Placer County Highpoint Trip Report

shoulder of Mount Baldy (39.27944° N, 120.00564° W)

Date: September 22, 2008
Author: Jerry Brekhus

The County High Points book currently shows the CoHP as Granite Chief, 9006 feet. However, the state line shared by Placer County, CA and Washoe County, NV rises to 9040+ on the shoulder of Nevada's Mount Baldy. It is about 4 miles north of Stateline Point on Lake Tahoe.

Andy Martin has taken a look at this and agrees that this liner appears to supplant Granite Chief. About two dozen highpointers thought they had covered California. By the rules, these current CA completers don't have to visit this point to maintain their claims of completion but I suspect that Mount Baldy and the nearby state line will see a sudden rise in visits by hikers from that select group. The FRL presently lists the following 23 CA completers: Suttle, Broeckel, Johnson, Pease, Gaines, Sarna, Moulton, Hartman, Mendelson, Heaton, Schuler, Packard, Earl, Helman, Carey, Hanna, Ashbrook, Jones, Martin, Burd, Baxter, Poulin, "D Milktoast".

Ron Tagliapietra reported a climb of Granite Chief as recently as September 2.

Andy provides this link to map the point.

The map shows a trail that passes very near the "new" county high point. Unless California cedes a few acres to Nevada, those who complete California in the future will need to visit this point on their way to completion.