Saturday, June 22, 2024. Late 10am start at the base of Dutchmans Peak. Heading up 40 S01 around Observation Peak. The smoke is visible in the valley and obscures a lot of the faraway peaks around this point. I can see Shasta and Mount Eddie, snowcapped to the south and other familiar peaks to the west. Hope to get some better pictures of them from higher up.
Lots of snow on the side of the road and creeks flowing. Beautiful wet, spring wildflowers like buttercup. Leave the exposed high view area and duck into the woods to see Mountain Hemlock and White? Fir as the dominant trees.
At some point, I realize this loop around Observation is going to be much longer than I anticipated, so I take a side road that heads up the peak and plan a shortcut to the PCT. The path up is riddled with off-road damage, but the roads end before the ridge so I just keep continuing up through manzanita type Kinnikinnick and lots of buckwheats.
Looking for a shortcut to the PCT I noticed I can get close to the peak and traverse down an open slope, and unfortunately it is covered in snow. Snow seems to be getting in my way a lot today. Ha ha, I can’t imagine being a through hiker!
Get back to the car pretty quickly and decide to take 2030 (Applegate Rd) down to Buncom instead of 22 to McKee Bridge at the Applegate. It’s very slow going, not really meant for a car, but my Forester seems to handle going down the road pretty well though I would not want to come up this way. I see the fire at Buncom and get some video of smoke and flames. Seems to be BLM land above the farmland, and there are helicopters and tanker planes dropping fire retardant on it
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Not much of interest and the two places we camped were only marginally decent and pretty cramped. The good part is that there was no one else out there.
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This was a great hike, and for only the 3 and a half miles, your whole family could go. Seriously, I got all the way there and there was kids.
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Moderately intense since the first half is all uphill at a good incline. Most of the switchbacks are exposed but once you get past those it’s fairly flat with just a couple more hill sections.
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Amazing landscape, beautiful wildflowers.
The climb from emerald lake to sawtooth ridge (towards caribou lake) is brutal
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Views of Mt Shasta and the Red Buttes were spectacular. Stopped at the Echo Lake viewpoint. Stunning. Had a picnic there and a nap.
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