An easy and short hike from Camp Sacramento to Lovers Leap on the way to Lake Tahoe. After a pick-nick at Camp Sacramento we hike along the obvious trail all the way to the top of Lovers Leap. Unfortunately the smoke from the many wildfires in the Sierra makes the view very hazy. Nice viewpoint along Highway 50. There are...

Stanislaus- and Sonora Peak are two relatively easy accessible peaks from Sonora Pass. They are both pretty high, with Sonora Peak actually being the highest peak of the Sierra Nevada north of Sonora Pass. I had plans to climb these two mountains at the end of September last year already. However, I miserably failed due to the...

The first time I saw the Horsetail Falls, I wasn't all that impressed. Due to the drought then and the late season, the waterfall had nothing but a tiny bit of water trickling down from the Desolation Valley. The current situation with record amounts of melting snow should give the falls a much more impressive character. In...

I had plenty of real life views and took many many pictures of Round Top in the last few weeks. Due to the massive amounts of snow this area got during this winter, I thought of an approach to the top from northeast. I did not find any reports in the www about such a line, but judging from my inspection last week from the top and...

If I had to name "my favorite peak" in my new home, it would have to be Round Top. Not only because I have been on top of it 3 times already, but also because it offers quite a few interesting routes, in summer and winter and with it's >10000ft altitude a very nice view as well. One of the little more adventurous routes to the...

I actually wanted to do another ski tour on this day, but the weather forecast predicted snow fall for the Sierra Nevada over night and cloudy skies until noon. Therefore, I decided to do something in a coastal mountain range instead, where the weather was supposed to be very sunny. I didn't have much time to prepare a hike and...

My current "extended back-yard" is the American River in Fair Oaks. The so-called Sacramento Bar Park is one of many parks which all together form the American River Parkway, Sacramento Region’s great recreational asset. The American River Parkway also includes a wonderful bike path along the Lower American River, from...

Jacumba is a small town right at the US/Mexican border, about 60 miles east of San Diego. It's known for the sulfur containing hot springs, which were most likely already used by the Kumeyaay people. The commercialization of the hot springs began in the early 20th century. In 1919 rail service connected Jacumba to San Diego and 6...

What's special about 10935 feet? Nothing really, except if you convert it to meters, you end up with the "pretty number" 3333. Well that's the height of Highland Peak, my goal for the day. This peak also has a pretty high prominence of 2456 ft, so the view up there is expected to be quite impressive. One more time, the...

Today's prerequisites were very similar like last week's: not too much time and a hike in the Toiyabe National Forest. Today I wanted to make sure to reach my goal(s) and set the expectations way lower than last week: Silver Peak, in fact both peaks from the Noble Creek Trail head. Studying the topo-map and report on summitpost...

I had planned to do a hike & bike combination from Ebbetts Pass to Tryon -, Highland - and Silver Peak, then drop down to Noble Canyon and State Route 4 and ride my bike (which I left there before the hike) back up to Ebbetts Pass. Quite a program for the little time I had today. Well, due to a combination of lack of fitness...

Bull Run Peak caught my attention at the shore of Lower Blue Lake at the end of my tour to Deadwood Peak. At the time I had no idea which peak it was, but thanks to the udeuschle website, I was able to figure it out. On this day I actually had different plans to do an easy short hike with a friend. However, when I wanted to pick...

Pyramid Peak was the first peak I visited after moving to California, almost 3 years ago. Looking for some more workout with quite some altitude gain, I decided to go back and pay it another visit. This time I decided to walk up via Rocky Canyon (my way down the last time) and check out the north ridge for my way down and later...

I wanted to find out how much my rather unacceptable fitness level improved in the last few weeks and didn't have much time to prepare some "fancy hike". Therefore, I decided to do a variation of a hike I have done before. Climbing Freel Peak from Horse Meadow make an altitude gain of about 2500 ft and I should get an idea how...

There are quite a few mountains called "Twin Peaks" in the US, but the "double hill" in San Francisco is most likely the one which is known best. It is located near the geographic center of SF and offers spectacular views over the city, the many bridges, the Bay and the Pacific ocean. The hike up to the tops is very short because...

Deadwood Peak didn't really show up on "my radar" until now, but I am almost running out of peaks which make sense for me to do as "day hikes" (meaning: leave home early in the morning, drive not much more than about 2 hours, hike and then return home the same day). Deadwood Peak is one of the few left on this list. After reading...

The chain of hills between San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay is referred to as the Nine Sisters. During a previous visit of San Luis Obispo I already climbed two of then: Bishop Peak and Mount Madonna. This time I wanted to pay a visit to the 2 sisters which are closest to Morro Rock: Cerro Cabrillo and Black Hill. My starting...

During an extended weekend in the vicinity of Morro Bay we decided to climb a few of the many "Cerros" in this area. "Cerro" is the Spanish word for "Hill" and since this part of California has a lot of Mexican roots, most of the hills here are named Cerro "Something". As "Alto" in "Cerro Alto" suggest, the hill we climbed today...

Update October 23, 2020 see below* June 24, 2016: During my hike last week I saw a mountain which caught my attention. To my surprise, after consulting the USGS topo map, I found out that it didn't have a name on any map, even though it is quite a prominent peak with a topographical prominence to its neighbor (Mount Agassiz)...

Ralston Peak is a popular mountain in the Desolation Wilderness which is typically and often climbed from the trailhead close to Highway 50 near Camp Sacramento. However, my goal was to climb it via East Ridge from Echo Lake and also bag Becker Peak and Talking Mountain on the way up. For my way down I planned to take the...