Mount Eddy reveals colossal Shasta
The moment hits you all at once. That’s why you go.
The “reveal moment” comes when you clear a rise, round a bend or emerge into a clearing and — in that instant — a world-class view is revealed to you. You will not forget how it makes you feel.
At 9,025-foot Mount Eddy, it comes on your final steps. You reach the summit and in the span of a few heartbeats, the full expanse of 14,179-foot Mount Shasta opens before you. From its base, it rises 11,000 feet into a cobalt blue sky.
Other great lookouts with reveal moments are available at Mount Tallac (near South Lake Tahoe), Glacier Point (Yosemite National Park), Mitchell Peak (in the Sierra Nevada’s front country out of Sequoia National Monument) and Trail Crest (flank of Mount Whitney). These are detailed in a sidebar.
Last week, we chose the least known of the bunch, Mount Eddy, which is on the spine of the Trinity Divide in the remote north state. On the way up, we met youngsters from San Francisco, college grads from Santa Cruz and day-hikers from Redding to Ashland, all with the same goal: the reveal moment. To provide a feel for the day, I produced a two-minute video at www.SFChronicle.com.
The Mount Eddy hike is a 10.3-mile round trip with a climb of 2,150 feet. On the way, many people will take a quarter-mile spur trail to Middle Deadfall Lake (2.9 miles in) for a trail picnic, to swim or to set up camp, which makes it a 10.7-mile trek. Trail campsites are also available at Upper Deadfall Lake, nestled below the stark west face of the summit cliff.
The launch point is Parks Creek Trailhead, set on a ridge at 6,830 feet in Shasta-Trinity National Forest. A narrow, paved road is available to trailhead parking. Be prepared to rely on yourself to get there and back, and bring water, food, hat, sunscreen, windbreaker and any gear you might need, whether camping or not.
Heading up
The trail starts so easy that Middle Deadfall Lake is one of California’s best summer destinations for youngsters and seniors alike. It’s a 3-mile hike with a gentle 400-foot climb to the lake.
On the way, you get a spectacular view to the southwest of the Trinity Alps, and southeast to the Deadfall Basin backed by the Trinity Divide. About 2 miles in on the left, you reach the perpetual flows of a spring, where you can tank up your water bottles, then shortly later rock-hop your way across little Deadfall Creek and reach a major trail junction with an old wooden sign.
A right turn takes you south on the PCT, straight ahead a quarter-mile to the outlet at Middle Deadfall Lake, and a left turn starts you on the Mount Eddy Trail. Middle Deadfall is a pretty lake with great campsites, swimming in cool, clean water, and poor trout fishing. Some use the lake to set up a base camp and then summit Eddy the next day.
From here, the trail starts to climb, 500 feet in the next mile to the first of the Upper Deadfall Lakes. The best campsites are at the upper lake, backed by Eddy’s stark, sheer western face.
From Upper Deadfall Lake, the trail climbs to the Trinity Divide Ridge, then turns left and climbs to the summit in a series of switchbacks, roughly a 1,200-foot climb over 1.5 miles. The grade allows most to get into aerobic rhythm and hike it slow and steady.
When you emerge at the summit and pop over the top, you get hit right between the eyes with the full western expanse of giant Shasta.
Everywhere you turn, the hits just keep on coming: to the north are Shasta Valley, Lake Shastina, the Whaleback, and on the horizon, Mount McLaughlin; to the south, you can look over the spires of Castle Crags, beyond to Grey Rocks and to the right of the Upper Sacramento River Canyon, with Lassen Peak on the horizon; to the east are Boulder Lake Basin, Sawtooth Ridge and the snow-flanked Thompson Peak in the Trinity Alps Wilderness. I’ve been to all and Mount Eddy crowns them all.
It’s all about the moment and how it makes you feel. Tom Stienstra is The San Francisco Chronicle’s outdoors writer. His Outdoor Report can be heard at 7:35 a.m., 9:35 a.m. and 12:35 p.m. Saturdays on KCBS (740 and 106.9). Email: tstienstra@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @StienstraTom