Mt Bailey

Five of us headed north to climb Mt. Bailey. After some discussion on which route to take, we decided to start at the upper trailhead. This involved driving on a challenging dirt road. Because Francie had agreed to drive her Tahoe or suburban today, we were able to drive to the starting point, despite a very (think big rocks, etc.) challenging dirt road, thus reducing 1 mile of hiking on the dirt road each way.

This became a 6 mile, 2,500 vertical feet hike, instead of 8 miles. The first third is up through a forest. At some point, we got views of Mt. Thielsen and Diamond Lake. Then it transitions to above timberline and the rocky part of Mt. Bailey becomes our background. We did get some occasional snowflakes during the day, but the wind was not over powering. However, it was in the mid 40’s when we started, dropped to the mid 30’s on top and then back to the mid 40’s the rest of the day.

We found some of the moisture in the air was freezing on one side of some of the trees. We all took our picture by the “hole in the rock” that frames Diamond Lake. The views were good, but the clouds limited our view to some of the closer mountains. The clouds and trailing water looked like we were going to get soaked, but it was more clouds and a bit of snow, not rain. This route continues to be one of our favorite hikes in the portfolio.

Hike Leader: Keeley

Photos By: Francie, Keeley