Jun 23, 2022
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Etymology Eagle Rock |
Story | Photos / Slideshow | Maps: 1 2 3 | GPX | Profile | |
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The north and west sides of Two Peaks West were the first close-ups I got
on my approach from the road. They looked quite cliffy. The west side had an
abundance of manzanita, too, and not very inviting. I decided to continue
around to the south side and hope for better. It was. There is much
manzanita found on the south side as well, but the slopes aren't as
steep. The south side of the west summit looked tough, so I continued
around towards the saddle between the two peaks, having left the road when
a second gate was encountered. The manzanita wasn't as bad as
it first looked, and with the help of animal trails, I had very little
real bushwhacking as I made my way to the east summit first, approaching
from the south. Manzanita gave way to an easy granite scramble on the
upper half, and in about two and three quarter hours I had found my way to the
East summit with easy class 3 summit rocks. The Crystal Range dominates
the views north and east, while the Eldorado Forest fans out
in other
directions nearly as far as one can see. I'd forgotten to bring registers with
me today, so I would be unable to leave one. I took about 25min to make my way
to the west summit, dropping first to the high saddle between them. It
has a better summit block than the east summit, though it is only class
2 with a convenient route that spirals up to the top.
The topo maps has the east summit 18ft higher than the west summit, though
I measured only a foot difference with my GPSr. They certainly looked to be of nearly the same height, and it's certainly worth visiting both.
After my short stay at the summit, I descended Two Peaks West down
the south side, a fun bit of class 3 scrambling for 2/3 of
the distance. The lower third has some thicker manzanita, not too bad
when heading downhill. I wouldn't recommend it for the ascent. I spent much of
the next hour and a half decending back down the road.
Thunderstorms had been
threatening much of the morning, though no rain fell until the last few
miles along the road. The rain wasn't very heavy and was quite welcome,
helping to drop the temps from the mid-70s to the mid-50's.
Much of the route I followed to Peak 6,452ft had been burned nearly
completely. Nearer the summit, granite blocks break up the forest and
there were more survivors to be found. The summit block would be class
4-5 without the help of a small pine that grew on the north side. It didn't
\survive the fire and using it to clambor up the block was a bit sketchy,
but worked. As the tree crumbles over the next few years, it will
make the summit block harder. I left a register here before descending
off the block.
The traverse to Eagle Rock is only half a mile, but is not trivial.
The terrain is a mix of rock, brush and forest, some burned, some not.
Eagle Rock itself is an imposing sight from the north and east - no way up those
sides. I worked my way around to the south side where it becomes class
3, though not easy - a fun bit of rock work. There are two points vying for
highpoint - the western one is higher and is easy to reach by passing
through an arch on the ridge between them. I found a geocache
at the east summit and moved it to the west one. It was housed in a green ammo
can, so not hard to spot. Clouds covered much of the sky, but the
thunder and rain of earlier in the afternoon had
spent itself and I stayed dry the rest of the day. On the way back I had
planned to traverse low on the south side of Peak 6,452ft, but I'd
forgotten my trekking poles at its summit and had to climb all the way
back up to retrieve them. Ugh, ugh. This left me pretty spent by the time
I returned to the Jeep shortly before 7a. A pretty full day, this
one...
Deer Knob
This minor summit is found on the northwest side of Union Valley Reservoir. It
rained a surprising amount on the drive to reach it, but it stopped before
I could start hiking and the temps quickly returned to the 70s. There has
been some extensive logging in the area, including along
the transmission line that runs along the east slope of Deer Knob. I
was able to drive the Jeep through the fresh logging to within 0.10mi of the
summit, making for a very easy ascent. 10min would suffice for the roundtrip.
The summit is forested leaving no views. Someone erected a crude
log fort at the highpoint with a discarded beverage can inside. I
didn't leave a register here because it
would easily be destroyed when the inevitable fire burns over the peak.
Peak 6,452ft - Eagle Rock
These closely-spaced summits are found on the south side of US50, above
the community of Kyburz. Marcus Sierra made a real hike of this by
starting from the pavement along Silver Fork Rd. I drove the Forest Roads
to make it much easier, about 2mi roundtrip from the southeast side of
Peak 6,452ft. The 2021 Caldor Fire (same one that threatened South Lake
Tahoe last summer) burned over most of the forest south of US50, but it
was not as intense or extensive as other fires. Many trees survived, both
individually and in varying swath sizes. There has been a good deal of
salvage logging since then, cleaning out many snags and leaving the
forest looking surprisingly healthy. I noted almost as many new pine
seedlings as I did brush regrowth.
This page last updated: Fri Jun 24 18:53:39 2022
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