Last weekend Adam and I made a quick trip to the Sacramento area to bag a few more CA county HPs. The pickings were limited because of the season, but I had carefully left behind a few that would be accessible now. First Adam and I met up with Trapper Robbins and Roxanne Everett, a nice couple from Seattle who were making a county HP foray to CA. Together the four of us climbed South Butte of Sutter county.
South Butte is privately owned and was formerly accessible through a guided hike with the Middle Mountain Foundation. However the guided hikes now go to a different mountain and my efforts to arrange legal access on an individual basis were unsuccessful, so our only remaining option was to stealth it. We had originally planned to make the ascent at night via the paved road to the summit. However, when we scouted out the area the previous morning, it was a nice day and we were so charmed by the mountain that we felt the trip would be much more enjoyable by day, so we decided to do it by day in the bush. On Sunday Adam and I climbed Carpenter Hill, at 828 feet the lowest of the county HPs in CA. Adam did it walking backwards. Lori Siemens, an old friend from Furman, now lives only about 5 miles away from it, so I took the opportunity to visit her and she joined us on the hike. We also took the opportunity to bag two county prominent points in the area: Bloomer Hill of Butte county and Chitterden Ridge of Yuba county. Bloomer Hill is a delightful knob surrounded on three sides by Lake Oroville. The forested and otherwise view-limited summit has a lookout with a nice view from the top. Chitterden Ridge is an obscure foothill covered by heavy brush in places. It was slow going and I wasn't always sure we'd make it.