Continued...
Day 2 of our trip in Plumas National Forest was a bonanza, rounding up seven
summits with prominence of more than 900ft, two of them P2Ks. Most of them were
drive ups, or nearly so, but the day was not without some good exercise.
Keddie Peak
This was the only real hike I had expected for the day. We used the regular
approach described in a number of PB reports, starting from Forest Road
28N60 to the east.
Spur road 28N60A can cut off 3/4 of the 2.5mi distance to the summit,
but this has been closed to motor vehicles, sort of. Large rocks were placed
across
,
but one was moved (by a discgruntled local, no doubt) to allow
ATVs and possibly Jeeps to access the road. I considered driving it only
briefly as it is pretty overgrown and certainly not intended to be used anymore.
We parked and did the standard hike up to just past the highpoint of the road,
before it starts dropping down to Homer Lake on the other side of the broad
saddle. Some of the trip reports on PB described heavy brush on the half mile of
cross-country, but we found nothing of the sort. Perhaps we just got lucky. We
started up one old logging road, finding
when that ran out, and then
easy cross-country that led to a fun little
that took us up to .
From there we stayed on the of the ridge as we made
our way along talus and ()
low brush to reach the summit rocks, class 2 for the
last 100ft or so. We took about an hour and a half to reach the summit, a nice
little workout. Good views from the open summit, with Lake Almanor visible
to and Mountain Meadow Reservoir to
. Daryn Dodge had left
in 2013, and with its P2K status, it was not surprising to
see six pages of entries over the last five years. Buried a little deeper in
the summit cairn was an
in a glass jar from 2002. Having such
luck on our ascent, we followed the very closely on
,
taking a little over an hour and getting us by 10a.
Keddie Ridge
We next spent about 40min driving to the highpoint of Keddie Ridge, a P900,
some 4.5mi SE of Keddie Peak. Good roads took us most of the way, then lesser
roads to
a few hundred feet of the highpoint. It looked like it might
be brushy getting to the top so Jackie elected to stay in the Jeep while I went
tromping off through the brush. It turned out to be rather easy, just some low
manzanita to step over and then gaps in the bigger stuff to get to the
. It, too, had ,
though perhaps not quite as nice as Keddie Peak.
Mosquito Ridge
We drove back down to SR89, then north to the small community of Canyondam,
located at the south end of Lake Almanor, below the earthen dam. From there we
headed west on 12mi of dirt roads towards the highpoint of Mosquito Ridge,
another P900. This was supposed to be another near drive up, but we found the
road blocked by some .
The area had burned in the past few years
and while there appears to have been some salvage logging, there are many
snags still standing and many across the road. At this point we were 1.5mi from
the summit so I decided to park the Jeep and walk. Jackie elected to stay in the
car again. Most of the hike was along the ,
the hardest part at the
beginning where I had to get through about a dozen downed trees. The last half
mile was ,
made easier by the fire where the brush had not yet had
time to grow sufficiently to become troublesome. The views were so-so, peering
through snags surrounding .
I was back just about an
hour after I'd left. Jackie had the engine and AC running to keep cool - it was
getting pretty warm outside and there had been no shade under which to park the
Jeep.
Peak 6,112ft
Another hour's driving back towards Lake Almanor, all on dirt roads, got us
of this P1K. This time there was shade to . I
went alone to the highpoint, about 1/6mi to .
Less than ten minute's
effort over easy terrain got me to
where I found a John Vitz from 2012. All the
were accidental finds - until I
showed up. No good views from the summit, though there are some pleasant views
of Lake Almanor on the drive to reach it.
Rush Hill
5.5mi SE of Peak 6,112ft and 45min more driving found us at
of Rush
Hill. Jackie had taken over the driving duties which she found quite enjoyable.
While she was turning the Jeep around, I wandered through the flatish
(poor views here too) until I found another
from the same
date in 2012.
Kettle BM
Jackie gave up driving duties and was not long in losing herself in a deep nap.
It took almost two hours to drive from Rush Hill to Kettle BM, about 18mi to
the west. We had to drop all the way back down to SR89, then more forest road
driving to climb back up to Kettle BM. The last few miles were rough which
woke Jackie from her slumber. She was pretty nervous for the last several
hundred yards where the road becomes steep and rocky with a few hairpin turns.
I managed to get the Jeep to
the summit, leaving us only a short
walk. This was probably the most impressive summit of the day, another P2K,
with even than Keddie Peak. There is a small
at the highpoint which Jackie couldn't resist . Good fun.
Wheeler Peak
Though only 3.5mi SE of Kettle BM, it took us nearly an hour of driving to get
as close to the summit as we could manage, about 3/4mi on the southwest side.
The last several miles of road were quite overgrown, causing some stress.
Jackie had taken over driving, but wasn't too happy with Dad's criticism (Dad
would have called it "instruction" but that's a quibble). She gave
me the wheel back as it became clear the road was not improving and I drove it
the last mile to where it dead-ended. Jackie was not interested in following
me up this one, so I struck off solo, ,
climbing 600ft in about
20min at a pretty fast pace to reach the summit. Up until the last minute it
appeared the top would be buried in forest, but
proved to be
the highpoint offering
above the surrounding forest. I beat a
quick retreat to keep Jackie from having to wait any longer than necessary,
getting back a bit after 7p.
It would take us more than an hour to get back to our rustic lodge in
Greenville, by which time the town had rolled up the sidewalks. We ended up
scrounging for food from the bin I had brought from home, an odd mix of vienna
sausage, ramen, fruitecups, cookies and the like. It would do after a long
day...
Continued...