Yolo County Highpoint Trip Report
Date: October 20, 2006
Author: Chad Thomas
I completed a bushwhacking trip up Little Blue Peak, following the BLM route
both directions, and found it to be perhaps the perfect weekend/time of year for
the trip - which, after reading some previous reports, I had been dreading for
some time.
To access the trailhead, I drove west on Highway 16 from I-505 30 miles to the
CR 40 / Rayhouse Road exit (I called the County Planning and Public Works
Department at 530-666-8775 to confirm the road was open). After about 4.5 miles
from Highway 16, go straight through a 4-way junction and at about 11 miles
reach the trailhead on the right side of the road, marked by some metal posts
connected by a cable.
The path was made straightforward by carefully following the notes DMT posted on
the Milktoast Highway on summitpost and Bob Burd's map (also available through
summitpost) - my thanks to both of these guys! From the end of the dirt road
down to Davis Creek, I'm not sure I went the best way - started down too early
and had to work my way around some steep, loose dirt areas. On the return,
I came up a different way that had some old survey tape in some areas but still
took a bit of route-finding.
Once at the creek I got my biggest present of the day. I'd planned on having
wet feet all day but it was completely dry except for a few stagnant puddles
that were easily avoided (taking much of the effort out of working my way up the creek).
At the creek exit I ended up diverging from the path shown on Bob
Burd's map - just a bit west of it. From here, the easiest route kept pushing
me further west and I actually ended up heading towards and reaching the road
right in front of Butte Rock. This route was easy enough. After the initial
steep hill is passed (about 0.1-0.15 mile), there was only very minimal additional
brush to work through - almost all grassy meadows. Not sure if the other route
is just as easy but if you lose the path through the brush I wouldn't recommend
trying to fight back to it unless you turn directly around to start over again.
Also, if you go this route and plan to return on it, be sure you turn around for
a look after you pass creek beds or trees. The route down isn't directly downhill.
A lot of people noted in the register being tortured by flies,
another hassle that can be avoided by a fall ascent.
The gear list DMT posted was also helpful. I had an old pair of canvas pants I
purchased at a surplus store years ago that made pushing through the brush much
less miserable and work gloves were a must.
Roundtrip was about 8.5 miles, took about 4 hours up, 1 hour on the top,
and about 2.5 hours down, followed by a scrubbing with Technu at the trailhead.
Didn't notice much poison oak, perhaps the leaves were gone.
I am very sensitive to it though but with a good scrubbing ASAP
I have avoided any ill effects.