California Peak

 

September 9, 2020

California Peak 
13,855'

  

While continuing on our centennial quest here in Colorado, and me attempting to keep my acclimatization up for a big day coming up with my friend Isaac, Laura and I decided that a quick trip to the Sangre de Christo's was in order this weekend. We settled on California Peak. I have no idea where it got its name - it is nothing like anything we have ever climbed in CA, but then again, the Sierra are a very different world than Colorado.This California Peak was just a simple walk up. We set off planning to park at the lower huerfano trailhead but using the 13ers guidebook for the second weekend in a row, we quickly learned that the information is not real accurate and should not be trusted. We parked about a half mile lower than we should have and set off on a path toward what we thought was the correct path. We quickly learned that we had not driven up the access road far enough, so we followed a drainage ditch for a while and then cut straight up the hillside. We were able to connect into a trail that lead up to a saddle on the mountain and then we followed easy tundra and talus fields to the summit. The hike was uneventful and the skies we blue. We decided that we'd like to make the day more interesting so we descended the north ridge and added on another 13er to our day. Pt. 13,577' is just a bump on the ridge on the way toward Lilly Lake from California Peak. Laura and I passed over, checked out the summit register and then descended the ridge for a few hundred yards before descending very loose and rock filled cliff bands leading to Lily Lake. I jumped in for a quick swim in the alpine lake and the cold took my breath away. Knowing we had a long way to go back to the car, we quickly set off and began jogging back toward the Jeep. 

Stats:

11.5 miles

4,127' of elevation gain

6 hours car to car