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Ascent of Cottonwood Peak on 2012-07-21

Climber: Daryn Dodge

Date:

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Ascent Type:

Successful Summit Attained

Motorized Transport to Trailhead:

4x4 Vehicle

Peak:

Cottonwood Peak

Location:

USA-California

Elevation:

6608 ft / 2014 m

Ascent Trip Report

I first tried to get to the trailhead of a trail called the Bear Creek Trail. It starts to the west of Cottonwood Peak off Dutch Creek Road. However, I ran into "No Trespassing unless Granted Permission by Owner" signs on the road about 0.5 miles short of the trailhead. No owner was around; just a young German Shepard dog looking to test his teeth on my leg if I got out of the car.

So I went to Plan B. I drove up I-5 to the exit north of Hornbrook and followed the dirt road west towards Ditch Creek. The main dirt road gets steep after about 3.5 miles, requiring 4WD. I followed the correct series of dirt roads using a topo map a total of 9.1 miles from the I-5 turn-off, which put me on the ENE ridge of Cottonwood Peak 0.7 mile from the summit. From here, I hiked up the ridgeline, sometimes straying just to the north of the ridge to avoid occasional brushy and rocky sections.

Reached the summit in about 30 min on a hot day. Nice view of Mt. Shasta. This part of the peak had many tall trees in the immediate vicinity, unlike the lower sections which had been logged fairly recently.

Summary Total Data

Elevation Gain:

1050 ft / 320 m

Distance:

1.4 mi / 2.3 km

Route:

ENE Ridge

Trailhead:

Dirt road on ENE Ridge 5558 ft / 1694 m

Grade/Class:

Quality:

3 (on a subjective 1-10 scale)

Route Conditions:

Open Country, Scramble

Ascent Statistics

Time Up:

30 Minutes

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