Yuba County High Point Trip Report

Sugar Pine Peak (4825+ ft)

Date: May 21, 2000
Author: John Sarna

The directions to Sugar Pine Peak in Gary Suttle's "California County Summits" indicated a left turn onto a white gravel road from milepost 5.5 on FS04. However, it didn't look promising on my Plumas National Forest Map, so we proceeded further to find several more turnoffs, some also covered with white gravel.

After a rather warm night's camp, we decided to follow the directions in the County Summit's book to the letter, trying the 5.5 mile turnoff anyway. We were heartened to find the anticipated cross-roads 3.3 miles in, but the "place to park" (0.3 miles further) left us looking over a wide valley, which obviously wasn't the high point. Having "been there and done that" before, I turned to my GPS which I'd marked with Gary's place-to-park and the location of Sugar Pine Peak itself. Hence, we backtracked to the cross-roads and followed a few lightly traveled logging roads to find the gravel road and finally, the "trailhead". For those who are interested, the correct turnoff from FS04 is 6.2 miles from its start, and it's in a small canyon rather than the much larger one you cross about 3 miles in on FS04.

In any case, it was a nice stroll up to the peak. I could not find any trace of the pile of pine cones, or see the prior register, which I'd signed in the last time I was on the peak almost a decade before.

To make it easier for others to navigate the maze of logging roads to the trailhead, below are the GPS coordinates which I acquired during this trip. Also listed is the location of Poverty Hill, where we found some water pipes and stoves, including a "tin ginny", mostly buried near a creek. It's sad to have to say that a good part of the old site appears to be buried under a new white-gravel mine, the purpose of which seems to be to cover the maze of logging roads in the area.

IDNT	LATITUDE	LONGITUDE	DESCRIPTION
------	------------	---------------	-----------------
STRW-V	N3933.85894	W12106.43414	STRAWBERRY VALLEY
SV-FH	N3934.40998	W12106.00992	STRAWBERRY VALLEY FIREHOUSE
0-RGHT	N3935.04598	W12104.86730	TURN RIGHT OFF HWY
1-LFT	N3934.57735	W12102.88687	TURN LEFT MILE POST 6.2
2-EAST	N3936.39331	W12101.36123	PARK - HIKE EAST ROAD
3-GRVL	N3936.34374	W12101.12594	GRAVEL ENDS
4SADDL	N3936.33473	W12100.82468	ON SADDLE
5SADDL	N3936.31188	W12100.85171	ON SADDLE
6-LEFT	N3936.35179	W12100.79925	HIKE LEFT X-COUNTRY
SP-PK	N3936.45672	W12100.88873	SUGAR PINE PEAK
WRONG	N3936.79982	W12102.63774	TOOK WRONG 5.5 MI ROAD TO BE HERE
P-POVH	N3937.11525	W12100.31323	PARK FOR POVERTY HILL
P-HILL	N3937.34378	W12100.40658	POVERTY HILL SITE3