Devil's Peak redux

Seven of us headed to Devil's Peak from the Kingsvale exit.  First we messed around on Troy Rd., crossed the RR tracks and came to a gate.  It was private property and we were divided about whether or not to tresspass.  The road became beautifully paved at that point and maybe it led to an estate.  Estate of a timber company baron?  The dirt road up to that point was fairly easy except for fording a rocky stream bed.  So we returned to the Kingsvale exit and went straight towards the Shell station, parking in the right side of the lot.  The dirt road we were looking for was blocked by hills of dumped roadbed so we walked up.  It wasn't a road suitable for a Subaru off road experience, anyway. 

We hiked up the steep inclines, past a rusted out old rope-tow and up to the RR tracks.  There, we could see a canyon made by the outflow of the Cascade Lakes.  There appeared to be trails up either side of the flowing cataracts and we chose the one on the far side of the RR trestle.  We were in a wonderland of falls soon culminating in water cascading over what appeared to be a fairly recently constructed dam, creating a beautiful small lake with folding chairs on the shore and strange wooden structures that resembled mini-skiboat jumps.  Not a soul around, but it appeared to be someone's idyllic swimming hole.  We continued up the canyon in the general direction of Devil's Peak and fairly soon came to a dirt road/trail that eventually connected with that very same road we had seen at Troy Road.  What?  All that off-trail hiking to come to a road more beautifully asphalted that the one we live on?  To our wonderment, the road led to the most carefully logged woods we had ever seen.  Trees had been limbed up and slash had been chipped, creating a park-like effect.  Was this the legacy of the bankrupt owners of Royal Gorge?  The work of that mythical lumber baron, one with a very progressive forest management philosophy?  Who knows, but it was beautiful to behold.



Coming down by the seat of his pants!
 

So back to the business of  climbing that columnar basalt monolith.  We headed UP steeply towards a particular spot because now we were also going after a geo-cache.  Amazingly, we ran into a couple of GV guys who had been defeated in their quest for the top.  They had come in on the forbidden road by bicycle and, like us, were merely exploring.  Not long after we separated, we, too were defeated.  For every step up, we had a slide down - the dust was thick, the rocks were loose and tumbling and in the back of our minds was worrying about how we would make our safe return DOWN. 


We did make it downslope with only a few minor mishaps and no injuries, and proceded to cut across the woods over to the paved road and followed it as it wended it's way past the Horseshoe warming hut, which looked pretty humble compared to its winter splendor.  For the future,  it looks like the best way to get higher up the peak - I don't know how high - would be to start our ascent at this warming hut. It appears there are easier ascending routes from here - but who knows?  Easiest way to get there is to take the Pahatsi Road entrance to Royal Gorge, park at the Devil's Outlook warming hut above Cascade Lake, and hike directly to the Horseshoe warming hut.  We would take "Wagon Train" to the famed paved road.  At least that's how it shows on the ski map. 

We returned the way we came, humbled a bit by our second failure to climb this tough mountain, but thrilled by another great day hiking our "backyard".  How lucky we are to live here!

Next week: perhaps a second attempt at Tinker's Knob, this time starting at the horseshoe bend out of Truckee/Donner Lake.  It could be a looooooong hike, who knows?

Top 3 images from Frank.