Tue, Oct 1, 2013
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Etymology Quinn Peak Soda Butte Sheep Mountain |
Story | Photos / Slideshow | Maps: 1 2 3 | GPXs: 1 2 3 | Profile |
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I'd spent the night sleeping in the van at the Shake Camp trailhead in
Mountain Home and
was on my way by 7:30a. The trail starts off climbing about 300ft up a ridgeline before
beginning a traverse north into the canyon formed by the Middle Fork of the Tule River.
After several miles the trail reaches Redwood Crossing where one can see
sequoias in the Mountain Home Grove. As the placename further suggests, the
trail crosses the river here, an easy boulder hop in the Fall with low water.
Somewhere past this point I ran into the first of
three hunters plying the same trail. It was the first weekend of a government shutdown
that had all the Park Rangers absent from Sequoia NP. Whether this had been an impetus
for them to hunt in this area I don't know, but the trail pretty much leads into the park
and nowhere else. Even without the shutdown, this remote part of Sequoia is infrequently
visited by people, let alone rangers. I reached the first
trail junction at 9a,
taking the right fork towards Summit Lake. The trail then begins to climb a series of
short switchbacks, rising 1,000ft up a south-facing, chaparral-covered hillside. Views
open up to
Moses Mountain to the south and
Windy Ridge to the east.
It was after 10a when I reached the
Park Boundary a few minutes before
Summit Lake.
I continued past the campsite at the lake and a number of
trail
junctions as I made my way northeast to Windy Gap. Reaching the gap before
11:30a, I was less than a mile from the summit of Quinn Peak. I left the trail network
at this point, heading up to Windy Ridge over
easy cross-country through open
forest. The
forest relents just before reaching the rocky summit, leaving open
views for 180 degrees upon reaching the top. Stretching north to southeast is the broad,
upper drainage of the Little Kern River, framed by the high peaks around Farewell Gap to
the north and the southern extent of the Great Western Divide ending at Angora
Mtn to
the southeast. I found no register or benchmark on this or any of the
summits I visited today.
Not originally part of my plan, I decided next to pay a visit to Soda Butte, a much
lower summit about a mile and quarter to the southeast. I roughly followed the ridgeline
connecting the two, which happens to also be the Park boundary. The
initial drop along
the ridge was over broken, class 2-3 rock, but this became easier as I dropped lower.
Nearing Soda Butte, I passed through a large section of
burned forest, from
the looks of it fairly recently. The only thing on the ground making a comeback I noted
was
the buckthorn - this slope won't be so pleasant in 5 years' time. I
reached Soda Butte's
summit by 12:45p. No forest anywhere about the top meant
a 360 degree view around the
Little Kern River drainage. To the northwest was
Quinn, looking about as impressive as it's modest summit can. To the southwest
was
Peak 10,278ft, the highest summit in the immediate area and the next stop
on my tour. A broken glass jar near Soda Butte's summit suggests it had a register at
one time. I packed away the remains to dispose of them later.
I dropped off the steep SW side of Soda Butte, making a beeline to the next
peak, first dropping 800ft to
Soda Creek before climbing 2,300ft back up to
Peak 10,278ft. This was the part I was
most concerned about when I had stood atop Quinn and considered this extra effort. It
turned out to be well worth it, because the cross-country proved to be no big deal
and the
NE Ridge of Peak 10,278ft had some fun
class 3 scrambling.
From
its summit, I continued west along the connecting
ridgeline
with Sheep Mtn, which also happened to be the Park boundary. An hour later I reached
what turned out to be
a false summit of Sheep, but I met up with one of
the hunters I had seen earlier. He and his buddy were using
binoculars to scan Pecks Canyon (just outside the park) for deer. Finding none, he had
passed the time watching me traverse from Peak 10,278ft. He was intrigued to find that
my sole purpose was to wander around the landscape and then return to the trailhead. He
commented about how fast I was moving, but I reminded him I wasn't carrying a backpack
or heavy rifle.
A few minutes after leaving the hunter I reached the highpoint of Sheep Mtn
atop Windy Ridge. Someone had left a small stack of rocks on a fallen tree to mark the
spot. Fifteen minutes later I was back down at
Summit Lake, cruising through
the campsite and soon back
outside the park and on my way back to
Mountain Home. It would be 6p before I
returned to the car, covering some 25
miles over 10.5hrs. With a bit of daylight remaining, I decided to visit a couple of
unnamed summits within Mountain Home (in fact, the only two summits in Mountain Home
with more than 300ft of prominence). They were both short, steep cross-country jaunts to
non-descript bumps devoid of views. Sunset came as I topped out on
the first,
and by the time I had reached
the second I was almost in need
of a headlamp. I managed to stumble my way down in the dark back to the van without one,
finishing the two peaks in about an hour. I spent the second night in Mountain Home, off
the side of the road near the northwest entrance. I still had a few summits lower in the
foothills that I wanted to visit in the morning before heading back to San Jose...
Continued...
For more information see these SummitPost pages: Sheep Mountain
This page last updated: Tue Nov 25 15:25:58 2014
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