Trip Report: Castle Peak (X2) - Basin Peak - Coon Canyon
- blindsaint
- Aug 22, 2020
- 7 min read
Updated: Jan 22, 2023
Solo Overnighter on Donner Summit
I had planned a trip from Reno to Incline Village (Lake Tahoe) with my buddy, but due to his work and local wildfires, he wasn’t able to make it. I was dead-set to go on a trip and test out some of my gear (and my endurance) and decided to go by myself. The smoke was so bad in Reno that I changed the location last minute to Donner Summit, California (about 45 minutes from my house); specifically Castle Peak to Mt Lola. My original trip was roughly 22 miles and 7,000 feet elevation gain and loss. This trip would be of similar distance, but with so many peaks and valleys, it was over 10,000 feet elevation gain/loss. I understand that is quite ambitious for two days, but I figured there are a lot of paths in the area and I could easily adjust my course as needed. I wanted to push myself and figured that if I planned an easy route, I wouldn’t push any harder, but if I planned a hard route, I would go until it was too hard/unsafe and in doing so, I would see where I thought my limit was.
My wife dropped me off at 8:30am on Wednesday morning and was to come back at 5:00pm the following day (elevation at drop off: 7230’). I figured that would give me roughly 20 hours of total hiking time. I followed a road for a few hundred yards and then turned to move directly up to Andesite Peak (8219’) which turned out to be fairly easy and I made great time. I could have followed the super direct path along the ridge line straight to Castle Peak, but that was too easy and I was feeling like exploring. I came down the hill into Castle Valley and followed a few trails until I was facing a particular draw I had seen coming off of the SE side of the mountain into the valley. I planned to climb the draw and have lunch on the peak. After working my way up a steep (class 2) slope and scrambling/climbing up around 100 feet of rock (class 3-4) I made it right about noon to the top… of the wrong peak.
I mapped my path on the computer using Google Earth. It’s a pretty good resource for finding paths and dirt roads and for generally understanding the distances and elevations you can expect. It isn’t very good at rocks. In fact, though there are three distinct rock towers and cliffs all around, on Google Earth, the mountain looks flat-topped and tame. To get to the true summit from where I was (est. 8900’) involved scrambling along a short traverse exposed on both sides and maybe 4 feet wide before climbing three different crags. If climbed, you would reach the summit just below the actual high point which is the tallest of the three rock towers. I climbed the first crag without my pack and then pulled it up with the 30 foot rope I brought, and then assessed the second one. The rock in the area was a mix of brittle decomposed granite and something that looks like fist-sized rocks in concrete. Much of it is crumbly and I lost my holds a few times while projecting the way up. I never fell, but I figured by myself with a pack that was not ideal and for no other reason than bragging rights, it really wasn’t worth it. I started looking for a way down.
I found that the safest way down was to simply slide down a gravel-filled slope, using the rock wall to attempt to control my rapid descent. This worked out well (though I probably looked like I did not have it under control) and when I made it to the slope leading up to the cliffs, I thought it sounded better to try to traverse the slope rather than continue to slide with no control and then climb all the way back up. I slipped and slid for about an hour, taking about five steps at a time and aiming for large rocks that would be dug into the slope (as opposed to the gravel that just rolled down the hill). I finally made it to the path going from Andesite Peak to Castle Peak, so I started heading toward the real summit of Castle Peak.
I was about 2 hours later than I had wanted when I finally made it to the true peak and the actual high point (9103’) so I didn’t stay very long and enjoy the now small and awkward success. The way I took was a path that I had seen a man in his sixties hiking down and a brisk pace - this was not a beast to be mastered, but a slobbery mastiff, large, dirty, scary to some but generally pretty friendly. I went down a short distance to the ridge that connects Castle Peak and Basin Peak. This ridge was a pretty nice break. It’s about 1.5 miles of gently ascending and descending path with a slope on one side, a cliff on the other, and a good eight feet of flat. I could pick up the pace for a bit before a short ascent of Basin Peak, which was generally uneventful due to all of the smoke in the air by this time.
More eventful was the fact that I had drank my one-quart Nalgene and three of the four 20oz water bottles I had brought, leaving me at the top of a mountain with only one water bottle left. From the top of Basin Peak I could just barely make out Mt Lola through the smoke screen and there was a shorter peak in between and no obvious path through that area. I sat down and looked at my map, realizing that Mt Lola, thought the highest peak in my planned path, was the furthest away from my rendezvous point with my wife and it was now the afternoon. If I made it to Mt Lola and set up camp there, I would have to skip everything else and come through round valley (which isn’t ugly, but is not nearly as beautiful as the other side of the ridge I was currently on). It wasn’t worth the bragging rights to me, so I took the path to Warren Lake, bypassing the closer Devil’s Oven Lake (which is green, by the way). This path was around two miles from summit to lake, and lost about 1800 feet of elevation.
While this hike is quite beautiful, it is also pretty steep on the last half mile (which by itself is about 1000’ elevation loss). I started this section, but decided that though I was thirsty, I was also not keen on the idea of hiking back up in the early morning light. I turned around, retraced the last half mile, and started dropping into the most beautiful valley I have ever seen. John Muir would have loved it. I have no idea the name (if there is one), though the area connects to Coon Canyon. Anyway, there are a ton of creeks flowing in this area, so my worries about water were resolved, after probably four hours of concern. I got some water and decided to set up camp in this amazing area.
I have a pop-up one person tent that is very light and opens up like a car sunscreen. It has mosquito netting on top and I don’t have a rain cover for it and decided to try a tarp tent. I used my trekking poles to hold it up about 40 inches, which is tall enough to sit up under, but low enough for the wind to not affect it much. It turned out great, though it made noise that constantly sounded like something trying to get into my tent. I could see out the two ends, though I folded them closed just a little bit to keep the breeze from cooling me down too much. I hung up my food after eating dinner, and read for about an hour with my camp light before trying to sleep. I slept in 15 minute chunks, constantly waking up to the sound fo the tarp moving, foot steps (probably marmots, as there were a lot of tracks and droppings in the area) and other various animal noises. Oh well, I don’t sleep well in general. I finally got an hour chunk of sleep from about 5 to 6am, when I decided to don my headlamp and tear down camp to get an early start back. In all the changes, climbing, sliding, traversing, and backtracking from the day before, I had hiked at least 10 miles but had severely cut back my route. I was now on a path about 5 miles from my rendezvous spot and though I had by-passed two summits, I felt like I had accomplished what I wanted to. I also was growing concerned with the amount of smoke pouring into the valleys around me (and so was my wife).
The second day was much less eventful, though I really did feel like it had the better views. If there’s an area I’d like to spend some time actually camping and fun-hiking through, it’s this valley. I followed the path up over the ridge that connects Red Mountain to the fake Castle Peak, stopping to look down at Frog Lake (a mere 900-foot granite drop-off between us). The only thing really of note on this trip down was that it was pretty steep in places, and that about half a mile from the Donner Summit Rest Area has some good looking bouldering problems (maybe 20 or so in this area). My wife picked me up at 11:30am with some food and water.
Total Distance hiked (est.): 15 miles
Total Elevation Gain/Loss: 6500’
Peaks: Andesite Peak (8219’)/ Castle Peak SE (8900’)/Castle Peak HP (9103’)/Basin Peak (9017’)
All photos taken by me.
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