Sunday, July 14, 2024
The trail from Bolan Lake up to Bolan Mountain burned in the 2020 Slater Fire. I heard that the Siskiyou Mountain Club had recently cleared it, so I went to check it out.
The weather was miserably hot so I got an early start. The lake was quiet when I stopped to check it out before doing the hike.
The trail starts at the top of the second campground loop and is easy to miss:
I could see where the SMC had cut back the brush:
There was a lot of this flower that had gone to seed. I believe this is arnica. Must have looked fantastic a few weeks ago:
Some of the campground trees survived the fire, but after leaving the campground behind it was pretty much all burnt forest. There was a whole bunch of bracken fern in the burn:
Once I got high enough I had a view through the burnt trees to the east:
I saw some wildflowers along the way, which was a pleasant surprise:
The trail traversed along the base of a rocky cliff:
I reached the top of the ridge. The trail made a slight descent:
Then I reached a junction with the Kings Saddle Trail and turned right:
Looking back at the all wooly sunflower:
Wow, look at all this lupine gone to seed! This must have looked incredible when it was blooming:
Althouse Mountain and Bolan Mountain visible beyond the burnt snags:
I reached Road 535 and turned left. I was soon at the summit, where workers were rebuilding the lookout, which burned in the wildfire:
I briefly talked to one of them. They said the plan was to finish reconstruction this summer and have a ribbon-cutting in September. Amazing!
View of Bolan Lake:
Looking northeast towards Grayback Mountain:
Looking west:
Looking northwest. Road 535 is visible at the bottom of the photo:
Looking southwest at Preston Peak, with Road 4812 below:
Wanting to be done hiking before it got too hot, I didn’t linger long at the summit and soon headed back down
Nice to see this area coming back to life after the fire!
Gaia stats: 3.2 miles, 775′ elevation gain
