Limedyke Mountain

Shasta-Trinity National Forest

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I had the coldest night of the trip (at 35°F!) at Philpot and it was tempting to stay to try to wait out the two really hot days coming up. I had the 5 gallon jug full and a couple gallons extra filtered too and was done sitting about before noon. Plenty of time for a short hike up to an old lookout site, which logically fit in as the next thing.

00: low hills with trees — Much of the road is high in a parched, but somewhat tree covered, country.

Passing through Indian Valley, I found out where all the long trailers end up. (And the road to there is not just paved, it has two whole lanes!) The turn for Limedyke Lookout Road (2N16) is just past most of free Indian Valley Campground. It's marked as being rough, but passable in passenger cars and no OHVs allowed. (I'm surprised by how many area roads are marked with the white line of licensed vehicles only on the Motor Vehicle Use Map in this area.) Except for a short stretch after Friend Mountain, it was all unquestionably passable in a passenger car. My little car got through the mildly questionable part just fine. I did have to stop and toss a few rocks, but that's an expected tradeoff for traveling these roads with better mileage.

01: smooth road with some signs — Signs at the start of the road up the mountain. The vertical one identifies this as 2N48.

There's a lovely vertical wooden sign with a little "no sedans" symbol on the bottom to mark Limeade Road (2N48) to the old lookout. It must date back to the 1980s when the system of vertical signs for high clearance and horizontal ones for slightly better roads was first implemented. There's also a lovely turnout on the far side of the road giving plenty of parking room to hike it.

03: lots of hills — The first views seem to be of forever hills. Well, mountains.

The second sign at the start of the road is for the Lime Fire Plantation listing out all the folks who gave money to plant trees here after the Lime Fire in 2008. Pennies for Pines and various gardening clubs and many names. Along Plummer Peak Road, I had seen a few small signs that looked like bearing signs from afar but turned out to mark plantations. Here, there is a little more explanation.

04: standing burned trunks — There has been fire here, with a bad spot on the south facing slope.

There's quite a bit more shade than I expected.

05: trees and shade — Lots of shady bits under the trees.

Soon enough, I was basically at the top and given a little more view. It's only half a mile up.

06: long ridge line — The north end of South Fork Mountain.

07: habitation — Look closely and there's a chunk of habitation called Hyampom along South Fork Trinity River and Hayfork Creek.

And what of the old lookout? Well, it's been razed. Essentially scraped from the mountain. It is almost like it was never there.

08: lots of grass — Yes, we have no fire lookouts. No fire lookouts today.

I did tend to think that a little height from a tower might be nice, but it only takes a little walk around to recover the view in most directions. There's just no one place to stand and take it all in since the top is so large and flat.

09: more long ridge — The south end of South Fork Mountain.

10: line of water — Walked a little more off the side to the south and a bit of water of South Fork Trinity River is visible.

11: mountain among not much — Hayfork Bally off to the northeast.

I searched for the benchmark and signs of the lookout. I ultimately found only one reference and a single sawn off post. Not even a big post.

15: one benchmark — Follow the arrow to the station... but not here.

I sat in the shade of an oak on the north side for some lunch. There was also just enough signal for another weather report. I had scored a 5F degree reduction in heat by moving west! Most excellent. I also noted that I was getting very close to having visited 10% of the California fire lookout locations on Peakbagger.