Pleasant fall weather in the Sierra was continuing through the last week in
October where I had plans to meet up with friends in the Domelands area. Leaving
San Jose in the morning around the same time my wife went off to work, I was
happy to be traveling against the morning rush hour and
made good time to Bakersfield, four hours away. Rather than the usual scenic
drive up SR178 through the Kern River Canyon, I wanted to drive up the rural
Breckenridge Road that winds through the hills on the south side of the Kern
River. In particular I wanted to pay a visit to Mt. Adelaide, a prominent,
treeless summit on the lower western rampart of the Sierra range. The lower
elevations are all private ranchlands eventually becoming Sequoia National
Forest as the road climbs above 4,600ft. There is a small community of homes
(seasonal cabins, it appears) at Breckenridge Meadows at around 6,000ft. The
road continues over Breckenridge Mtn (with a 5mi spur road going to the
highpoint and lookout) and down to the Caliente-Bodfish Rd in Havilah Canyon.
This better road can then be used to reach Lake Isabella where I ended up in
the evening.
Peak 3,580ft / Mt. Adelaide
Mt. Adelaide is seen from the eastern Bakersfield area, but
nearby Peak 3,580ft is higher by more than 100ft, both easily combined in the
same outing. Points around Mt. Adelaide have American Tower installations,
serviced by a good dirt road running up from Breckenridge Rd. Cattle graze the
slopes on here, the road at the pavement
and signed for No Trespassing. I parked along the roadway so as not to block the
gate and started up the road. I had seen no one for the initial half hour drive
up Breckenridge Rd and expected to have no trouble for the hour it would take to
climb both summits. I was perhaps a hundred yards up the road when a truck drove
by on Breckenridge Rd behind me, going downhill. It slowed to a stop next to the
van as I turned to consider my bad luck. I was expecting someone to get out and
shout something and I was resigned to go back and face the music. The truck
moved on after a few seconds and continued down the road. Did he not see me? I
was a little perplexed, but
wasn't going to question it too much. Perhaps he was going to drive down the
hill to get cell reception and call the sheriff. Perhaps he didn't see me or
didn't care. Either way, I figured I'd get up to the summits before anyone came
after me. No need to worry as it turne out - it was the last vehicle I would
see driving Breckenridge Rd all day.
I turned off the road after a quarter mile to avoid a few switchbacks and take
a more direct line up to Peak 3,580ft. Cow trails led up the steep but easy
ridgeline I was following, through the dry, brown grass that covers the
oak-dotted slopes for miles around. It took 20min to reach the higher summit
with views to the Tehachapi Mtns and Bear Mtn in particular. To
lies the lower Mt. Adelaide and other points which block views
to Bakersfield below. Another 20min hiking west along more cow trail and road
got me to the top of Adelaide. The are at a couple of
intermediate points between the two summits which I bypassed on spur roads,
leaving Mt. Adelaide nicely unadorned. A third telecom installation is found
another 3/4mi to . A brown haze settled in the valley below
marred any view of Bakersfield (not that that would be a superb view in the best
of conditions). I used another shortcut on the way back to bypass the lower half
of the road, momentarily startling a cow dozing in the shade of an oak by the
side of the road. After to the van I was quick to toss my pack
inside and drive out of there before my luck might run out.
Peak 4,060ft
This is a fairly easy summit just off the south side of Breckenridge Rd less
than four mile east of Mt. Adelaide. It lies on private property just outside
the forest boundary, brushier than the lower summits, but made easier by cow
paths through the thickets. There are two closely-spaced summits with the same
number of contours, so it seemed prudent to visit both. The combination is less
than a mile roundtrip with about 400ft of gain. I went to the
first and found it about 10ft lower than the
according the GPSr. I got hung up in descending the higher
summit in , but eventually emerged
with only minor scratches.
Peak 6,100ft / Peak 5,996ft
Another 7mi up Breckenridge Rd and 2,000ft higher I came to Breckenridge
Meadows and its small community of where the Forest Service has
kindly placed to remind hunters not to shoot the residents. The
two peaks are in the national forest north of the community, about three miles
by decent dirt road, on either side of a saddle called Cherry Gap on the topo
map. The last part of the road to Cherry Gap has been
by
cutting dozens of burned snags across it, keeping even motorcycles out. The best
one can do is park at a large clearing on the west side of Peak 6,100ft and walk
from there. I to the south of the summit, about a quarter mile
short of the better spot, not knowing the lay of the land well enough ahead of
time. From where I parked it was an easy cross-country hike up and
Peak 6,100ft (covered in trees, no views), about a half mile to Cherry Gap.
There I picked up that conveniently goes to the top of the
second summit, Peak 5,996ft. is partially open to views, but
nothing special as it looks over a sea of trees to the south, located on the
west side of Breckenridge Mtn. This short outing took about an hour.
Peak 6,460ft
Back on Breckenridge Rd, I continued east to the junction located on the crest,
also called Hobo Ridge. The spur road heading right goes to the campground and
lookout while I turned left to follow the main road as it winds north along the
crest towards Lightner Peak, an HPS summit. I at a saddle at
6,000ft, just before the road begins its
long descent into Havilah Canyon, less than half a mile south of the summit of
Peak 6,460ft. The short but interesting features
several class 3 that appear to be of similar height. I
climbed both and left a register on one of them before finishing the short half
hour effort. There is a good view of Breckenridge Mtn to from
the summit.
Rankin Peak / O'Brien Hill
The last peaks of the day are located above the community of Havilah on the
west side of Havilah Canyon and Caliente-Bodfish Rd. Located about 3/4mi
apart, the two summit lie outside the national forest on BLM land. Access along
Goff Ranch Road goes through private property, making this a somewhat
murky endeavor. Goff Ranch is located on the other side of the saddle between
the two, and judging by the sounds of barking dogs I heard occasionally, it is
not abandoned. Goff Ranch Road services several other residences on the east
side of the saddle in the lower reaches of the canyon. I parked along
Caliente-Bodfish Rd and walked up for a little more
than a mile until I reached the saddle just inside the Goff Ranch gate signed
for No Trespassing. Almost immediately I left the road to walk north through
lightly forested, to the north towards Rankin Peak. The
climb up the south side of the peak is open to view from the road but no one
came by during the entire outing. Rankin's summit has in all
directions. Late in the day now, the sun was starting to set on the Piute Mtns
to the east where the HPS rises prominently on the east side of Havilah Canyon. To could be seen O'Brien Hill in the
shade, really just a bump on a ridgeline rising up to the crest of Hobo Ridge
and Lightner Peak. I beat a hasty
retreat down Rankin to lessen my chances of detection (and also because it was
getting colder and darker), crossed the road and headed up an old firebreak to
the summit of O'Brien Hill. It was almost 6p now and the sun was only minutes
from setting for the day on all the surrounding mountains to the
, and . It would be another half hour
before I returned to the pavement and the van to end the day.
I found a place along Caliente-Bodfish Rd to shower before driving the rest of
the way to Bodfish and then Lake Isabella. The only free wifi I found in town
for the evening was the Burger King on the main road next to the Vons. Dinner
would be a salad and collection of chicken nuggets before heading off around
the lake to the north side where I found a flat, somewhat quiet place to spend
the night. Only a few cars go by this lonely stretch of road at night so I
slept fairly well with plans for some more easy peaks in the morning before
meeting pals in the afternoon...
Continued...