#pushing my short preston agenda

[grease-weasel]

My babygirls (three middle aged men and a dog)

[thehikingviking]

Kings Castle, Black Marble Mountain & Marble Mountain, Mable Mountain Wilderness

With the corona virus lock down mandating a statewide work from home, my pal Zach decided to do a several month long road trip, working from his car all the way from San Francisco to New York and back. We discussed the possibility of doing some hikes in the early and later stages of his trip. His route first took him up north, so he requested some hikes in Northern California next to the Oregon border. In my opinion, this is the most scenic area in the state. I was really excited for the trip, but as the weekend approached, we were met with an unstable weather forecast. Since there was a chance of rain on both days, I decided it was best to leave Asaka and new born baby Leif at home, and make a guys trip out of it. I drove up north picking up some steaks along the way, and met Zach in Fort Jones, CA. We then caravanned together to Lovers Camp Trailhead. A bear ran across the road as we neared road’s end, but unfortunately Zach missed it. We cooked a man’s dinner then slept in the back of our cars.

The next morning Zach hopped into my car and we drove to the Paradise Lake Trailhead via a well graded dirt road. There were no cars at the trailhead. Other visitors were most likely scared off by the questionable weather forecast. The trail steeply cut through the forest towards Paradise Lake. 

Zach seemed to be a bit faster than me on trail. We talked about life in the semiconductor industry, which is always thrilling conversation. Right before reaching the lake we ran into the PCT.

This was where I planned to leave the trail and head to the col just south of Kings Castle. A thick fog covered the area, but there was no precipitation.

Below us was Paradise Lake.

As we circled the lake I spotted a lone black bear. This one stayed still long enough for Zach to see. A bear sighting always adds points to a good wilderness experience.

The fog cleared just enough for us to catch a glimpse of Kings Castle. I recognized the area from the famous Marble Mountains Bigfoot video, which clearly showed a hiker and not a Bigfoot.

Zach again pushed the pace, making me feel like some sort of hiking poser. All those months of hiking with a pregnant woman really put me out of shape. After a slow go of it, we finally made the col.

After some brush, I was able to pick up the use trail again. This was the same section that the alleged “Bigfoot” descended awkwardly while wearing what appeared to be a backpack.

The summit was a big block of limestone. While there is a class 2 way to the summit, I decided to pick a class 3 route with some exposure to give Zach a cooler experience. Soon we were at the top. To the northwest was Red Rock.

Preston Peak to our west was blocked by clouds.

To our south was Black Mable Mountain. I hoped to follow the ridgeline all the way to Marble Mountain.

Mt Shasta and Boulder Peak were blocked by clouds to our east.

After a short stay, we decided to head back toward the col. We took the class 2 route and followed this through the shrubs, stopping to taste some wild spearmint along the way.

From the col we picked up another use trail which sidehilled beneath the top of the ridge. This allowed us to move quickly. We made a short detour for Peak 7160, an unofficial peak along the ridge.

The weather was neither deteriorating or improving.

We dropped straight off the southern side of the peak and maintained our course. Another moderate effort took us to the summit of Peak 7280.

The ridge to Box Camp Mountain looked enjoyable, but that wasn’t on our day’s agenda.

By this time I expected all the clouds to burn off, but instead it just got thicker. Somewhere up ahead was Black Marble Mountain.

The western side of the ridge had a large snowfield.

A direct route continuing up the ridge appeared snow free, but was slightly intimidating in the clouds.

The limestone rock was sticky and the climbing was mostly class 2 with some easy class 3. The photos are more dramatic then the route actually felt.

The short limestone section led to more steep hiking. We took a rest looking back at Peak 7280.

There was a blocky massif in front of us. I wasn’t sure how much longer it would take for us to get to the top, or if the weather would further deteriorate, so we had lunch in a patch of trees right below.

After lunch, I took a direct class 4 route up the rocky summit block, and I instructed Zach to go around via the standard class 2 approach. After some loose rock climbing, I made it up over the crest and was greeted with a memorizing view.

I quickly discovered the summit was still a bit to our east, but I waited for Zach to emerge from around the corner before continuing.

I reached a notch where I waited for Zach. The next pitch looked like so much fun. I went right up the spine of the solid limestone, finding lots of exposure but bomber holds and little difficulty.

I instructed Zach from above, extremely thrilled to find such fun scrambling.

Once he was past the crux, I ran ahead to the summit. To the south was Marble Mountain.

To the east was Boulder Peak blocked by clouds.

To the north was Peak 7280.

We had the choice of continuing along the ridge or dropping down to the moraine below. The track I had downloaded did the latter, so this is what we ended up doing. We sidehilled down the southeastern face.

I encountered a short stint of brush which I plowed through and Zach smartly avoided it altogether. I surmised that this must have been the location of a glacier at one point, as I have no other theories of what could have shaped this terrain.

Once we were below Black Marble Mountain, we continued sidehilling south back towards the ridge.

I found the terrain easy to traverse, but this was new territory for Zach. I was able to find a series of ledges which allowed me to maintain a quick pace. I would rest every now and then to make sure Zach was still on track.

Our last objective of Marble Mountain now came into clear view. It was intimidating, but Burd’s trip report made mention of a nifty crack. Rather than descend and climb around the back side, I was motivated to find the direct route up.

The face looked like class 5, but I knew there was a weakness.

We crossed a small snowfield to the left where I found a nice staircase.

I walked Zach through each move, which was mostly class 2 and never exceeded class 3.

The staircase eventually ended right below the summit, but we still had about 15 more feet of vertical to gain. As promised, the nifty crack was there for our usage. I let Zach go first, spotting him from below, but none of this was necessary. We both made it up with no issues. To the west was Rainy Valley.

To the north was Black Marble Mountain.

We kept our break short knowing that we still had a lot of trail miles ahead of us. First, we had to get to the trail though. We walked down the steep limestone and picked our way through the snowfields. I found one nice patch for a safe glissade.

Once at the trail, we began a light jog down the mountain.

We passed by a rustic cabin and the PCT once more.

From here we jogged and power walked down several miles of very scenic trail. There were several mushrooms which I stopped to document.

The next few miles were sprinkled with various beautiful creeks and cascades.

My legs were aching over the last couple of miles. I was clearly not yet in hiking shape. We exited the forest and hopped into Zach’s car. I ate about 5 of his cookies as we drove to retrieve my car. No rain fell the whole day, and our outing ended up being a grade A adventure.

[grease-weasel]

Preston Garvey my beloved