Black Hawk Mountain 10,348′
Sierra Nevada
Total Time: 10:05
Distance: 20.8 miles
Elevation Gain: 7000′
Crux: Class 3
Trailhead: Kennedy Meadows- Full services
Thanks to the historic fires resulting in park and forest closures across the state, it was looking like September was going to be the first month I wouldn’t have a long outing in the Sierras. Luckily, a shift in the winds and some forest reopenings in Northern California gave me a chance to get one in at the very end of the month. I decided to look at the Sonora Pass area, having only been up once before. On that trip I climbed Stanislaus and Sonora Peak, and attempted Leavitt Peak in the afternoon. Unfortunately I was pinned down in a clump of shoulder high shrubs for an hour in one of the most violent hail and thunder storms I’ve ever been in, one of the few times I’ve been genuinely afraid by storms in the Sierra. So I wasn’t looking to head back to Leavitt just yet. Disaster Peak seemed too short of an outing, only about 9 miles, and Tower Peak, which would be around 30, seemed too long for a random weekday off. So I settled on the Goldilocks option of Black Hawk Mountain, which would be a bit over 20 miles and a shorter drive than the pass itself. I got out of work and headed north, sleeping about 10 miles before Kennedy Meadows off a forest road along the highway. I awoke at sunrise and finished the drive, getting to the mostly empty trailhead before the sun was fully up over the mountains above. I had been to the southern Kennedy Meadows before, but this was my first visit to the northern one, amenities somewhat limited thanks to COVID. I started south down the gated road into the meadow proper, passing the stock pens and a grazing area along a slowly moving river.
At about a quarter mile, the road changed to a single track trail as it hooked left up canyon, slowly gaining elevation. I crossed an old metal bridge and reach a signed that I assumed to be a trail junction.
I admit I did not look at this sign closely, but from my maps remembered seeing a junction that I needed to keep right at at some point. I learned on my return that this sign simply said “Trail” pointing to the left, but I turned right onto the very well defined use trail, thinking it was the right way. Although steeper, this use trail still had footprints from stock leading me to think I was indeed on the right track, and cut up the canyon towards Relief Lake. As I climbed along the flanks of a granite dome, I needed to drop down slightly to a creek crossing with a large milled log. As I gingerly stepped across, I realized it was one of the sketchiest creek crossings I’ve been on, the wood bouncing with every step above a good 15′ drop into the chasm below, and the sides of the wood were singed by an old fire.
As I crossed the creek the trail entered granite slabs and it was unclear where the route went from here. A faint trail led to a gauging station, but dead ended in the brush. I knew the general direction I needed to head towards Relief Lake and pushed on through the brush, hitting various use trails but nothing that lasted very long. The dam came into view ahead and the use trails improved somewhat as I steeply scrambled up to a staircase on the left side of the dam wall. I was now convinced I was no longer on the trail, and was happy to spot what looked like a flat road around the east side of the lake that I figured was the trail I had lost.
I stopped for my first short break of the day for water and a snack, then continued down the road, only to find it too dead ended at a number of campsites. I broke out the GPS here and realized I was several hundred feet below the trail, and set off through more brush to regain the trail above. While annoying, this cross country detour brought me through one of the nicest Aspen groves of the day, many of the trees already turning golden for the fall.
When I did reach the trail, I figured it would be smooth sailing, my sad attempts at route finding hopefully over. As I left Relief Lake behind me, the trail climbed steeply to another junction, the right going to Relief Valley, the left taking me to the base of Black Hawk Mountain. I passed one of the only backpackers I would see all day as Black Hawk Mountain rounded into view, and I started to look for a spot to leave the trail to head cross country towards the summit.
A ridge of rock splitting the Lewis Lake and Black Hawk Lakes basins was one option for the cross country ascent, but it looked like it would involve traversing a few false summits. So I continued a bit past, leaving the trail in the narrow drainage heading up to Black Hawk Lake. Although brushy a bit lower down, the drainage had overall clean granite slabs, and what little class 3 I did encounter was easy to surmount.
Water draining from Black Hawk late appeared part way up, and I scrambled along the water directly where I could, a narrow slot canyon in portions with a few small waterfalls. I left the water edge as I neared Black Hawk Lake scrambling up granite ramps to the left and with Black Hawk Mountain summit finally in view. The summit itself was black volcanic talus much like Relief Peak behind me, a stark contrast to the clean granite slabs I had been enjoying all morning.
A tongue of granite extended up and to the right of some remaining snowfields, and I tried to utilize the clean rock as long as I could before moving on to the volcanic scree and talus, much of it akin to walking on marbles on a tile floor. Thankfully this scree was short lived, and I reached the broad summit about 5 hours from starting out. The views to the south and southeast into Yosemite National Park were tremendous, although the smoke from the Creek Fire obscured views of the Merced subgroup and beyond. Relief Peak dominated the view to the north, although Mokelumne Peak could be seen to the northwest. Tower Peak was not far to the east, a future long dayhike to look forward to.
Having not had a day in the High Sierra to myself for some time, I spent a while at the summit eating lunch and enjoying the views and comparatively smoke free skies. After about 30 minutes I packed my things and started back down the way I came, passing Black Hawk Lake and redescending along the stream edge. It took me about 1.5 hours from the summit to make it back down to the trail, and I filtered a liter of water in Summit Creek before continuing along. I was almost to Relief Lake when a voice called out, nearly scaring me off the trail. It was a packer with three stock, the only person I had seen all day since the solo backpacker that morning. She quickly left me in her dust and I continued along the trail above the lake, not planning to drop down and repeat my bushwack ascent on the way down. Yet amazingly, as I passed the dam, I somehow got on the wrong trail again, this one leading to some sort of underground bunker built into a granite dome.
I cursed at myself once I realized my mistake, then half jogged down as a form of self punishment. This portion of the trail was truly gorgeous with cataracts spilling down from Kennedy Creek and unnamed drainages above, as well as a cool bridge spanning a narrow but deep gorge. I was disappointed that I had missed this on the way up, although the sketchy milled log crossing kind of made up for it?
I started to pass a few more people when I reached the dirt road into Kennedy Meadows and hit my car at about 5:15, the entire day taking around 10 hours. I briefly looked at the menu at Kennedy Meadows but decided against the wait and headed back down Sonora Pass, stopping for a late dinner in Merced before making it home before 9 PM.