Salmon Mountain: Red Cap Lake

Klamath National Forest

Shasta-Trinity National Forest

Six Rivers National Forest

DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4


Red line for day 4. Click for map.


(Day 4 of  6  4.) I woke up with a sore throat, not that it had gotten visibly smokier. I was pretty much decided on not wandering down Devils Backbone Trail when I got there, anyway. A day down and a day back seemed to just get the hard bits while leaving no time to poke around an area that probably has a lot of trails for a reason. There's a few other trailheads to give access to the area, too. I had a little breakfast and packed up to hike all the way out via Red Cap Lake.

The morning light flows into the lands below. It takes a while to get out of shadow at Rock Lake.

Morning view of Salmon Mountain from Rock Lake.

Light was just getting to the iffy camp sites on the west side as I headed down the good trail. Not worried about time, I cleared the trail a bit as I went. There were a couple big things I could get, even. And if not me, then who? There actually were some day hikers with binoculars coming up. The first fellow who said he used to drive up to Red Cap Lake and such when he was a young hunter, "If you can believe." Ha! I could. The surveyors on Salmon Mountain wrote that the Forest Service had pushed a bulldozer all over the place, but then dug out the beginning to stop the hunters from driving in anymore. He chuckled at that. They'd just been glad to be able to, but didn't feel entitled to it. The pair up after him were controlling a pair of dogs as I passed. Don't dogs make bird watching hard? Maybe I'm misinterpreting the binoculars. There are other things to see.

Paying a little more attention to the flowers along the way. This paintbrush is particularly large.

Suggestions are that this daisy is a fleabane.

One yellow faced bumblebee checking out the sulfur buckwheat.

Some sort of tidytips, perhaps? Plenty were just yellow.

Back at Salmon Summit, I turned for the second least used trail expecting it to be the difficult section for the day, but not too bad. It was a bit overgrown with very clear trail along the old bulldozer track. It did look like someone might have driven it once or twice. It certainly isn't getting any driving now. It has some erosion issues and then some heavy overgrowth, but hikers have simply found a higher route around it all.

Shady road with a trail down it.

Bright and bulging sneezeweed to challenge to allergy pills.

So, what did this sign once say? No junctions are expected here.

A little bit of view of Eightmile Creek.

The map would have me believe the trail avoids all the water, but I found bits of Eightmile Creek even before wandering incorrectly below the trail. I suspect the bears like getting closer to the water in the more reliable places.

Another thick cluster of leopard lilies. I suspect these of being Vollmer's lilies, specifically.

White bog orchids as further proof there are wet spots along the way.

I probably was supposed to follow the water up through the lilies to find the rest of the trail. I turned left and found a different trail. Admittedly, there was a clamber through a tree with well spaced branches on the way. After the other occasional clambers, it didn't exactly feel off. From there, I was following bear trails which kept wandering into the willows only to end at the creek. The actual trail on the old bulldozer track goes above the willows. I eventually climbed up high enough to find it again.

If I'd stayed on trail, I wouldn't have found the few open flowers on the sparse monument plants.

Nearing the top in an old, bad burn scar. [This is looking out over where the Salmon Fire started and is burning as I write this a week later.]

I got back on track just before the signed junction with Devils Backbone. It is a wide road heading south. I turned north, the direction pointed for Red Cap Lake. The trail down to the lake was twice as far along as the map told me, but was obvious enough and progressed downward in switchbacks instead of practically falling down the steep slope, so I forgive it for being wrong. I kept hearing about a steep trail out of Red Lake, but this is quite reasonable.

Easy to find trail at the junction. There's a minor tree hazard down over the trail that continues on to Salmon Summit.

View over Red Cap Creek from where the trail is shown to start dropping.

A first view of Red Cap Lake when coming down the trail.

I lost the trail at a big meadow. I expect it crosses, but I couldn't find anything of trail on the far side and ended up following various bear trails down the hill rather steeply. The switchbacks were nice while they lasted and I'm sure glad I didn't try to find my way out instead. I never figured out what of the random trails around the lake and camps is supposed to connect to what I came down. The lake turned out to be a bit more interesting than the previews had indicated. I was back in day hiker range and was a little surprised that there were none to share the lake with.

A long log in the lake is supporting a lot of grassy growth.

The pond scum is blooming.

There's plenty of trail for enjoying Red Cap Lake.

I watched the dragonflies a little bit. This lake is dangerous for them as there are quite a few fish.

Another viewpoint of Red Cap Lake.

The trail out the other side to return to the trailhead from Red Cap Lake wasn't immediately obvious, but it would be the only one that gets very far. I saw lots of evidence of somewhat recent trail work as I climbed up to the Salmon Summit Trail.

Up in the trees and climbing.

Once back to the main trail, I kept thinking about and deciding not to go after one of the few peaks along the way. Whitneys Peak would have been a particularly easy one to grab, but it was just hot. Hot hot hot. The air was really seeming clearer than that first day, too. I even saw a probable Mount Shasta poking up in the distance. An excellent day to grab a peak. I kept to the shade of the trees as much as I could. I did start down an old bit of trail that would travel closer to Indian Rocks, but decided to give it up, too.

Those mountains to the northeast are starting to have detail.

Looking out over Red Cap Creek.

There were day hikers for Red Cap Lake and Salmon Mountain. I found a pair of locals from Orleans who mentioned the trail isn't even on Alltrails. (I probably won't fix that, but I made sure it got marked on OpenStreetMap where it was also missing.) There were another few singles and a massive group camping right at the trailhead where a bunch of bicyclists were about to start for the mountain. On the way, I missed the higher sign for Orleans Mountain, but I found the one near where it is marked on the map including some ribbons. I noticed a second trail and followed it to find a spring and Whitneys Camp. The spring is above the trail, but the flow isn't even apparent at the trail.

There's a lot of trees down on Orleans Mountain Trail, but there are ribbons for now. This is the one marked with a sign on a small tree eating the sign. Just past the wilderness sign is another trail sign on a large tree indicating the same trail.

The spring near Whitneys Camp. There is a spring box and water flow into a couple of small dug out puddles.

So I returned with about a third of my food. I checked out what I might get to from the area and decided against that, too. Nothing really was nearby. I headed down, managing to only meet one car coming up. That's not so bad considering it was Saturday.




©2020 Valerie Norton
Written 1 Aug 2020