Echo Peak

DATE: Sunday, October 11, 2020
DISTANCE: 7.98km / 4.96 miles
ELEVATION GAIN: 918m / 3013’
TIME TAKEN: 5:20
ELDORADO NATIONAL FOREST
DESOLATION WILDERNESS
ELDORADO COUNTY, CA
STOLEN WASHOE LAND
SOUNDTRACK: Pink Floyd: Echoes

SUMMITS:
• Peak 7758 (“Dumbo”) /  2365m
• Flagpole Peak: 2549m / 8363’
• Echo Peak: 2711m / 8895’
• Peak 8760’ / 2670m
• Indian Rock 2621m / 8600’
• Angora Peak (2X): 2617m / 8586’

PHOTO ALBUM
MAP

 Angora Peak previously climbed September 29, 2020

 

CONTINUED: Previous day’s hike: Freel Peak

This day’s hike describes a point to point traverse of the ridge north of Echo Lakes, with six summits attained along the way. This is almost completely off trail, but can be done over pretty easy terrain if you so choose, with a few exceptions. A brief class 3 scramble is inevitable to get to the very top of Flagpole Peak, and the crux of the trip is a stiff class 3 (some say class 4) down and up climb through a rocky notch between Peak 8760 and Indian Rock. Almost unlimited bonus scrambling on high quality granite can be had in this area if you’re into that sort of thing!

Awaking again at Fallen Leaf Campground, Alex and I decided to use our bikes that we had both brought and check out the path out to Baldwin Beach, which was pleasing to the senses of course. We had a clear sunny day on our hands now, just the type that was meant to be spent hiking at Lake Tahoe. We returned to camp and packed up. Then, since we had bikes AND two cars, we used all of the vehicles in our next maneuver. We put both bikes on Alex’s bike rack, and dropped his car up at the Angora Lakes parking lot. Then biked back down, past the Angora Lookout (nice views of Fallen Leaf Lake and Tallac), back to the campground, where we threw the bikes into my van, and drove up to the Echo Lake parking lot, starting the hike from there. With all of the morning’s beach going and driving and biking around we didn’t start hiking until 12:30PM, but it wasn’t a big deal since we only anticipated about five miles.

We crossed the bridge at the east end of Echo Lake and followed the trail west for a few minutes, before heading uphill, over the granite towards what we presumed was Flagpole Peak, the first stop on our agenda.Instead, we arrived at another, lower summit, Peak 7758, which someone later called “Dumbo.” The day was cloudless, Echo Lake sparkling, and we already had views of the Crystal Range coming into sight. From the top of Dumbo, we now had a clear view of Flagpole Peak and our path to get to it. We descended down into a sandy saddle, and then got right to the excellent granite that awaited. There’s probably an easier way up, but we found extremely fun class three most of the way: ramps, slabs, cracks, you name it, it was a granite paradise! It was about 1:45PM when we made it to the top of Flagpole Peak (yes, there is a flagpole), there were two fellas up there already who told us of their ascent route, and of the colloquial name (“Dumbo”) for Peak 7758. After admiring the view (almost straight down on the lake!) we wished them well, and carried on.

The next goal, Echo Peak, the day’s highest point, could have been reached more easily and faster if we had stuck to the south side of the ridge, but we chose to stick right along the top, where we took every opportunity to get into class three scrambles on the excellent rock. At that pace, we didn’t reach the summit of Echo Peak until after 3PM. Echo Peak is more of a ridge highpoint, and not a very interesting peak, but the view was sublime, with Angora Lakes, Fallen Leaf and Tahoe spilling out in front of us like a sapphire necklace. We enjoyed the peak and a snack, and had a nice chat with a nerdy couple from Davis that had hiked up there. Next came an easy section, north on the sandy ridgeline, where we passed over Peak 8760, a bump so insignificant that we didn’t even notice it. Just after that, the soft ridge came to an abrupt end, and we approached the fractured granite notch that separated us from Indian rock. This required a downclimb on the granite jumble with a steep slope on one side, and VERY steep cliffs on the other side. Alex led the way down, gracefully, and then chose a successful route up the other side. The rock was of good quality, and we had no issues. Some have denoted this section as class 4. I’ll let you judge it for yourself!

Next up was the summit of Indian Rock, which was less a peak, and more like the high point at the edge of a huge cliff. Indeed, it towers over 2,000 feet above the Glen Alpine Creek area to the north, and is quite an impressive sight from that direction! Now it was time for the sixth, and final summit of the day, Angora Peak, which I had visited just twelve days earlier, from the other side, unfortunately in a smoky haze. I was happy to have a clear day for the return visit. It was now about 4:30, and we took almost an hour to pick our way over to Angora Peak, slowing our pace now, coming to the end of a busy two days. Once more, we met another pair of hikers at the top of the peak, this time a local couple. They complained about the amount of outsiders (sorry!) flooding the region during the pandemic and confirmed our suspicion that it was still unusually busy, for October. The Angora Peak summit register that I had signed less than two weeks ago was gone, so we made our final descent now, twilight crawling in, down the slopes to Alex’s car in the Angora Lakes parking lot. He gave me a ride to my van back at Echo Lake, we sorted out our bikes in the now darkness, and went our own ways back to the Bay Area, through the snaking highways of the California night.

FURTHER READING
• Bob Burd: Does a similar traverse
• The Outbound: Flagpole Peak from Echo Summit
• Greg Lamy: Echo Peak from Echo Lake
• Trails Guide: Angora Peak from the east
• Peak 7758 (“Dumbo”) on PEAKBAGGER
• Flagpole Peak on SUMMITPOST and PEAKBAGGER
• Echo Peak on SUMMITPOST and PEAKBAGGER
• Peak 8760 on PEAKBAGGER
• Indian Rock on PEAKBAGGER
• Angora Peak on PEAKBAGGER