This was one of the more “interesting” hikes this year. We started out with 9 hikers, lost 3, gained 2 more on top of Mt. Eddy and all made it back to Ashland safe.

As we drove to the trailhead we were worried about the smoke levels, but when we got there, it had cleared a bit and would continue to clear the rest of the day. Three hikers decided to bushwhack their way to the top of Mt. Eddy from the upper trailhead (for more info on that, see below). The other, more sane hikers started at the lower trailhead and hiked up through the meadow, which had a lot more flowers than we expected. The corn lilies were in perfect bloom, which was one of the first times this year we have seen them at their peak. After a brief tour of the lower Deadfall Lake we headed up to the other two and finally to the top.

Along the way we passed a couple who were carrying their 25 pound daughter and they made it to the top just past noon. Once we were on top, we were greeted by Francie and Bev, who had started out 60 minutes earlier and were enjoying their lunch. The smoke was filling the valleys and leaving our altitude, so our views were good, including the Red Buttes, the Marbles to Castle Crags, to Mt. Shasta. It was in the low 60’s on top with a breeze, which forced most of us to dig out our wind breakers and find some shelter to stay warm.

The three adventurous hikes who where going to bushwhack their way up the various ridges to the top were finally in radio contact and could see us, but we never found them. After a 90 minute lunch, waiting to see what these wayward hikers were going to do, we headed back down to the cars, as they decided to find yet another path back down to where they had started. 

Although we got home and had to miss our refreshments, we really liked this hike, along with all its’ various adventures.

Keeley

Report from the Peak Approach Team:

Three of us decided that it might be interesting to see if we could summit Mt. Eddy by going up the ridge from the upper trailhead. And interesting it was; Sabin noted, at the end of the hike, that the day was a true bonding experience akin to our famous Frog Pond / Cameron loop hikes.

We started off on an old jeep road which shrank to a trail before disappearing entirely. From there we headed up along the ridge summiting each peak in turn, mostly over scree and boulders and through generally open forest. Time passed, all too quickly or our going was all too slow. Our overall speed on this hike was a remarkable 1.3 MPH.

At 1:00 PM we decided to lunch on the ridge and to consider our options. We could see the summit which was only one mile further along and 600 feet above us. But given our experience up to that point we thought that we were at least another hour away from summiting. So, we decided to backtrack.

Being the experienced hikers that we are we decided that we didn’t need to go back via all the peak’s ups and downs and that we could use an open meadow below the ridge for our speedier return. This started out well but didn’t end well when we discovered that the open meadow morphed into a steep cross slope bushwhack. So, back up to the ridge and back to the trailhead eventually.

The major pluses on this hike were great views of Shasta on the way up and nice views of the Deadfall Lakes Valley spread out below us.

Dan