Continued...
It hadn't been on my itinerary when I left home, but I'd found myself in the area,
further north than I expected, and suddenly I remembered Castle Rock was a class 3+
summit I'd been wanting to climb for some years. So I spent the night at the Lewis Camp
TH, eager to give it a shot in the morning. I'd botched McIntyre Rock the day before,
only discovering I'd climbed the wrong summit hours later. Armed with better beta I
gleaned from my guidebooks and maps, I went back for a grudge match. And finally, I
was supposed to meet Patrick the next day at Big Meadow, just outside the western
boundary of Domeland Wilderness. The wilderness HP happens to be easily accessible
from the nearby Sirretta Trail, so I hoped to have enough time to do that one in the
afternoon.
Castle Rock / Peak 7,540ft
Jenkins describes a route to Castle Rocks, the second half of which I found useful. For
some reason, it describes starting from Lloyd Meadows and climbing up through Jerky
Meadows, perhaps because the road to the TH is paved. A shorter and easier route can
be had by starting .
The last three miles of road are good dirt that
any vehicle can manage. The 2mi of trail I plied were either
or incredibly
dusty. There are cattle grazed down by the Little Kern and the Golden Trout pack station
is located just down the road from the TH. As a result, there are lots of cattle and
stock using this trail and the abuse shows. I left the trail shortly after Jerky Meadow
as suggested, initially following the additional suggestion to contour below 7,100ft
around the north side of the ridgeline. This is to avoid unnecessary drops along the
way, but one of these, with more than 300ft of prominence, made for an easy bonus.
Peak 7,540ft had a small surprise in the way of a neat little
. To ,
located between the summit and Castle Rock was another point that looked to
have an interesting summit block, though insufficient prominence to claim a bonus.
This one turned out to be the toughest of the three summits I visited along the
ridgeline. I circled around ,
climbing and continuing around the south side
to climb the summit block from the west. I went up a 15-foot
face with grainy, not altogether
solid granite with poor holds, what I would rate as class 4. Not really wanting to
reverse that effort if it could be avoided, I found a narrow chimney on the north side
that I half climbed, half slid down. Not sure if I could have gone up that way.
Continuing on along the ridge to Castle Rock, I moved around to
where I
knew the scrambling would be easiest. All the way up to the summit block (near the
south end of the summit rocks) was class 3, the final move to the top maybe class 3-4,
though no real exposure to worry about. I knew that both Gordon MacLeod and Andy
Smatko had visited this summit, so I was expecting to find a register from one of them.
I was . Visiting ,
Gordon had beaten Andy to the summit .
There have been few visitors since then, though made six visits
between 1988 and 1991. He was subsequently reprimanded by later visitors and hasn't
been seen at the summit since. Phil left which I found somewhat
amusing - a look right out of the late 1970's disco age. The last entry before mine
was in 2008, an eight year dry spell. I returned back around the ridge following
Jenkins' contouring suggestion and around 11:10a,
taking under 4hrs for the outing.
McIntyre Rock
A very easy effort. I drove FS road 20S81 northwest to
about 1.7mi in,
where I parked. High clearance vehicles can continue another half mile. Where I parked,
there are
indicating a maintained trail heading west. I tried to follow it, but
gave up after 50yds when I determined the trail is no longer maintained, faint, and
overgrown. So I followed the road instead, soon finding a much
that heads
to McIntyre Rock in less than a mile. The trail sign has deteriorated, so look
carefully on the right side of the road ,
lest you bypass it. The trail
contours west without losing or gaining much elevation, through thick forest,
without views, but pleasant. Eventually a trail junction is reached (a
heads
to Jordan Peak lookout) where a fallen wooden gate is found. On the left is a sign
for
with a use trail leading the short distance to its summit, climbing
only 50ft, class 1. It has a spectacular view
and the Tule River drainage.
Domeland Wilderness HP
Pretty much any way you climb this, it is a short outing, about on par with Sirretta
Peak. In fact, this would be a good one to combine with the SPS Sirretta. The
as a motorcycle track, part of the Cannell OHV route that continues north to
Sherman Pass. After half a mile
is reached, the (no longer open
to motorcycles) heading to Sirretta Pass. One can follow the trail for two miles to
the pass and then follow the ridgeline south and southeast to the HP, the route I had
originally intended. But after hiking the trail for less than a mile from the junction,
I noted the straight-line distance shown on the GPSr was only 0.7mi and
was fairly clear, albeit steep and sandy. I opted for the shorter, more arduous
route up the sand. Though there was some weaving to avoid manzanita and other brush,
I reached the summit by 4p, having taken just over an hour. I found a brand-new
that Richard Carey had left on Oct 14. I had to check my watch to see that
it was Oct 14. Ah! The two folks I passed back at the trail junction with only a brief
hello were Richard and Shelley. I was sorry that I hadn't recognized him - he is a very
prolific peakbagger out of San Diego and I've been wanting to meet him for years.
The views I found were stunning. An incoming storm to the north had brought strong
winds, clearing out the haze from the previous day. The summit overlooks almost all
of the Domeland Wilderness in three directions, - -
. The
descent went very quickly now that I was plunging down steep, sandy slopes. Getting
back before 5p, it was now time for ... beer!
Continued...