3 days at the very southern tip of the Sierra Nevada. The mountains here are not very high, but still fun to explore.
Day 1: Drive to the Lamont Peak trail via Hwy’s 395, 14, 178 and then Chimney Rock dirt road on BLM land. We arrived around 1pm and headed out on the unmaintained trail up Lamont Peak. It’s only 4.5 miles round trip and 2150 ft elevation gain, but the trail is all but gone in many places and has some very steep sections. So the stats don’t give it the right credit. Views from the top were a bit hazy, but Langley and Whitney could be seen. After the hike we continued on Chimney rock road to the PCT crossing and set up camp at the trail head. The near by campground was marked “closed” due to COVID-19. Not everyone heeded that note though.
Day 2: We got an early start at 6:30 to beat some of the heat. We took the PCT southbound for about 3 miles then headed up the ridge to the north and followed that to the top of Sawtooth. The views were a bit better than the day before. The route is not quite as steep as Lamont was, but was still a good effort. Hike: 9 miles, 2500 ft gain.
We were done by early afternoon and decided to make a detour to Kennedy meadows to check out that area. The Kennedy meadows campground was also marked “closed”, but had a number of campers. We stopped to cool off our feet in the stream. Afterwards we drove back east to Hwy 395 and then down to the foot of Owens Peak, the goal for the next day. We found a beautiful camp spot close to the trail head, but it was very windy.
Day 3: We had hoped that the wind would stop over night, but it didn’t. I didn’t feel like hiking in such strong winds so soon after the windy Antsell adventure and Srisuda wanted to rest that day for which this windy spot was not good. Change of plans. We packed up and drove back to Walker Pass on Hwy 178, parked at the campground there and I headed up Scodie mountain. No wind and the route is in shady forest for almost all the way. For the steep ascent it follows a narrow creek bed. In there I saw mountain lion tracks and bear scat. I didn’t like that because in that narrow drainage there was no good way to get out of the way. So at points where I couldn’t really see far ahead (brush, fallen trees, etc.) I called out and made some noise. Hike: 8 miles, 2200 ft gain.
I was back at the truck before noon and we headed home. Some nice hikes in the very southern most portion of the Sierra.
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Rad! Two more SPS peaks done!
I really wanted Owens also, but conditions just were not right.