High Sierra Topix

On the way back to the bay area from Southern Oregon, I got off I-5 just north of Weed and headed up Stewart Springs Road to the Parks Creek TH to climb Mt. Eddy. This is a really nice climb on trails that gets you up over 9000 feet to view nearby Mt. Shasta. Round trip is just over 10 miles. The Deadfall Lakes along the way enlivens the scenery. The trailhead is where the PCT crosses Stewart Springs Road (Forest Service Road 17) at the summit between the Shasta and Trinity Watersheds.


Here's the southern end of the Marbles off to the west.


Here's Mt. Eddy and the upper of the Deadfall Lakes.


A view of the Upper Deadfall Lake from above.


This is the divide between the Sacramento and Trinity Watersheds. To the left, the Sisson Callahan Trail takes you down to Mt. Shasta City. To the right, the PCT heads north. The PCT heads south directly into the photo. I've put the Sisson Callahan Trail on my list of things to explore in the future. There are also some lakes to the south that are pretty scenic, such as Toad Lake, that merit a look.


This rocky looking area is the headwaters of the Sacramento River, before it flows into Lake Siskiyou. If you continue south on the PCT, you'll come to Toad Lake.


Mt. Shasta City and Lake Siskiyou in the distance. Foxtail pines in the foreground.


The Shasta Valley.....


.....and the big dog itself, Mt. Shasta from the top of Mt. Eddy.




Another look at Upper Deadfall Lake.


Some Darlingtonia (Pitcher Plant or Cobra Lilly) at the Middle Deadfall Lake. You can find these all over the area where there are springs.



A couple more views of the middle Deadfall Lake. It has fish and I had brought my rod, but the timing wasn't good and nothing was biting.

This is a great day hike if you are in the area. Its about 40 minutes to the trailhead from I-5. There are a number of other lakes and trails in the area that merit exploration.

Photo's not showing.

Photos fixed (I think). Please confirm.

Ikan Mas wrote:Photos fixed (I think). Please confirm.

not yet. i get a big grey minus sign bubble for all the pics. permissions maybe?

Fixed for sure now. I checked on some other machines. Sorry for the inconvenience.

fixed! Mt. Shasta looks really sad without her snow.. sigh..

There had been a storm go through the Shasta Valley the day before (we were there), so the dusting of snow you see on the top of Shasta was very recent.

A couple of other interesting things. Right around the trailhead at the summit of the divide, all the Ponderosa/Jeffrey Pines had their tops knocked off. I've seen this on Snow Mountain as well. Must be an occasional super storm that come through and decapitates all the trees

Here's a shot of Mt. Eddy with the approach trail:


Here's a shot with all three of the Deadfall Lakes visible:


Lastly, the forest service is making some improvements in the area, decommissioning roads and putting in some trails:

This should be good news for hikers. There is a lot of interesting things here, and they are very close to I-5. The Forest Service has a website about this at:
http://data.ecosystem-management.org/ne ... ject=42264

Thanks for the report and pictures! Would love to get out that way sometime.