Winter 2021 in California

 

Aerial San Francisco

 

Granite Peak Half Hike

Zahaira Velez and myself ascended 4000 feet up Granite Peak in the Trinity Alps, stopping around 500 feet short of the summit due to an ache in Zahaira's hip, which was fine with me, I've summited twice already. It was a perfect day on the mountain despite the lack of a summit...the sun was bright, temperatures were warm, and a half foot of snow covered the upper slopes. I enjoyed breaking trail above treeline. The views of Shasta and Lassen were great. All in all a top 10 November hike.

Google map location is here.

Middle Peak - Trinity Alps

I hiked Middle Peak (8,095 feet) on November 11th, a mountain that was immediately adjacent to Granite Peak, which I hiked just a few days before. The trailhead for Middle Peak starts at a gratuitous 4,500 feet, and I made easy work of switchbacks the led to Stoney Ridge. Heading left at Stoney Ridge leads to Red Mountain, while a rightward turn leads to Middle Peak. I took the right turn, and encountered easy class 3 slab scrambling. After the scrambling, I made one last upward push and gained the summit. The views were fantastic. Mount Shasta dominated the northern horizon, Granite Peak was to my immediate south, Lassen Volcano loomed east, and the heart of the Trinity Alps was located to my west. After enjoying the view, I quickly descended back to my truck. I completed this hike in around 5 hours; 11 miles round trip and 3,500 vertical feet up.

Google map location is here.

Granite Peak - Trinity Alps

I made my second ascent of Granite Peak (8,094 feet) during early November, this time with Zahaira Velez. I thought the second time might be easier than the first, but I was wrong. However, I made better time to the summit this time around, and we completed the 8+ mile ~10,000 ft. up/down vertical roundtrip in slightly over six hours. A half inch of fresh new snow covered much of the trail, but ground temperatures were still warm and snow posed no traction issues. I think the best part of the hike was ascending through clouds that billowed up in response to early November sun, melting snow, and a very cold airmass aloft.

Google map location is here.

Grasshopper Peak - Humboldt County California

I hiked Grasshopper Peak (3170 feet) during mid October. I started the hike at the Humboldt Redwoods State Park visitor center trailhead under a deck of stratus and fog. The first section of the hike meandered through redwoods, then transitioned to a river crossing (which can only be done during the driest months of the year), followed by an ascent up a river bluff. After a few miles the trail began to ascend a ridge through dense forest. The trail was fairly clean, well maintained, and easy to follow throughout the forested sections. Fog and stratus generally burned away during the second half of the hike, and I caught glimpses of Grasshopper Peak through breaks in the trees. During the last quarter mile of the hike, the trail connected with a gravel road that provided a steep path to the summit and a fire lookout tower. The wind was howling at the top, but luckily the tower provided a break from the wind which allowed me to warm up in wind-free sunshine (a snake along the trail had similar ideas). After a quick rest I ran back down the mountain and made it back to my truck in 5 hours of total elapsed hiking time. Round trip was around 15.5 miles.

Google map location is here.

Pasadena, California

 

Bombay Beach and Salton Sea Mud Volcanoes

I intended to hike Mount Wilson on October 11th, a large mountain towering above Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley. Unfortunately, local government officials banned all people from hiking the trail, which included penalty of multi-year jail and hefty monetary penalties. Those penalties convinced me to forgo the hike. So instead, I decided to drive 2-3 hours southeast to the Salton Sea. In particular, I wanted to visit Bombay Beach, which is the location of the southern most point of the San Andreas Fault. I didn't find any interesting fault features at Bombay Beach, but it was interesting walking through this desert community that sits several hundred feet below sea level on the edge of a giant salty lake. 

After departing Bombay Beach, I headed farther south to a group of mud volcanoes located near Niland, CA. This area of geothermal activity is produced by an area of crustal spreading...a likely precursor to the development of an oceanic basin that will fill with sea-water during the next million years or so. I viewed these mud volcanoes at a point in the year in which the water table was low, thus boiling mud was not particularly prominent. Nevertheless, I did get to video a couple of mud-splatter cones that I've posted below. Perhaps someday these 6 foot mud volcanoes will grow a couple thousand feet more?

Google map location is here, and here.