Calaveras County Highpoint Trip Report

Corral Ridge (8,170 ft) and two areas (8,160+ ft)

Date: September 19, 2006
Author: Rich Wilson

This trailhead is about one tenth of a mile east of the county line on CA 4. It is signed as an OHV route. The left-branching road Gary Suttle mentions at the 1.3 mile mark has now dwindled to a faint path leading off into the trees. We continued on the road to the 4-way junction at a saddle. Here, we turned left and proceeded one half mile to the wire gate mentioned in previous reports. The gate was open and the barb wire fence was down on both sides. We saw no cows, and it appears that grazing in the area has ceased for the moment.

About 100 yards past the gate is a county line marker on the left side of the road. From here, we headed west up-slope and soon came to the southeast candidate, the first of the three candidates. Here we found a register. Strangely, it was just laying in the open, as mentioned in a previous report so we placed it under a few rocks.

Next, with compass in hand, we headed west to the southwest candidate. Here we found a small rock cairn but no register. It was impossible to do any leveling due to the woods. However, having walked over and back, my gut tells me that the southwest candidate is lower.

We returned to the ORV road, and proceeded north to spot elevation 8,170. Here, we had nice views north toward the Mokelumne Wilderness. This spot is bald but looking back at the southeast area, it is impossible to tell which is higher due to the trees. Although, if I had to pick, I'd guess the southeast candidate is the highest.

I recommend visiting all three areas to be sure. Fortunately, this is trivial. I couldn't find a register at spot elevation 8170. I recommend visiting this hp on a weekday as we did. We saw no ORV's. From the looks of the tire tracks, this could be a very dusty trip on a weekend. About 7 miles total round trip after all the wandering.

Area Camping: We spent 4 days camped at Calaveras Big Trees State Park about 22 miles west of the trailhead on CA 4. Very nice.