Martis and Andresite Peak

To celebrate the extra hour woke up early and drove to the new Martis Valley area off 267. A nature group just purchased some property (Waddle Ranch) and it's now public land and safe from development. This looks like a great place to snow shoe (once it snows) but a little boring for hiking.

Drove a bit up 267 and took an unnamed road that turned out to be the Martis Peak road. At a gate, maybe a half mile from the summit, I donned boots and Commando and I headed up. The road is paved and there was only one noisy dirt bike. Several mountain bikers passed. There is a fire lookout and the view is spectacular!

You can see all of the Lake Tahoe basin and all of the Truckee basin surrounded by all of the big peaks. Someone has carved a map of the peaks above the windows and on a clear day you can see Mt. Lassen. Beautiful.

We took a short jaunt (100 feet?) up to the actual summit where the fire lookout used to be. Other than congratulating ourselves for summiting, the view was just not as good.

This hadn't been much of a hike so we drove back to 80 and then took the Castle Peak exit (Boreal Ski area is also here). We drove up a very, very bad road and didn't quite make it to the top. Commando and I once again set forth and hiked up to the saddle, then took the Hole-In-The-Wall trail back down past Andresite Peak. I was certainly tired and didn't try for the scramble to the top but enjoyed the view of Castle Peak.

This is really a mountain bike trail (although all are welcome to use it) and it had short cement sections to protect the terrain. I had mixed feelings. On the one hand, it's nice to protect the terrain. On the other hand, the short cement sections seem to take some of the wildness out of the experience.

Or maybe I was just jealous. As I was coming down from the top, 2 mountain bikers came up the trail. They were moving relatively fast and one guy was telling a boring story about an eye exam as they pedaled past. So, legs of steel and lungs of steel.

Great, great day. Commando met many dogs and sniffed them all. He played chase with only two dogs.