Sun, Jul 10, 2022
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With: | Jackie Burd |
Day 2 of our father-daughter roadtrip had us climbing Da-ek Dow Go-et, formerly known as Jeff Davis Peak. It's difficult to pronounce and spell the new Native American name, so I'll use the old one here out of laziness. The peak is a volcanic plug in the Blue Lakes area, a low 5th class summit that most folks tackle with rope and gear. Matthew and I had climbed it back in 2006 as a Spring snowshoe outing, though the rock climbing portion on the south side was thankfully free of snow. The outing is fairly short, less than 2mi each way. We had spent the night camped at Red Lake east of Carson Pass. We had driven in on the high-clearance road on the north side and had the lake to ourselves. It was one of the better campsites I've run across in the Tahoe area. Jackie slept outside on an open tarp while I took the cozier position inside the Jeep. We were up at 6a with sunrise, but it took some time to dry out the sleeping bag, pad and ground cloth that had collected moisture overnight. We ate breakfast in the Jeep while waiting for the sun to do its thing, eventually packing up and heading down to Blue Lakes Rd.
We found our way to an unmarked trailhead about 5mi south on Blue Lake Rd,
packed up our gear and were ready to head out by 7:45a. We followed
the trail east up to
the crest of a ridgeline separating Charity
Valley on the west side from Pleasant Valley to the east. Here we
turned right to follow the ridgeline to Jeff Davis,
clearly visible now. It took about 40min to reach
the base of the
peak, then another 5min to
work our way around to the south side of
impressive feature to find the climbing route. After 16 years I had retained
only vague memories. I had completely forgotten
the scramble that
takes one up the lower third of the route. It's only
class 3, but there
is plenty of loose material that made Jackie uncomfortable. Soon enough,
we were at the bottom of the rope section that looked more familiar. Here we
took off our packs and went about switching to
climbing mode - changing
to rock shoes, flaking the rope out, shouldering gear. The route looked
easier than I'd remembered. I would have no trouble leading this, but per
usual, I gave Jackie her choice. She decided to do the lead, which would
be her first since her lead fall mishap at Pinnacles NP more than a year
earlier. I had packed only a very modest collection of gear as I didn't
remember much being needed. We had a couple of cams, half a dozen slings
of various sizes, and some carabiners. It would do.
Ready to start up shortly before 9a, Jackie moved up steadily, enjoying the big
juggy holds and a chimney/crack in the middle to offer some protection. She
slung a protruding rock about 20ft up from the start, the
only piece she would places before reaching the belay/rap station about
half a rope length up. Upon following, I judged I probably would have
placed another piece higher up as some of the route seemed bold on lead.
When I joined her, I realized we were still below the start of the vertical
chimney that forms the other technical half of the climb. The easiest
thing would have been for both of us to climb through the tunnel behind
the rap station, but we didn't know if the hole went through to above.
So I left jackie tied in where she was, took the pro from her and led
the short section around the left side on easy terrain. I didn't place
any pro here as it was fairly easy. I really just wanted the belay to
keep me from making a 30-foot drop should I do something foolish. I was
surprised when one of the large holds I had grabbed came off almost
immediately, plummeting down our ascent line, smashing into bits before
coming to rest (some of the pieces would end up in our boots and open
pack). Clearly, the rocks were not to be trusted 100%. Once above in a
second alcove at the base of the upper chimney, I could see that the
tunnel did indeed go through. So I had Jackie untie from the rope, and
climb through the hole because, well, tunnels are fun and need
to be utilized when possible.
I suggested the rope would be more hindrance for the second pitch up the
narrow chimney, but it would leave Jackie more nervous. It's a very
tight squeeze, hard to get one's body in it (packs definitely left
behind), and likely hard to fall in as well. I went up first, staying just
above her for the 20-foot pitch, offering foot placement suggestions
to make things easier. This was
completed in a few minutes without
incident, then an easy 1-2min
class 3 scramble the rest of the way to
the airy summit.
Flies and bees were were buzzing the summit before we had arrived. Though they
weren't landing on us, Jackie didn't feel relaxed sitting up there. An ammo box
held a register dating to 1985, placed by a Sierra Club party. I was happy to
see my 2006 entry still intact. After we signed
our names,
I hurriedly photographed its many pages while Jackie looked on a bit
impatiently. When I finished, she was quick to
pack it back in the ammo
box so we could start down. We reversed
the scrambling, then
the chimney (I went down first so she could fall on me), then back
through the tunnel and
a long rap back down, in turn. It was good I
had brought a 50m rope because it took all of that for the rappel. More
class 3 scrambling saw us to
the base of the formation where
I could retrieve my trekking poles before we
started back.
As we were heading back along the ridgeline, I suggested we could do
Markleeville Peak (about 1.5mi to the north) as a bonus. Jackie was not keen on
that. She had several blisters on her toes and preferred to head back, so we
tabled that for another time. Instead, we
headed back to the Jeep,
finishing up at 11:20a.
It was too early to drive to Lake Tahoe for check-in at our motel, so we
drove to Blue Lakes, looking for a quiet spot Jackie where could take a swim.
We drove by Lower and Upper Blue Lakes, finding them too busy for
her liking. We then discovered a rough 4WD road that we could follow all
the way to Red Lake where we had camped the previous evening. That was
a quiet place we'd likely have to ourselves. As it turns out we didn't get that
far, because we discovered
Lost Lakes a short distance above and
north of Upper Blue Lake. There were other folks camped here, but the
rough road discourages heavy usage. We found a nice shady spot on the
north side of the north lake where we whiled away a few hours. Jackie had
a nice swim in the cold water, then lay out
in the sun to dry off and
warm up again. Not a bad way to spend the afternoon...
Continued...
For more information see these SummitPost pages: Da-ek Dow Go-et
This page last updated: Fri Nov 25 18:02:55 2022
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