Hat Creek to Badger Mountain on the PCT
Lassen National Forest
Lassen National Park
(map link)
Having had such a dry January and with a dry February predicted, I decided I could travel along highways that should be demanding I carry chains. (I do have chains, but fear that they wouldn't help my rig all that much if they were needed.) I had still passed up making any plans for Lassen National Forest due to its elevation. Then it took more than 5 hours to drive CA-299 because of all the construction and I found myself tired and in the dark in Lassen. A sign said there was a viewpoint in half a mile and I thought that at least I could stop and eat and see if it would let me sleep. Had it been light, or perhaps just with some brighter headlights, I'd have seen the sign pointing where to turn for the viewpoint. Instead, I turned 0.1 mile short onto the unsigned road for West Prospect Peak (which has a lookout). It was dry with humps of snow down the middle, which made me nervous. I saw an area others had pulled over across thin snow and pulled a U myself until everything came to a stop. I yanked the trailer off and back a ways (it's got the interior dimensions of a two man backpacking tent and is really very light, so that can be done) then got the car backing up until it stopped again. Eventually, I just decided I might as well be parked for the night, dragged the trailer to something like level, and looked around for what I might hike. West Prospect Peak has been on my list, but at 11 miles one way, I wasn't going to do that. The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) passes by just 0.9 miles down the road, so I settled on that. Badger Peak is just about as far along as I might want to get and turn around, so I added the bit of cross country to tag its top. With a plan, I got that food I really wanted under the delightful sky of stars, then to sleep.
I actually tried to get the car out in the morning so I wouldn't have to do the mile or so road walk. I didn't put enough effort into it and it didn't happen, which was probably a good thing. Just past where I failed to get through the snow unscathed was an empty portion of log deck that would have made turning around pretty easy. Past that, the road became alternating big patches of ice and slushy dirt and I pulled on my microspikes to safely walk it.
There is a marker for the Nobles Trail with a California Trail crest sticker just before the bridge over Hat Creek and the PCT on the far side. There was ample parking on the east side of the road where a 4WD road takes off, had I been able to get there.
I found the PCT easily by the "no motor vehicle" signs and crests. The trail alternated between snow covered and needle covered, but either way I was following a long dip in the ground.
The trail follows Hat Creek a little way. It doesn't pause for views of the water, but I took a few and found it to be being absolutely delightful. I need to make better use of my snowshoes and see sights like this more.
The trail crosses an old road and heads off away from the water. I found myself passing through a very ordered forest. Some time about 50 years ago, give or take, these were all planted in neat little rows. Some younger ones were replanted when older ones died. It had once been a carefully kept farm of trees.
I had been passing through the footprint of the Dixie Fire but seen little burn scar from it. That changed and I was among trees standing with half shed brown needles, likely fire killed, with a very few living ones. It got worse as I came to sections of charred posts and sterile ground. Here, the trail became hard to follow. The dip under the snow vanished and the trail was faint where there was no snow. Somehow, whenever the tail took a turn, it managed to do so where there was no snow, so I never lost it for very long.
I came to a junction where fire had spared very few trees, but among those were the ones the wooden signs were nailed to. The Parham Trail, and old route for the PCT, headed off along a road.
From that junction, the trail crosses a seasonal stream and climbs through one of the other drainages. All this was happening far under the snow from my point of view. I could see a line climbing on the far side of the dip of the landscape, but it was quickly lost in deep snow. Fortunately, in spite of the very comfortable temperature, I was mostly able to keep my feet on top of it.
I found trail mark on a tree on a small pass, then a long stretch on the unburned, but hot, side of a small canyon, then no more than, once, a couple feet of trail for a long stretch as it follows near the top of a ridge. I could even see the ground for a lot of the stretch.
As I reached the boundary signs for Lassen National Park, it finally occurred to me that there might be a fire closure. I was in no position to check and the visit would only be the most glancing pass by, so I kept on. There certainly had been no signs of closure on the National Forest side.
Trail sign started up again as I came to a junction. Here, it follows an old road, or at least I think it did. I followed an old road, anyway, until I was ready to break to the north once more to climb Badger Mountain.
I had aimed at a not-too-steep slope shown as bare on the Forest Service topos. As it turns out, it was actually choked with manzanita. It would have been a bit of a fight had it not been burned. Well, the stuff above me was burned. I could have gone a short way to the west and experienced the challenge of finding the continuous deer trails through the stuff. Around me, more and more mountains climbed to visibility.
Near the top, I found some exposed boulders with a view.
I headed up to tag the top before dropping back down to the rocks with a view.
I entertained some thoughts of heading down the east side of the mountain to where there were roads (and a couple little visited geocaches) until I realized it would be even longer than my route up. I really needed to go the shortest way, so I picked a nice looking (on the map) north going ridge and headed for that, nearly tagging the high point again.
The microspikes went on and off a few times as I made my way down the north side. There was a whole lot of snow to remind me of the other reason I had gone all the way around to the south side to climb it. It would have been tough going. Where there wasn't snow, there was often thick mud that tried to eat my feet. The snow was better than that. The dry dirt was the best if I could find it and stay on it. I was dropping a lot more feet cross country than I had climbed that way, too. It was over an hour before I finally hit the road at the bottom.
Once on the road, I followed what I presume was the old PCT route back to the current PCT route. I noted and took a nice trail that shortcuts a lot of extra travel to an intersection and back. Someone had been running heavy machinery over one end, littering wood to prevent vehicles from using that as illegal off-road routes, then stacking logs ever so slightly on the trail, but once I navigated past that, it was easy. It was well marked for winter travel, which was the only reason I knew where to go in the first section.
There were only some snowmobile tracks at first, but after I crossed a downed tree, there were lots of vehicle tracks. All kinds of people with more capable vehicles have been down there and back up. More interesting was the wall from an old lava flow that the road follows beside.
I kept the microspikes on to nearly to the car as I passed sign after sign against wood cutting because it was a timber sale area. I ultimately ended my involuntary camp by yanking the trailer the rest of the way out onto the road, then backing the car up in a jolt and then something more controlled where there wasn't much snow at all. It took up the first 20 minutes of my day when the temperature was still well below zero. When I was finishing breakfast in temperatures approaching pleasant, another vehicle came slipping and swerving up and over the hill. After seeing that, I wasn't certain continuing on that in a more capable vehicle was all that wise either.
*photo album*
©2022 Valerie Norton
Written 4 Mar 2022
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