Shell Mountain: Buck Ridge and Shell Mountain and Dead Puppy Ridge

Mendocino National Forest

Shasta-Trinity National Forest

DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3

static map — Brown line for day 2. Click for interactive map

It was dark, but easy to get up, from our forest camp. We packed and made sure to have water and started up the trail, soon losing it. I think we got upset that it turned into a very very minor wash and started looking for something else. I wandered up the ridge while the others stayed lower. The ridge presented a little piece of history in the form of a telephone line before giving a really good view of beautiful tread wrapping over from the far side of the wide valley the others were walking up. The trail was right there the whole time! Meanwhile, I pondered where the telephone line was going. Black Rock Lookout and the North Yolla Bolly Guard Station were off to the east and there were once settlements in the little bit of wilderness to the west. There were probably some more guard stations, too. It used to be a lot easier to find a ranger station. (And I can think of no positive to making it even harder now. In the long run, it's probably not even cheaper.)

024: half a resister wrapped in hanging heavy wire and hanging from the side of a tree — Hello? So no one's answering. Telephone line still attached to a tree.

025: twice burned ridge walk with fire scared trees — The ridge walk was rather easy.

We broke from the trees to a view across a ragged forest. Each patch has had a different result from the fire(s) that have hit it. The next part of the trail was winding through waist high oaks, all holding brown leaves for the season.

026: long ridge line with a bump — A look across the half the Yellowjacket Creek drainage to Doe Ridge and Shell Mountain.

027: rocky bump — Shell Mountain is a rocky hump on Doe Ridge.

028: trail in oaks — Trail through the Oregon oaks, but it is not an oak swim.

We managed to lose the trail again about the time folks might like to shortcut their way up to Buck Ridge Trail if they are going north. It also coincided with a big patch of snow on our path. We passed above and below where the line was marked, but didn't find tread we could be certain of. Evelina managed to hit Buck Ridge Trail beside a cairn, so probably wins for being on trail.

029: thin snow patches — Looking back toward the North Fork Middle Fork Eel River.

030: ridge top walk — Following a rather open ridge top on Buck Ridge toward Shell Mountain, on the left.

We had this little desire to go out and see Watertrough Camp marked on the map along trail to the south, but we were also getting to thinking maybe we didn't want to do a lollipop loop. Maybe we wanted to stay high on the ridge. Maybe we would even try camping on the ridge since it would be reasonable to find water not too far below. Maybe we wanted to go all the way to Chicago Camp Trail, familiar from hiking to its eastern terminus on the Humboldt Trail, and back along there. It would just add a little more road walking.

032: small black and white bird with open mouth — The mountain chickadee had a lot to say on the breezy ridge.

033: big bushy tree — There are some impressive western junipers along this route, although many have mistletoe like this one.

We found Buck Ridge Trail to have some faint spots, but it was easy to walk the ridge with or without trail. If one was to, say, take on the challenge of following the (North Fork) River Trail down, it would be a reliable way back, although perhaps hot and dry.

034: distant snowy peaks across wide valley and lower ridges area — South Yolla Bolly (Mount Linn) in the distance at the right and North Yolla Bolly at the left edge with Bigfoot Trail traversed stuff in the middle.

035: open ridge for walking — A look back down Buck Ridge.

037: ridge and mountain — And over to Windy Mountain. The main stem of the Middle Fork Eel River lies between.

040: clear/white berries and fleshy leaves — One dense mistletoe was a little fruity. They're tucked away in the lower right.

We lost the trail again above Cherry Camp because there was a sheet of snow to travel over. We stopped here to get water since there is a spring, at least that's what the map says. It looked like a snow melt stream when traveling down from so much snow.

041: snow sheet — Icy snow sheet, not very deep, as obstacle.

042: open spot — Cherry Camp? There's a fire ring to the left in the open spot.

043: water flowing down hill — Water where the spring is marked. Certainly is currently.

We found trail again and then probably a little trail down to the camp. Horses have made it there, so there's an easier way. The whole ridge had old evidence of horses passing. Trail got faint and braided a little as we climbed, but travel continued to be easy.

044: bump of rock — Shell Mountain ahead.

045: bands of mountains — Lots of lines of mountains to the Kings Range against the invisible ocean.

046: among light brown stones, a line of black — Daniil searched carefully for life in this black band and found none.

047: snow and black band — There's tracks in the snow down the side, but I don't think that really counts.

As the trail passes Shell Mountain, we were finding multiple trail options through the scruffy forest and snow to obscured the bits between and downed trees as changed routes. I wanted to head up Shell Mountain more than I wanted to check out Watertrough Camp, so this excursion we did do. We took a loop back and up to avoid the snowed forest only to find that this route gets a bonus false peak instead, then drops down into snow anyway and up that generally easy if sometimes steep slope to the top. On the way up, I poked around at various rock outcrops looking for the azimuth mark. The information for finding it is simply that it is "200 feet lower in elevation than the station" and "in outcropping bedrock that projects 3 feet" and "2 feet west of a cairn that is 2 feet high". The reach travels along this ridge, so I expected it would be along it.

048: round tuft of leaves, rather red, with flowers — We found Brandegee's springbeauty on the bonus peak, but it can be found on the actual peak too.

049: flowers? — Daniil was searching for flowers on the mistletoe and was rewarded with this.

050: peak up ahead — All the harder bits finished and now it's a simple stroll to the top of Shell Mountain.

051: distant snow topped peaks — The Trinity Alps only look faintly snowy.

052: circle of metal stamped SHELL MTN USGS no1 — I only found reference mark #1.

053: another ridge — It looks a little steeper and rockier down to Doe Ridge.

054: snowy peak — From this high point, Mount Shasta rises above the ridges.

055: ridge to high forest — Our way back to the meeting of Buck Ridge and Dead Puppy Ridge. North Yolla Bolly and friends in the background.

057: tiny puddle in the distant hills — Mud Lake was a curiosity we didn't get to visit shortly above Sulphur Camp, but we saw it as a tiny puddle among burned trees.

We headed back to the trail through the snowy forest, which wasn't such a difficult walk after all. Then we headed down the north side, which was blanketed under another thin, icy snow, so there was no attempt to follow trail down onto Dead Puppy Ridge.

059: strings of flowers — There's Fremont's silktassel up on the ridge.

060: snow on a ridge — The blanketing snow continues down the north side of a minor ridge north of Schoolmarm Ridge.

061: fluffy dog beast — Neither dead nor puppy. The coyote stopped first further down, then at the top of the hill, then took off.

Had we not decided on the longer loop, we might have been considering it strongly as we looked at the snowy north side of the mountain, the slope that the trail traverses, and the rather indistinct trail at the junction. As it was, we walked on by, keeping high on the ridge.

063: yellow flower bent over — Violets were coming out, here is a goosefooted one.

Unfortunately, the trail vanished as we got close to Chicago Camp Trail and Hopkins Camp. It might have been a good place to camp, with a spring marked down the hill, but Daniil was getting nervous about how many miles were left even though many of them would be road miles. Even with trees down, those would be half price miles compared to these. Anyway, it was a burned area strewn with trees and unattractive for camping. I'd been thinking something one one side or the other of Blue Slide looked good anyway and the others had further ideas too, so no one was really interested in trying to stay there.

066: burned forest area — Somewhere around here is a junction and a camp. All the open areas are sloped.

We found an old 'dozer track going out and that turned into road with flagging and that started down. It kept on going down when we should have been finding our way to a saddle and back onto the ridge. We backtracked, although it had been encouraging to see actual flagging. Above, we found... something like a trail? There was at least a deer trail where it should be passing the side of a peaklet. We sort of followed various somethings as it got dark.

068: wood nailed to a tree — Trail sign where no junction is expected? Just the backing of a wilderness boundary sign?

We got on a wrong ridge, passed water on our way back up to the correct ridge, and got a bit tired. A closer saddle became attractive, except we actually stopped just before it near a slanted meadow area. There were open flat spots. Actually, as a place to sleep, it was quite nice. We supped using the water we'd carried from Cherry Camp before tucking in for the night.

Continue on to the next day ⇒

*photo album*

©2026 Valerie Norton
Published 23 Apr 2026

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