Anderson Peak and Tinker Knob

[Vaca Russ]

Last Saturday Jacob and I drove up to the PCT at Donner summit and hiked south to bag Anderson Peak and Tinker Knob. We had hiked Shasta earlier this month and found Jacob needed to acclimate. Please see this report here: http://www.highsierratopix.com/communit ... =8&t=18344

Anderson Peak is a sweet looking peak about 5.2 miles from the trail head along the Sierra crest ridge.

The hike takes you through part of the Sugar Bowl ski area. This area is FULL of history as it was a major though fare for emigrants and others coming to California in the 19th century. The original transcontinental railroad tunneled right under the trail head parking area.

The current UPRR rail line tunnel bore under Mt. Judah and the area on the PCT where this trail crosses under the Mt. Judah Express ski lift. You can see the west entrance to this tunnel in the center right of this picture.

This was also the area of the original “Donner Pass” and “Roller Pass”.

The wildflowers were in full bloom.

There was some snow left on the trail but nothing one couldn’t kick steps into. No need for ice ax or crampons.

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The second half of the hike to Anderson is along this ridge. The vistas are fantastic!

Benson Hut can be found just below the north flank of Anderson. Please see this report HERE http://www.highsierratopix.com/communit ... 27&t=18386.

Although it was tempting to summit Anderson from the north, we also planned on bagging Tinker Knob later and I didn’t want to wear out Jacob and dampen his enthusiasm for climbing.

The path to the summit from the south flank is a talus hopping walk up. The black line is the PCT.

We gained the summit and began our search for the register.

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Wow, quite a register case! Unfortunately the memo pad inside had gotten wet and the entries were faded. We didn’t even bother making an entry.

There is also a benchmark.

To be continued…

[Vaca Russ]

We then turned our attention to Tinker Knob a little over a mile and a half to the south.

Jacob was still full of energy and excited to climb his second peak of the day.

The summit block is a walk up with a very brief class two section at the end. The register was in an ammo box tucked away in the rocks.

We found some interesting items in the ammo box.

I am sure these are vital items to take into the wilderness.

There was also a Cliff bar in the ammo box. I have never tried a Cliff bar. Some rodent had chewed on the pages of the register but the Cliff bar remained untouched. I guess I am not missing anything.

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Jacob was happy to gain his second summit of the day and had not yet started to complain.

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Russ knew we still had a seven mile hike ahead of us.

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This was a LONG trip back to the truck.

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I’m not sure when Jacob began to feel the pain in his leg but somewhere around 4 miles from the truck he began to complain quite a bit about the pain. Needless to say, he made it. He also passed out in the truck on the drive home.

He is learning and will someday be a great peak bagger!

Thanks for reading my post!

-Russ

[Gazelle]

Actually the original Donner Pass (The Stephens party were the supposed first it should be called that!)is to the north, they started using Roller pass a little later.