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| | Summit Trail to Bear Camp Mountain, CA | | | |
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Summit Trail to Bear Camp Mountain, CA
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| Hiking | 5.70 Miles |
1,511 AEG |
| | Hiking | 5.70 Miles | 6 Hrs 53 Mns | | 0.83 mph |
| 1,511 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | I was driving south from Cedarville through Surprise Valley on the north east border of CA on my way back to AZ. The Surprise Valley is on the east side of the South Warner Mountains, a place of nostalgic memories for me. My son and I had camped in those mountains 30 years ago and I had snowmobiled there in the winter with a friend and his buddies from Alturas, CA. I decided to revisit the area near Blue Lake in those mountains and stay a day to hike one of the trails. I had never driven into the mountains from the east side and hadn't brought my Modoc NF map with me so stopped on the side of the Surprise Valley road to do some searching on my gps map. I'd only been stopped for a few minutes when a local in a farm truck stopped. I was thinking he was suspicious of some guy stopped with the nose of his dusty scratched up AZ licensed FJ Cruiser sticking into an open gate of his posted field. But no, he just asked if I needed some directions.
I soon had the information I needed and was on my way up the South Warner Road headed the 20 miles towards Blue Lake. Another local flagged me down and warned me that there were 300 head of cattle being driven down the road ahead from their summer range. Very cool, something I used to do as a kid growing up on a cattle ranch. A farm truck preceded the herd and the driver stepped out when I pulled over to the side of the road. Well, this didn't exactly fit my memories of the gruff old wranglers driving cattle. The driver was one quite attractive cowgirl with a friendly smile advising me that the herd was strung out for a couple of miles and to keep my car on the downhill (left) side of the road so the cattle wouldn't be driven off the steep downhill side. Good advice but I concentrated more on avoiding driving through the cow pies so my car wouldn't stink when I camped in it that night.
On my way to Blue Lake I found the Patterson Camp Ground. It was free and in a scenic location with a trailhead for the Summit Trail on the edge of the South Warner Wilderness. Having found a place to camp for the night and a trail to hike the next day I continued on to Blue Lake where my son and I had camped long ago. Blue Lake was as beautiful as I remembered and the campground was only $7 a night, only $2 more than 30 years ago. Our old campsite was exactly as I remembered. I walked down to the lake shore and it was like stepping through a time warp. There I was 30 years ago in my old 14 foot Gregor aluminum boat tooling across the lake. Oh wait, it was just someone who from a distance looked like me when I was 42 and he had the same model boat, very common for fishermen on small lakes. But I was ready to make some new memories so drove back to the Patterson CG and set up camp. Not like the Eastern Sierras, there was no one else in the CG and no CG Host.
The next morning I started off hiking north on the Summit Trail. From studying the gps topo map it appeared that this trail was like a mini-version of the PCT following the crest of the South Warner Mountains. I had decided to keep the hike short and head for the top of Bear Camp Mountain which was near the trail. The South Warner Mountains were in full fall colors. There are many groves of Aspen in these mountains and the leaves were all a bright yellow-orange color. The sky was cloudy threatening rain so I carried full rain gear in my day pack. The off-trail part of the hike to Bear Camp Mtn required some scrambling over steep rock outcrops but I finally made it to the top. There were amazing views of the meadows below surrounded by the blazing colors of the Aspen groves. A cold wind was blowing with forecast gusts of 30mph but I hung around on that peak longer than I should have because it had full cell phone coverage - a chance to let my family and friends know how I was doing. I found a much easier and safer way down the mountain to the Summit Trail on the return. A rain squall was headed my way so I suited up in the rain gear but the squall died out before it got to me. But I was still chilled from my stay on top of the mountain so the extra warmth of the rain gear was welcomed. I never saw another hiker all day but there were fresh boot tracks on the trail probably from the past weekend. This would be my last night camping on the return trip so for dinner that evening I feasted on fried potatoes and all the left over eggs and sausage in the ice chest.
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