Cabins: Limestone Ridge and Cabin Peak

Klamath National Forest

Shasta-Trinity National Forest

DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3

static map — Brown and yellow lines for day 1. Click for interactive map

I kept getting worried about this loop plan. Starting off at the eastern end of the Salmon Summit Trail, the far end of the trail that was a pushing, pulling, turn and press with the pack, swim through oaks until I got tired, and then turn south for some ridge walking and to visit an old fire lookout. From there, down to North Fork Trinity River and Grizzly Creek to visit a selection of old cabins. Once done with that, much climbing and then some ridge walking back. The trouble was we had no idea what shape the trails are in. In the elevation profile, I thought the one along the river looked iffy. Climbing up mysteriously alternates between good and bad. Getting out to the peak was recorded on Peakbagger in 2023, so that seemed safer. I chose counterclockwise because if we had to turn back, I wanted to have the peak done. However, from the standpoint of making sure it is easiest to turn back if you need to, clockwise looked like the smart choice. Then again, we had no business expecting to be able to cross that river in May, particularly not with a heat wave pressing down on us. This way, we were hitting the largest crossing first. Daniil tells me that everything that should be visible is visible in the satellite images along the river, but echoed a concern about the trail up. Gamble on river crossing or path up? I really wanted to go to the peak for sure, so that won out.

000: road past a half a wilderness sign — The trailhead apparently has a Trinity Alps Wilderness sign but the top broken off.

Someone had been up the road a few days before and done a fair bit of work cutting fallen trees off the road leaving us a clear if narrow path. We didn't bother to locate the trail we would be getting back on and the trail we were leaving on was road bed out to Five Dollar Camp, approximately where we would actually enter the wilderness in 1.5 miles. The culverts have been removed and there's a pair of boulders blocking the road after 100 feet or so, so it isn't getting driven on anymore. I missed the boulders due to the stack of fallen trees over them until Daniil pointed them out. Other than those initial trees, the track was almost entirely clear of any hindrance to hiking.

002: funky hanging flower — Shorthorn steer's head, a relative of bleeding heart.

003: trail on road — A distinct line of trail follows this old, clear road bed.

005: shrouded peaks — A bit of the view of the Marble Mountain Wilderness to the north.

I didn't remember Dees Peak looking quite so interesting from the far side, although it wasn't so bad either. The map shows trails winding around below it on this side, but they too seemed to alternate between bad and mediocre. They looked worse down toward the Salmon River where they have some washout points and supposedly cross on cables. This year, the ford shouldn't be too bad, so maybe one should make a plan to check them out. We didn't manage to stop at one to check on the drive in. It was a very long drive in past Lower Trinity Ranger Station (who had not collected our permit stub by the end of Monday) and up Salmon River. Going the other direction stays on 2 lane road but adds 50 miles.

006: white mountains — Dees Peak and neighbors.

We didn't find much of a "camp" at Five Dollar Camp, but could hear the water pouring out of the ground below even if there was none where we crossed the gullies. The wide road bed narrows quickly to a single track trail which has even had tread work in recent years. It was easy to follow right up to Chilkoot Pass.

008: tall petaled white flower — Giant white wakerobins occupied a moist area.

010: bird with thin mask over its eyes — Was there ever such a cute little masked creature as this mountain chickadee?

011: distinct trail — Looking back on what is a very fine trail.

012: furry flowers — One of a patch of blooming cat's ears.

014: limestone ridge north of Limestone Ridge — The generally bare ridge as seen below and the bigger mountains behind it.

015: lots of mountains — A much bigger view of the Marbles and Russians to the north.

Through Chilkoot Pass, we got the first look at the wilderness namesake mountains and our destination for the day.

016: pointy mountains with snow — The pointy, snowy tops of the Trinity Alps.

017: brown peak against snowy ones — Cabin Peak sitting snow free against the snowy Thurston Peaks.

018: bird with colored tail and hair — The green-tailed towee stares me down before going off to sing some more.

The trail carved into the south side of the ridge after the pass was sometimes brushy, but only got as bad as knee high stuff coming in close. Its worst was about as good as I had dared hope it would be, so the day was looking good. We were three miles in before it stopped looking like the brush had been hacked back to a full 8 foot corridor in some recent year, and there was still some work visible after that.

021: long ridge with rolling hill on this side and peaks at the far end — The rest of the day's walk.

022: multi-colored plant — Wavyleaf paintbrush filled in the more bare hillsides.

024: three grey birds with striking face lines — A gang of cedar waxwings eye us up.

025: wild red flower — Warrior's plume would frequently be by our feet throughout the day.

026: singing yellow bird — A Nashville warbler sings out.

There were little trails to an obvious viewpoint as I was feeling hungry, so it made a good snack spot.

028: many mountains — More mountains visible to the north even as we close in on the higher peaks nearby.

031: big white flowers — California stickweed, a rather large flowered forget-me-not.

032: rounds of leaves — We frequently saw the starts of what is probably redwood/chaparral lilies.

034: a bit of ridge line — Back the way we came.

Eventually we were at the junction, marked with a pair of torch cut metal signs. Only Salmon Summit Trail was named on them. We took in a new view of the New River side of the new divide we would now be walking.

036: more valleys — A glance over to the new New River side of things.

038: long ridge — Destinations along Salmon Summit Trail left for another day.

039: much long valley — A better view out over the East Fork New River.

We turned down Green Mountain Trail and found it in rather reasonable shape too. Sometimes the past burn did leave a part across the very top of the ridge less obvious, but only for a few tens of feet at a time and with more trail in view. We wandered along until, sensing a large camping area off to our right, we had arrived at Last Chance Camp. Which USGS puts on the left. The spring is on the left too, but it turns out there's springs on both sides.

044: camping area — Last Chance Camp which has a spring below.

045: fire ring with limited seating — The current fire ring at Last Chance Camp.

046: pool of water — A random muddy pool at the marked spring. There is a small camp above this, too.

048: white topped mountains — Another look at the sort of frozen Trinity Alps.

049: bracts of one sort or another — Ground cones actually looking like cones.

050: parasitic plants — This was part of the most impressive grouping of California groundcones seen all day. They are parasitic on manzanita, which are the nearby leaves.

051: trail and ridges — A look ahead. Cabin Peak is getting closer.

052: multiple shocks — The warrior's plume got pretty thick too. It is hemiparasitic, much like paintbrush.

054: white top in a spot — Mount Shasta sort of put in an appearance.

055: hanging white flowers — Hooker's fairybells along the ridge.

057: rocks among fire killed trees — White rocks above mark the northern end of Limestone Ridge as recorded in USGS's GNIS.

058: peak ahead — Cabin Peak is getting closer, now hiding most of those snowy peaks behind it.

059: orange with black lines on wings and a comb of an antenna — A red-winged wave moth sips at the flowers.

061: mess o' irises — We encountered many clumps of longtube irises, but most looked ragged from recent winds.

063: black and white butterfly with furry body — Two-banded checkered skipper drinking from a western waterleaf.

We passed by the end of the East Fork New River Trail finding nothing but a very steep minor ridge line to navigate if one wanted to "follow" it. The other end is fancy enough to earn some three bridges, but I guess people don't follow it all the way to here anymore.

064: pool among dead trees — The little pond that is Rattlesnake Lake.

066: small pond — The water looked a little muddy.

We arrived at Rattlesnake Camp shortly after the lake. It is basically on trail and looks smaller at first, but is definitely well used. The trees toward the spring all have flat spots at their bases and show the signs of horses eating away at the bark and wood. Metal and glass garbage has been tossed down the hill next to the campfire ring, disappointingly not all of it showing signs of fire damage from the last conflagration. Some fancy camp furniture has been built into the trees.

067: fire ring and camping area — Rattlesnake Camp with fire ring and flat camping area on one side of the trail, benches and table built into the trees on the other.

This would have been the finish for the day with my original plan, which noted that there's about 24 miles to hike with loop and spur, so 8 miles a day for 3 days with zero thought to when the driving happens. Unfortunately, Daniil seemed to think he needed to be home already the next morning, so that long drive needed some time and the peak couldn't be left for the morning before causally walking to "somewhere along Grizzly Creek". We dropped most our gear and continued on.

068: thin trail on steep hill — Onward to Cabin Peak, now very close.

069: almost a checkered flower — Spotted fritillary on a steep hill.

070: thin purple flowers — Oneflower broomrape, another parasitic flower.

072: trail on ridge — A look behind, including the ridge that holds the trail for tomorrow.

The trail bed was feeling a little slanted with loose stuff on hard pack as we started wrapping around the side of Cabin Peak. The USGS map shows a trail up to the top, but I was pretty sure the real trail started a little later with much longer switchbacks.

074: trail on mountain slope — A sloped trail. It passes next to the huge sugar pine among very few other trees.

075: metal tube above — Zooming in on a mystery structure that remains on Cabin Peak. It turns out to be a water cistern.

Where I was expecting to find junction, I only found an odd erosion pattern on the main trail. The old lookout trail was very hard to see for a couple switchbacks, but then spread out into a beautiful wide and rocky track that made fairly easy walking until near the top. There's some trees across it and light brush in spots.

076: snow on trail — A trail wide enough to hold a bit of snow.

Unfortunately, near the top of the trail, it has been completely eaten by the vegetation. Good trail gets to a flat you might be able to put a small cabin on. From there, it takes a little more care to move along the boulders or through the brush to find a way to trail again. At the very top, the old stone steps have gone, but it doesn't hinder one much.

077: 1949 benchmark CABIN — At the benchmark at the top.

The top has rocks piled up around the sides and numerous old anchors and grounding cables sticking up at the edges. Metal parts like nails and hinges are scattered and there's the cistern nearly hanging off the edge.

081: canyons — Northeast to see what our future holds, heading down into the canyons below and climbing out again. There's Mount Shasta again for the sharp eyed.

082: shadow going to snow — The long shadow of Cabin Peak stretching toward the Trinity Alps in the east.

083: peaks to the north — Dees Peak at center when looking northerly across the cistern. Salmon Mountain is the tall one back on the left.

084: rolling ridge — The ridge line we walked in on. The spot of "limestone" is more apparent due to a nice fin on the far side from the trail.

086: snowy peaks — Thurston Peaks and Pony Mountain still snowy to the south.

088: big mountain — At least Mount Shasta still has snow.

Feeling the pressure of time shown by the long shadow, we headed down again. The trail at the bottom seemed a little easier to see now, probably because we had passed on it, or somewhere near it. We made it to "maintained" trail before sunset and across most the long saddle area before the lights came out.

090: flat spot over river canyon — The flat near the top of Cabin Peak with North Fork Trinity River on its way to Trinity River proper behind it.

092: shadow against the alps — An even longer shadow approaching Trinity Alps as the old lookout trail gets harder to follow near the bottom.

We arrived back at camp about 20 minutes past my estimate of the absolute longest it would take, which was after 9PM after first getting to camp around 4PM. Good thing for the 7AM start. It sure felt long. The GPS felt it too and was claiming 15 miles, a bit more than the 8 miles of the originally sketched out plan. Off to the north, Rattlesnake Lake and its noisy frogs were barely far enough away for a nice sleep.

Continue on to the next day ⇒

*photo album*

©2026 Valerie Norton
Published 1 Jun 2026

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