Yearly Salmon Mountain Hike

A day off on May 1st gave me an opportunity to hike Salmon Mountain, a peak I've come to enjoy hiking during early spring when the snow pack is deep in the upper elevations of the Klamath Mountains. As is typical of early May, I had to park about a half mile from the Salmon Mountain trailhead due to very deep snow covering the road I was driving on. I made my way through dense forest, after passing the trailhead, and grazed upon a landscape modified by wildfire (or a prescribed burn) occurring during the past year. The last half mile to the summit was a fun slog up steep snow covered slopes. Dense clouds broke as I reached the top and I was given peaks at the surrounding mountains in between cloud breaks. The descent back to my truck was non-eventful, with the exception of a brief slide down a snow slope. Once again, another great inaugural mountain climb on Salmon Mountain.

Google map location is here.

The Best of California

Today was one of those days when California lived up to its hype. The sky was virtually cloudless, late March temperatures were in the 60s, and the wind was calm. Zahaira Velez and myself took advantage of the pristine conditions and hiked 500 feet up to "Strawberry Rock" located near Trinidad, CA. We soaked in the rays and views on top of the rock, and then drove to Trinidad for pizza. After food we relaxed on the beach for 30 minutes and watched the sun go down across the ocean horizon. Zahaira got a great time lapse of that action which I posted below.

Google map location is here.

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.