Tinker Knob

Two years ago I hiked to Tinker Knob but found no safe route to the summit. This was a bit frustrating, for I had stood atop the summit two or three times before. Today I returned and reached the top.

Tinker Knob is the core of an extinct volcano at the crest of the Sierra Nevada in Placer County. It sits along the Pacific Crest Trail, and is a popular hiking destination. The elevation is 8,949 feet. The slopes are rocky and steep. A short path from the Pacific Crest Trail reaches the base, then it splits into several paths. Only one (as far as I know) goes to the summit. Absent finding this path, scrambling is required to reach the top.

I departed the trailhead at Donner Pass at 6:20 AM, my destination about 7.5 miles away. I walked in solitude until 7:05, when I passed the first hikers, a father and his teenage son. Many trees on this first section of trail are bent at the base from the weight of deep snow on the steep slopes.

I reached the base of Mt. Lincoln at 7:55. The going would be fairly level from here to the approach of Anderson Peak. Patches of snow still blocked parts of the trail.

Tinker Knob came into view as I rounded Anderson Peak. By now I had passed about ten hikers who told me they were going the entire length of the Pacific Crest Trail, from Mexico to Canada.

At 11:00 I was at the base of Tinker Knob. I took two paths that led to large rocks on steep inclines that I didn't want to tackle, then I saw a young couple taking a route that involved some scrambling. I followed them and was soon on the summit.

At the summit is a military ammunition can that holds small notebooks. In one notebook I found my entry for July 31, 2010: "Second time here. Great!" I signed in to the current notebook.

The couple I followed to the top stayed but a few minutes. I talked with a group of hikers who were at the top when I arrived. Soon we were joined by Rob, a man in his fifties who lives in nearby Truckee. He had been to Tinker Knob the previous Saturday, and he said he goes there several times a year. He had started his hike at Donner Pass, and would finish it at Squaw Valley.

A woman in the group did a yoga headstand.

Here are the sights from the summit. Rob said that on a clear day one can see the mountains of the Coastal Range across the Sacramento Valley. I told him that Tinker Knob can be seen from Iron Point, the starting point of Euchre Bar Trail, near Alta.

View west, the canyon of the North Fork American River

View north, the Pacific Crest Trail and Anderson Peak

View south, Lake Tahoe

With my Kenwood TH-F6 2-meter radio, I called the W6EK repeater in Auburn, and got a response from a ham operator in Winters. Later, at the base of Anderson Peak, I heard Richard WA6RWS on the repeater, and I made contact with him. Richard and I are members of the Sierra Foothills Amateur Radio Club.

I met a man hiking the entire length of the Pacific Crest Trail, having started in early May. He was checking the news on his smart phone. Reception on the trail is limited. He had last heard about the coup attempt in Turkey, but not that the coup had failed.

I reached my truck at four o'clock.

Of Old Air Rifles and Ancient Stone Pestles

I took my niece and her son (age 9) target shooting on public land near Alta in Placer County. We used my Sheridan Blue Streak air rifle, my first firearm, acquired when I was about thirteen. With that rifle I had my luckiest shot ever, in Tehama County around age fifteen, the target being a California valley quail running up a small rise some twenty yards away. I took quick aim and fired. The 5mm lead pellet entered the bird's breast. But the quail had its revenge, for it fell amidst poison oak bushes. This was my first real exposure to poison oak. I got oil on my arms and face, and for days afterwards I suffered greatly.

I taped a paper target to a cardboard box, and atop the box I set aluminum soda cans. My niece was familiar with firearms - I'd taken her to Dillman Range in Lincoln three times before. But this was her son's first time handling a firearm, so I gave him a safety briefing: shooting firearms is not a game; a firearm is not a toy; always consider a firearm to be loaded; never point a firearm at what you don't intend to shoot; &tc &tc. And then, to drive the point home, I told him what I was told many, many years ago. Pointing to the barrel of the rifle, I said, "This is where Death lives." We then commenced target shooting.

What a magnificent spot to spend the day! Some 1800 feet below us was the North Fork American River. Before us was the expanse of the canyons, covered with pine trees and manzanita bushes, and to the west was Giant Gap. To the east and 26 miles away stood Tinker Knob at the crest of the Sierra, elevation 8901 feet. The December storms brought much-needed snow to the Sierra, but warmer weather followed, and now here and there the andesite rocks on the sun-exposed west slope of Tinker Knob could be seen, meaning a low snow level, not good for our drought situation.

And we had this place to ourselves, mostly. Two people in an old sedan bearing Washington state license plates drove up and parked nearby. We paused shooting until they disappeared on their day hike. This topography transported to a flatland state out east would be a national park crawling with people.

The sky had been overcast and the temperature chilly upon our arrival around eleven o'clock, but soon the sun poked through and warmed things up. The dead of winter in California.

A short distance from the practice site, on the return drive, I stopped to show the two a small slate bedrock with some five grinding mortars. A Nisenan village had stood here. It was a good spot to live. A spring with fresh water was close by. Deer and other game were in the surrounding forests. There were salmon runs in the river (no longer, due to dams). Over thousands of years, generations of Nisenan women had sat at this bedrock, grinding seeds and nuts into meal, making the mortar holes deeper and deeper.

I had been here several times before, but it was my niece who discovered the rock pestle buried halfway in the soil. It fit perfectly in the hand, the flat side to the palm, fingers easily grasping it, the rounded side matching the concavity of the mortar holes. When had a Nisenan woman last used it? Was it right up to the Gold Rush, when the Argonauts came in a ran off those Nisenan they did not kill outright? And when was it first used? 1000 years ago? 4000 years ago? One thing was for certain, the rock was not from the rough slate here. It was rounded and polished in a riverbed, and the nearest riverbed was some 2000 feet below us. We set the pestle back into the hole, made it appear undisturbed, and continued on our way.

Hike to Tinker Knob

To mark the tenth anniversary of my open heart surgery, I hiked the Pacific Crest Trail from Donner Summit to Tinker Knob, a round trip of 15 miles.

I departed the trailhead (elevation 7,063 feet) at nine o'clock. A pair of runners took off ahead of me. This is a popular trail. I would see a few runners, and many hikers, including a few people walking the entire length of the Pacific Crest Trail, from the border of Mexico to the border of Canada.

I've lost count of the number of times I've ascended the steep granodiorite face just beyond the trailhead. Sometimes I went to Donner Peak, other times to Mount Judah. A few times I went to Tinker Knob, elevation 8,949 feet. I know I've stood atop Tinker Knob twice. Maybe I've been atop it three times. I'd have to go through my journals to be certain. One thing I know - the camera has not been invented that captures the grandeur seen from the crest of the Sierra Nevada.

The trail in places is literally on the crest of the Sierra, rain on the west side of the trail flowing to the Pacific Ocean, rain on the east side flowing into the Great Basin.

Today I spoke with two women on solo hikes of the entire length of the trail. The first was an American, in her early thirties. Later I met a woman in her early fifties who spoke English with an accent, possibly Danish or Swedish. She said hiking the trail was the most incredible experience of her life. Over the years I've spoken with several women making a solo hike of the entire trail. I wonder how many were inspired by the book Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed.

I met a group of three men in their fifties, and spoke at length with one, a ham radio operator who inquired about the Kenwood TH-F6 radio attached to my Osprey pack. He said that this was the first day of a three week hike for his friends and him. They were hiking the Pacific Crest Trail from Donner Summit to Yosemite. They were from Oregon and go on many long hikes throughout the Western United States.

Most of my hike was spent alone, my thoughts going here and there, while I took in the views around me.

I reached Tinker Knob around 12:30 PM. Tinker Knob is the core of an ancient volcano. I spoke briefly with a couple coming down from the summit. There is no marked route to the top. I tried to follow the couple's path to the top, but could not find a safe route. I looked about. Nothing looked certain. This is not a good place to suffer an injury. I decided it best to turn around.

I made two 2-meter contacts with my Kenwood radio from the crest, both with 5 watts of power. The first transmission was on the west side of Anderson Peak. I was just above the headwaters of the North Fork American River, and my signal bounced down the canyon walls to the W6EK repeater in Auburn, a distance of about 50 miles. I spoke with a man in Foresthill, and he said I was his first ham radio contact. I regret not writing down his call sign, but perhaps we will talk again. Later, between Tinker Knob and Anderson Peak, I again reached the W6EK repeater, this time talking with a fellow member of the Sierra Foothills Amateur Radio Club. We switched to a simplex frequency, and my 5-watt signal made it some 75 miles to his house in Sacramento.

A strong breeze blew over the crest on the return hike, and the sun beat down, with the temperature about 85 degrees. (It was about 105 degrees in the Sacramento Valley). I was well-hydrated at the start of the hike. During the hike I went through 2.5 liters of water and 1 liter of Gatorade. Still, I was very thirsty on the last mile of the hike, and my thoughts turned to the cold beer in my refrigerator. I reached my vehicle at 4:45 PM, downed a half-liter of warm Gatorade, and headed home.

Approach to Tinker Knob, from the north

View from the east slope of Tinker Knob, to the south shore of Lake Tahoe

View west from the crest of the Sierra, between Tinker Knob and
Anderson Peak, to the canyons of the North Fork American River