south along the connecting
ridgeline towards Brock Butte for about half the distance, then a trail
continuing along the ridge, going over Brock Butte and south to Low Pass Creek.
I found no longer maintained, but easy to walk, and I started
off with high hopes. I reached
of the old road at a saddle and was happy to find
an overgrown trail continuing along the ridge with a mile to go. Unfortunately,
the trail became more overgrown and the poison oak more frequent. I used a
stick to push the stuff out of my way as I worked my way along the trail,
getting more and more bogged down. Then the trail seemed to stop, or at least
to have hit a wall I couldn't easily push through. I looked at the distance
and found I still had 4/5mi to go. I gave up.
Bluejay Mtn/Buck Mtn/Hogback Mtn
one was a gimme as I knew others had driven to the top and expected to
be able to do likewise. There are two named summits along the long drive to
Hogback Mtn, neither with much prominence. I stopped on the northwest side of
Bluejay Mtn and hiked up the steep slopes a short distance to the summit. There
was much poison oak initially ,
but once under heavy forest cover
the understory diminished considerably. The last 100yds to the summit was again
as I hopped from rock to rock and tip-toed
through the stuff to find
with no views and more PO. Buck Mtn turned out to be even shorter and almost
no poison oak at all. It, too, was ,
but at least it was easy. Hogback Mtn, on the other hand, had wide open views,
especially from the tower that stands at the highpoint to
. Too bad
the gate was locked and one could only climb the first set of stairs. There
are microwave relays at
and decent cell coverage from the summit.
It was 5p by this time and I figured I was done for the day, so I showered
atop Hogback Mtn. Little did I realize my luck had not yet run out.
Round Mountain
I didn't expect to get far on this P1K as it lies outside the forest boundary
close to SR299 and
entirely on private property. There are roads going up to the telecom towers at
the summit originating from the now paved Road 27 a few miles before its
junction with SR299. I found just off Road 27, but upon
inspection, found one of the chained locks to be .
Score. I undid the
gate, drove in, and carefully put the locks back like I'd found them. There
were no signs on the gate indicating Private Property or No Trespassing, so I
figured I had plausible deniability if found out. I took the first left past
the gate onto a lesser road. This leads to a couple of homesteads with another
fork just before encountering their Private Property signs. This other fork is
little used, overgrown and rough, but the Jeep was up for the challenge. After
2/3mi it connected with a better road going to the summit (the better route,
btw, continues past where I first turned left and then comes up from the west
side of the mountain to this junction I joined). The last part of the road is
terribly steep, but again, no problem for the Jeep in 4H. Upon reaching
at the summit, I was greeted by -- wait for it --
. Only about
2ft high, this diminuitive goat looked as surprised to see me as I it, but it
didn't move, even as I walked towards it to take .
What it was doing there is anybody's guess. I snapped
before starting down, the
goat then trailing behind me at a distance. Back in the Jeep, I played around
with the hill descent feature of the Jeep in 4L, then made my way back out the
way I came, again leaving the locks and gate as I'd found them.
Hatchet Mountain
I still had some daylight left and after perusing the peakbagger app, I hit
upon Hatchet Mountain, a P1K drive-up about 10mi up SR299. I checked my gas and
figured I had enough to get up and down from Hatchet and then get gas in
Burney. Andrew Kirmse had left a report on this one from his visit the previous
year. There are some rather large windmills along the very long, rounded SE
Ridge. A good service road goes to the summit with spurs to the various
installations. As reported by Andrew, public access is
the good road
after the first mile, onto a poorer, older road that goes to the summit in
about four miles. The road was in fair shape, mostly dry and easily
negotiated with high-clearance. A mile before the summit, the road converges
with the better service road, but there is a locked gate half a mile from the
summit, large rocks placed on either side to keep out
off-road access. Someone had
conveniently moved the smallest of these boulders on the right side, making an
opening just wide enough for the Jeep, allowing me to drive the rest of the way
to .
By now it was 7:45p, getting chilly and close to sunset. I walked
around the flattish summit area looking for the highest rock, took a
and beat a retreat. To
rises Burney Mtn, a P2K, and with
little snow showing on it, I figured I might be able to pay it a visit the next
day. After driving back out to the older road, I found a quiet spot along it
to spend the night. It was already growing dark and there didn't seem much
point in driving back out to the highway tonight. It was a fairly windy
location (good place for windmills, eh?), rocking the Jeep gently for much of
the night...
Continued...