Annnd, that's it, I've now summitted 58 out of 58 California county high points. This last one, Del Norte County, was a real "bear." A total of 14 miles round trip, half of which was cross country, to the summit of Bear Mountain. This included up and down a 1,500 foot high, loose, talus and scree couloir that left me quite spent.
The drive in from Highway 199 was 37.4 miles of winding, winding road. Two thirds of this was dirt. But the van took it all in stride:
The Doe Flat Trailhead was roomy, viewful and remote (we never saw another person once we were ten miles in from the highway):
I got an early start in the morning (and was really, really missing Tricia for this last of the 58). The trail portion of the hike was easy for three miles. And then it hit a trail junction. Here there started a set of switchbacks that even the legend himself, Bob Burd, calls "manly." And it was all uphill from there.
First view of Bear Mountain (notice the top of the steep, loose couloir - the feature that ends to the right of the summit and left of the sunshine):
The summit was very, very gusty:
Unfortunately the summit register had been placed in a Tupperware that had a cracked lid. It had just rained. The Tupperware was 2/3 full of water and the register was 100% soaked. I couldn't sign in.
Photos of the summit had to do:
This girl joined me (and was also pooped as hell the next day):
This was a very satisfying summit, and the completion of a real "bucket list" list. Although I may repeat some of these 58, with Tricia if/when she does more, I'm done!
So what's to do next? Well, for grins I thought I'd look at other states' county high point lists. I randomly started with Iowa, which struck me as a flat state that couldn't be that hard to do (right?). Uh, guess again. Iowa has 99 counties!! A tiny, flat state with 99 counties! And most of these have multiple, possible high points, all of which are in close proximity (a few miles at most) and within a foot or two in elevation. I found one Iowa county that had 26 possible high points! Yeah, I think I'll skip the other states county high points. California's were fun, varied and challenging. That's enough for me.