Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

This past Saturday we tried hiking to The Nipple, an artfully named peak in the Carson Pass area, again. I say again because we set out on this hike 5 weeks earlier. We had a mixed experience the first time. The views were amazing but the wind was fierce. We turned back well short of the peak.

I'm not the kind of person to let a hiking thing go. When I decide I want to hike somewhere because it's beautiful, and temporary conditions like weather force me to turn around without enjoying the full measure of it, I'm going to want to try again. So we tried again this past weekend, hoping that the wind wouldn't be as fierce.



Well, I had a little more than hope about the weather.... While there's no forecast directly for "Will this mountain ridge over 9,000' have pummeling wind?" I can make educated guesses about wind conditions from checking a few days of temperature and precipitation. Saturday looked like it would be a clear, steady day, so we did our Friday Night Halfway in Jackson, stopped at Silver Lake on the way up, and began our hike at Lost Lake.

The first leg of the hike was familiar, ascending the ridge on the Pacific Crest Trail as it rose up from Lost Lake. The landscape seemed slight more barren this weekend than 5 weeks earlier, as the wildflowers of Alpine Spring turns rapidly to Alpine Summer and then to Alpine Autumn.



We rounded the bend above Blue Lake, 1,000' below us, and climbed ever higher into the mountains. This about as far as Hawk went 5 weeks earlier (her spot in the photo above). I continued as far up as that shelf below and to the right of the peak near the center. That peak, BTW, is not The Nipple. The Nipple is farther away, on the right side of the photo. You can see the summit sticking up like a nub. Yes, that's apparently how it got named.



The wind was mild the whole hike, though it did get slightly stronger as we hiked later in to the afternoon. Heavier clouds started to build up over the high elevations, too. This photo (last of the set, above) shows a view from just below The Nipple looking back down over Lost Lake. The ridge to the left is that imposing looking scarp in the center of the previous picture. To the right of Lost Lake is a cliff. Yes, the lake is right at the edge of a cliff! That's part of the Carson Pass. And that peak in the distance, near the center (left/right) of the picture is Mount Round Top, elev. approx. 10,500'. Just the other side of it are Winnemucca Lake and Round Top Lake. We've hiked those lakes several times in the past. In fact, they were our "Plan B" for today in case the wind was howling as we drove over the Forestdale Divide just below Round Top.

Speaking of the Forestdale Divide, I've got some wheeling pics and video to share from Saturday, too, along with a few more photos from this hike. Stay tuned!

There's a peak in Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest called The Nipple. I forget how I spotted the trail to it when I was searching for new trails to hike a week ago.... I think I had chosen the Carson Pass area of the Sierra Nevada on AllTrails.com, and The Nipple was the thing that stood out. As nipples tend to do.

Getting there was a fun adventure in itself. Getting to the start of the trail, I mean. The trail to the top would be another adventure. But just getting to the start of the trail mean a Friday Night Halfway in the foothills, a scenic drive through the Carson Pass with a few stops along the way, and then an unforgettably beautiful 4x4 drive over the Forestdale Divide Road. All that put us at Lost Lake, elev. 8,600' or so.



Lost Lake is plenty scenic all by itself. And it's not even particularly lost. I mean, it is remote. Especially if you come in from the Carson Pass 5 miles north, like we did. The route up from Upper Blue Lake, 1 mile south, is passable even with a grocery-getter SUV. There were a few groups of people camped at the lake.

We weren't staying at the lake, of course. Not for more than 15 minutes, anyway. Our objective was to climb the summit of The Nipple. At first I thought it was that seemingly tallest peak, the one about 1/3 of the way in from the left in the photo above. As I consulted my contour map I realized The Nipple is actually that peak on the far left, the one with the very slight protrusion
atop it. A nipple. And it's actually higher than the other, craggy peak. It's just that it's farther away so perspective makes it seem shorter.



We parked near the 4x4 road where the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) almost crosses it. Our route was to hike the PCT up over the ridges, then take a spur to the top of the Nipple. Though this segment of the PCT started under tree cover near Lost Lake it quickly broke out into scrub-covered hillside. The beauty was as stark as it was expansive.



Also out here on these almost barren mountainsides it was windy. Like, hella windy. Like, even with the lanyard on my hat cinched as tight under my chin as I could comfortably make it, I still had to hold my hat down with my hand to prevent it from trying to fly away and strangle me in the process.



The wind wasn't constant. When we were far enough below a ridge and on the lee side from the wind, things were relatively calm. But get near the ridge, or cross to the wind-swept side, and it was like all Hell was blowing through.

In the photo above we found a spot with a bit of calm and considered the trail ahead. Hawk continued with me as far as the next ridge (in the middle ground) where it was hella windy again, and decided to turn back. I told her I wanted to hike as far as the saddle on the higher ridge to the right before turning back. The hike below that ridge was beautiful; it was on the the lee side of the wind. But as soon as I reached that saddle, all Hell broke loose on me.



Here's a photo (above) from just below that saddle. Yes, I went back down below the saddle to take the picture. The wind was so fierce on the ridge I couldn't even hold the camera straight while also keeping my hat— on a lanyard, mind you— from blowing away! Anyway, in the photo you can see the Lost Lakes below me on the right. Further to the right and below them is the Carson Pass. It's wild seeing these lakes in a basin that's practically spilling over the edge of one ridge while nestled below a few other peaks.

I gave thought to continuing on up from here. The problem was I told my partner I wasn't going all the way. I didn't want to turn a 30 minute side trip into 90+ minutes with no way to warn her. And, truth be told, with the fierce wind I was starting to not have fun on this trail anymore. I headed back down and met her in one of the calm areas of the trail. We'll try to gauge the weather for when there aren't gale-force winds whipping over this area and climb the Nipple again.

Update: More about this hike and where we went next!

So often when we drive the various highway passes through  the Sierra Nevada we blaze along with a destination in mind. The twists and turns and steep sections on the road seem like obstacles slowing us down from getting to where we want to go. This isn't a great mindset to be in as it causes us to miss so much of the beauty through which we pass, so I fight it every time I become aware that I'm slipping into it.



On Saturday we were headed high up into the mountains above the Carson Pass. We definitely had a desire to get there and do the thing (in this case, hiking a mountain) we'd set out to do. Highway 88 passes by so many places worthy of visiting. Since we had a few extra hours in the day from our Friday Night Halfway stay at the foot of the mountain in Jackson we decided to stop and stretch our legs at a few of the spots we otherwise blast past when we're driving on Highway 88. The first of these was Silver Lake, shown photos above and below.



Silver Lake is at elev. 7,300' (2,225 m.) just west of the Carson Pass. It's a surprisingly large lake for being this high in the mountains. It even has sandy beaches in parts, as the first picture above shows. On Saturday the weather was a cooler than normal, part of a two-week cool spell across Northern California, I believe, otherwise there might have been families out in the sand enjoying the day. Two weeks earlier it was probably 80+ in the middle of the day. This Saturday it was about 65° and windy.



Above Silver Lake, Highway 88 to the east climbs through the Carson Spur. This isn't the Carson Pass; it's lower at only 7,990'. But it's visually striking nonetheless because of the steep rocky cliffs the road winds around. I remember passing through here once during a brief summer storm years ago, when those cliffs turned into impromptu waterfalls. It was both beautiful and scary as the water was pouring directly across the road!



On the other side of the Carson Spur, still below Carson Pass, likes another large and beautiful lake, Caples Lake. It's at elev. 7,804'. At this point we're near a place we've gone hiking several times before.... That tall peak in distance beyond the lake is Mount Round Top. The lower peaks to the right of it are The Sisters. Beneath those peaks are Winnemucca Lake and Round Top Lake.

"We ought to go back there," Hawk remarked as we stopped to appreciate the vista.

"I agree. I thought about doing it today!" I explained. But both of us were more interested in trying a new trail and a new place than revisiting one we've already hiked a handful of times. Plus, weren't we there a few years ago? Now that I'm back home and can check my files, I find that our last visit to Winnemucca and Round Top was seven years ago. Wow, that's longer than I thought. "We'll have to plan another trip there soon," I agreed. "But not today."



Continuing east from Caples Lake we ascended through the Carson Pass at elev. 8.574'. We didn't stop in the pass this time like we did on that trip seven years ago, when we visited the pass during a summer storm. Instead we spent a bit of time appreciating the descent down the east side. The photo above shows a view of Red Lake Mountain just above the Carson Pass. Further down from this is Red Lake itself... which is where I'll start my next blog.