Boulder Creek TH after 9a.
It was not an early start, but then it was not an overly difficult outing,
amounting to about 5,000ft of gain over 13mi, taking some 5.5hrs to complete.
Two weak storms had brought some snow to the area over the past week but the
weather was clearing and a warming trend was due. Still, it was 34F when I
started up the Boulder Creek Trail that starts around 4,000ft. The trail is
easy to follow, used more by horses and cattle than by hikers, it would seem.
The first hour is spent hiking 
through forest to reach the Marble
Wilderness boundary, with 
few views until 
Boulder Peak comes
into sight around mile 4 after gaining 3,000ft. 
Lower Wright Lake
is found nestled at the base of the peak on its north side. Cattle were found
loitering around the meadows below the lake, marring an otherwise
idyllic scene (caution should be exercised before drinking any of the water from
Boulder Creek or vicinity). The trail continues up past the lower lake, skirting
Upper Wright Lake and eventually reaching 
the crest about a
mile northeast of Boulder Peak where a trail junction is found. 1-2 inches of
snow covered the last quarter mile of trail. I 
turned north
at the junction to
climb the only bonus peak in the vicinity, unnamed Peak 8,020ft about a half
mile of easy cross-country from the trail junction, taking about 40min for the
side trip.
Back at 
the junction,
I continued along the trail labeled "Boulder Peak" to the
southwest. This trail forks at an unsigned junction not long afterwards. I took
the right fork which heads uphill (no idea where the left fork goes - down to
the PCT, maybe?). I followed this trail nearly to the summit, but for some
reason it bypasses it by several hundred yards to the south.
A modest class 2 scramble up and over 
a false summit will shortly
get you to 
the highpoint at the north end of the mountain.
As one might expect from a summit with more than 2,000ft of prominence, the
views are quite expansive. The three most notable sights are Mt. Shasta to
the east, Mt. McLaughlin to the north and Preston Peak to the northwest.
Closer in, about 5mi to 
the southwest,
can be seen the remarkable Marble Rim
formation for which the range and wilderness are named. It looks to make for
an interesting traverse and would be the goal of the next day's efforts. A
register left by Richard Carey in a set of 
nested cans
was 
rather busy, filling
almost two books with hundreds of entries over the past 13 years - this one
is quite popular and had far too many pages for me to bother photographing (it
didn't help that the books had been repeatedly wetted, were moldy and
difficult to read).
I took a more direct route down from the summit, eventually intersecting the
trail and following it back the way I'd come. The cows had moved to a lower
pasture in my absence, but their bells could still be heard through the trees.
I crossed paths with a pair of hunters 
on horseback, headed into the
backcountry for a week with a total of four horses and their dog, Lucy. I
wished them luck as they did likewise after our short meeting ended. I was back
to the TH
by 2:45p, a rather early finish. Much of the next hour would be spent
driving back down to the pavement, then up towards Lovers Camp, and finally
another 6mi on an excellent dirt/gravel road to the Paradise Lake TH (signed
nicely at all but the last junction). I would spend the night here, planning
an early start for the next day. Hopefully, it wouldn't be as cold in the
morning as today...
Continued...