Continued...
I spent most of the day watching my daughter's club volleyball team play against a
variety of other teams, all very good, at Clovis High School outside Fresno in the
Central Valley. At the conclusion around 4p, I bade goodbye to wife and daughter and set
out for a few days of extra peak bagging in the area. The Sierra foothills east of
Fresno are home to a dozen P1Ks that I had yet to visit. With fine Spring weather and
the hills as green as they ever get, it seemed a good time to pay them a visit. Most all
of them are on private ranch lands, so visiting would require some stealth. I had spent
time studying maps and satellite views ahead of time which paid off nicely.
Green Mountain
A shorter approach is from the southeast off Seminole Rd where one can hike a good dirt
road nearly to the summit, but this involves bypassing at least one occupied home. A
longer, but more secluded route can be found off Tollhouse Rd from the northwest, and it
was this route I followed. A little-used road from Tollhouse through
a where it meets a powerline road, also little-used, running
NE-SW. I found a few grazing under one of the
as I followed the powerline road southwest to a
. Here I picked up an old jeep trail that climbs
leading to the summit of Green Mtn. The route crosses several
property boundaries, but the entire route is secluded and well out of sight, making me
comfortable climbing it in the daylight. It's a delightful route climbing through oak
forest and grassy slopes with many in bloom. On the shadier north side
of the ridge I would find poison oak and , making me wary where I stepped.
I found the decomposing of a skunk, reminding me I would have to look
out for these critters during the night later. I spent just under an hour hiking about
two miles to the . Through the trees one can see the
of the Sierra northeast to the Kaiser Wilderness. To
lay the tranquil Watts Valley, very green, and to
was the nearby P1K, Black Mtn. I descended back down via the same
path as the sun was after 7p, watching the last rays of sunlight
filter with vibrant color and bouncing brightly off the
along the route.
Upon reaching the car I put my warm jug of shower water in my empty cooler for use later
in the evening. There were more peaks to visit before the day was through.
Black Mountain
I had tried to reach Black Mountain first upon leaving Clovis, thinking I could drive
most, or all the way up Black Mtn Rd found on . But this proved
an unworkable solution though promising at first.
I drove several miles up the gravel/dirt
road past numerous homesteads that line either side of the road. Unexpectedly, I came
upon a locked gate marking a private nature preserve. I would have simply parked and
walked the remaining distance except that one, there was no place to park nearby, and
secondly there were dogs on either side of the road barking incesssantly behind fences.
It would have been maddening to have to walk the road past these protective animals, all
the while wondering when the owners would come out and ask what I was doing there. So I
gave up on it and went to Green Mtn.
While I was on Green Mtn I noticed the SW Ridge of Black Mtn,
though steep, looked like it might offer
a mostly brush-free route to the summit, or at least as much as I could make out from
about a mile away. It seemed worth a shot, and though there were homes nearby, the
coming twilight would offer some cover from detection. I repositioned the van further
north on Tollhouse Rd, found a small turnout and started up the slope north of the road.
It was a fine route that I enjoyed a good deal - just enough nighttime bushwhacking to
make it challenging without discouraging. I came across some helpful
along the ridgeline (and a few surprised cattle, too) to make things easier, though there
were still plenty of obstacles. These included the ubiquitous poison oak, more slow
moving , some rather steep slopes in places, and sections of brush that
had me wandering about like a drunken sailor looking for a way through - all good fun.
Near the summit I found what looked like the remains of an old that
may have said, "Ridge Trail". I wondered if this was from the private nature preserve I
had encountered earlier, perhaps a relic from a time when the public, or at least
visitors, were welcome. The summit is now home to a collection of communication towers
that are visible from a distance. Atop the highpoint sits the closed
which I reached about 9:20p after almost an hour and a half's
effort. I climbed to the viewing catwalk around the shuttered cab
where I took in of Fresno and its surrounding
ecosystem. It was a bit chilly up there, so I hurried down after taking a photo.
The return was via the same route, getting me back around 10:30p. I should have called it
a night at this point, but alas, I was too into the game and too high on
to call it quits just yet.
Peak 3,078ft
This summit is located about 2.5mi south of Green Mtn. About 20min of driving through
Boroughs and Watts Valleys brought me to the saddle on Watts Valley Rd south of the
unnamed peak. The area is even more isolated than the previous ones, with just a few
residences along this road. One of these less than a mile away had a dog that would bark
on and off for much of the time I was climbing the peak. Whether the dog was barking at
me or not was impossible to say, but it was lonely enough out there and late enough that
it was of little concern. The hike wasn't particularly memorable. I started off on an
old, no longer used ranch road, following this for half a mile until blocked by brush.
I moved left onto the grassier ridgeline which I followed nearly up to Pt. 2,464ft before
traversing right onto the SW flank of Peak 3,078ft. The slope here was steep and somewhat
brushy, but it was not hard to find ways around it and avoid thrashing. Once again,
poison oak was the biggest concern. It seems to grow everywhere. The easiest of the three
summits, it was only a mile and a half and just over 1,000ft of gain, taking about 45
minutes to reach the top.
was among some lichen-covered boulders under
some low trees with more poison oak to get around. All I got was an out-of-focus shot of
the summit for my trouble. Well, that and the extra workout I was looking for. By the
time I returned to the car it was almost 1a and I was now plenty tired. I drove another
8.5mi to the Pine Flat Reservoir where I found a nice turnout to spend the night
undisturbed. I'd managed almost thirteen miles and 5,500ft of gain for the day - not bad
considering I didn't start hiking until 6p...
Continued...