Three Sisters, Peak 8350 and Wysup Peak

Hiked: 9/17/2025
Distance: 13.1 miles round trip on dirt road, use trail and cross country
Summit Elevation: 8100' (Three Sisters), 8986' (Wysup)
Elevation Gain: 3026'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 2.4
Round trip time: 6 hours 15 minutes
Recommended water: 94 oz.
Parking/Fees: Free on Forest Road 1N02
Difficulty: Moderate

Three Sisters (HPS #66) and Wysup Peak (HPS #31) are peaks south of Big Bear, accessible from Forest Road 1N02. The road was paved at the start, but quickly turned to dirt. It passed Heart Bar campground, equestrian camps, and ended near Coon Creek cabins. I drove past a couple of partial wash outs (one on the paved road, one on the dirt road). The road grew steadily worse with large rocks and deep sand. I parked about 1.3 miles from the cabins where the road went around a downed tree, expecting the road to continue to degrade. About 500' into the hike, I realized I could have driven further and turned around to head back to the truck. However, I changed my mind again before reaching it since my tire tread was getting a little thin.

Wysup was the closest peak, about a mile up the PCT that intersects the road by the cabin. I left it for the return since Three Sisters was more involved. Just before the second cabin, a huge washout marked the end of vehicular traffic. I continued along the road, taking a split right toward Three Sisters. I followed the abandoned road a few more miles before being able to see the ridge with Three Sisters. Despite being on a dirt road, it felt remote and offered solitude. After the road ended, I picked up a faint use trail and random cairns. The Sierra Club moved the official summit a couple of times due to private property issues. To reach it, I had to hike over a couple of intervening bumps, the highest being Peak 8350. I went over the top on the way out. The next bump was smaller. I wasn't paying much attention to the use trail and did a combo bushwhack/scramble down the second bump. A brush free route was available and I took advantage of it coming back. The summit rocks on Three Sisters were class 2. I looked around in vain for a benchmark or register. A small cairn was the only monument I found on the summit. There were great views of San Jacinto. After pinging my wife with the Garmin mini, I headed back.

Parking spot. I could have driven around the tree and continued, but didn't.

San Jacinto

Going over Peak 8350

Three Sisters summit

Looking back at the ridge and Peak 8350
Once I started getting close to the PCT, I had to decide if I was going to attempt Wysup. My issue was getting back in time for a physical therapy appointment. I had to account for the extra distance back to the truck. The timing was going to be close, but I decided to commit. The PCT was a dream to hike along, though there was a large tree over the trail I had to crawl under. A use trail runs from the PCT to Wysup, though I never saw an obvious start to it. I just started up the ridge line, then found both a path and some cairns. There were many jumbles of rocks competing for the high point. I followed the trail to the fun class 3 summit. Again, I found no benchmark and no register. Not my lucky day. I got some quick photos, then started down. I checked my time and was behind schedule. I could see the road below and didn't want to hit all the switchbacks that would ultimately drop me further away. I hatched a plan to take a steep gully down. It looked at least partially open, though I didn't know if it cliffed out later. It was wide open at the top, but got more clogged with trees and rocks the lower I got. It never got bad, though. While steep and loose, it spit me out on the road at least half a mile closer to the truck. I finished 15 minutes ahead of my goal time and easily made my appointment. Despite the long dirt road sections, both of these peaks were more interesting than I expected and quite enjoyable.

PCT intersection

Wysup is one of those bumps

Wysup summit blocks

San Gorgonio and dark clouds brewing

Shortcut gully

Mount Starr

Hiked: 9/13/2025
Distance: 9.9 miles round trip on trail and cross country
Summit Elevation: 12864'
Elevation Gain: 3136'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 2.5
Round trip time: 7 hours 30 minutes
Recommended water: 104 oz.
Parking/Fees: Free at Mosquito Flat parking lot
Difficulty: Strenuous

Madison (Uncle Rico) Christian invited me to tackle Mount Starr in the Eastern Sierra. We met up in Bishop and drove to the Mosquito Flats trailhead, relatively uncrowded this time of year. We started at 7:30 AM with temps around 35F. Within the first mile, we reached the Mono Pass trail branching right. The trail junction was in the shadow of Mount Starr to the north. Shortly after that, we passed the Ruby Lake trail junction. From there, a series of switchbacks zigzagged up the north east flank of Starr to a (currently) dry gully feeding Ruby Lake. The trail continued up to Mono Pass at just over 12000'. We met another hiker at the pass who was also headed to Starr (Matt Parker). After chatting a bit, Madison and I began to climb one of two obvious use trails on the west face of Starr.

Bear Creek Spire at the end

Lookout Mountain center right

East face of Mount Starr

Ruby Lake below, Lookout Mountain behind

The hiker we met at Mono Pass
The use trails braided, then faded. We drifted south ascending sand, gravel, and intermittent boulders. We were back in the shade on the west face and it was quite cold. Some of the shaded boulders had a thin, invisible layer of ice. When we reached the ridge, I expected a relatively easy traverse to the summit. However, we needed to drop off the top of the ridge for faster progress. We scrambled over and around large boulders, but the rock was solid. Most of our ridge work was class 2, with some class 3 when we didn't want to give up more elevation. Since the summit was near the north end of the ridge, it might have been better to stick to a 45 degree angle from the pass. The summit was small with room for at most two people. We took turns on the summit, then signed one of three registers in plastic containers. The 360 views were killer. We were lucky with the weather and saw no smoke from the huge Garnet Fire raging in Fresno county. About 15 minutes later, two other hikers joined us on top. As we started down, we waved at Matt, who was almost to the finish. We decided to drop almost straight down the west face with a combination of scrambling and scree skiing. We separated a little to keep from dislodging rocks on each other. I doubt a direct ascent would be easier or more fun that doing the ridge traverse. We ended up dropping about 100' below the pass. On the way back, we took the Ruby Lake trail to the shore, looking at our options for climbing Lookout Mountain. After some consideration, we decided to save it for a future outing. I would have needed to filter some water and we were both feeling sluggish. Starr was an idyllic end of summer destination.

Mount Starr summit

Box Lake, Long Lake, Chicken Foot Lake

Summit Lake below. Bloody Mountain, Laurel Mountain, Red and White Mountain in the distance

Summit hang

Ruby Lake

Brokeoff Mountain

Hiked: 8/31/2025
Distance: 7.8 miles round trip on trail
Summit Elevation: 9238'
Elevation Gain: 2690'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 2.1
Round trip time: 4 hours 15 minutes
Recommended water: 80 oz.
Parking/Fees: $30 National Parks Fee or National Parks Pass (*)
Difficulty: Moderate

note: The trailhead for Brokeoff is inside the park, but outside the entrance gate. There are signs stating that you need to pay the entrance fee to hike, but it's unclear how it is enforced.

On our last day at Lassen, Leisa and I hiked the Bumpass Hell trail to smoldering geothermic pools. It was a nice three mile warm up, but somewhat disappointing for the effort. The first couple of photos were from Bumpass Hell. Then, we drove outside the entrance gate to a paved parking lot with room for about a dozen cars. The trail started across the road with tall grass encroaching on the footpath. Soon, the trail opened up and we crossed a swampy creek over logs. We were more than a mile into the hike before we were able to see Brokeoff above the trees. This was our only other planned destination for the day, so we kept it in low gear. The trail went directly at the cliff face before veering toward the base of the ridge. Views started to open up as we gained elevation and the forest thinned into tall cedars and varieties of ground cover. A long segment of trail cut an angle up the slope to the ridge, then made a sharp turn east for the final approach.

Brokeoff Mountain from the Lassen trail

We walked below the NW summit, about 40' lower than the true summit. As on Lassen, the upper part of the mountain was buffeted by strong and steady wind. We continued on to the main summit with beautiful 360 views and only had to share it with one other couple. The cliffs below the summit were crumbly and vertical. We had a great look at Lassen and could make out Shasta better than from Lassen, but the top was still lost in haze and it didn't show up in the photos. We didn't find any benchmarks or a register. For lunch, we dropped 50' off the summit to the shelter of a small pine tree that blocked the wind. Since we had a few bars of cell service on top, we wasted some time goofing off before starting down. The trail was busier on the way down, but not nearly as busy as Lassen. Brokeoff Mountain was the highest remnant of Mount Tehama, an extinct volcano that was higher than Lassen half a million years ago. It was a fun hike and recommended when visiting Lassen Volcanic National Park.

Leisa and I on the summit

Looking over at the lower NW summit