Homers Nose and Homers Brow

Homers Nose 9023′ and Homers Brow 8942′
Sierra Nevada
Total Time: 11:30
Distance: 13.6 miles
Elevation Gain: 7380′
Crux: Class 1d
Trailhead: South Fork Campground, trash, pit toilets

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Homers Nose is one of the more infamous peaks on the Sierra Peak Section List. By no means the most difficult, it’s standard route from the south is a notorious bushwack with poison oak, steep brushy slopes and significant deadfall. There are a few options that avoid the overgrown southern route including a series of fire roads on private property to the north, along with a longer route from the east, typically done as a backpack. I had considered utilizing a set of legal fire roads out of Three Rivers with the Salt Creek trailhead, but I was overdue for a little suffering and landed on the typical southern approach. Driving through the Central Valley in darkness, I reached the South Fork campground and Ladybug Trailhead at the southwestern edge of Sequoia National Park, setting out shortly before 6 AM.

Following the Ladybug trail, I quickly missed my turnoff for Pidgeon Creek, realizing my mistake when the trail suddenly started gaining elevation. This lower section of the route is the area known to have poison oak, and I did see small patches as I started up the drainage, although nothing above shin height. The use trail in the drainage was faint and not the easiest to follow, and it looked as if there were grassy slopes not far above. So I quickly abandoned the drainage, bushwacking upslope for a few hundred feet before stumbling on the remnants of the old trail leading to Surprise Camp. It was this trail that gives the summit the toungue in cheek rating of Class 1d, about as difficult a trail one could imagine. I did not expect to find the trail until much further up the drainage and was quite pleased to find that although covered in overgrown grass, it was very easy to follow.

I followed the trail as it traversed below 5124T’, with a short break to remove 5 ticks from my gloves, presumably having pushed through a nest on a low branch. It was enough to make me feel itchy the rest of the day. The overgrown trail dipped through a subdrainage before entering a broad grassy slope coming off the main SW ridgeline of Homers Nose. The summit was directly to the northeast bathed in early morning light, and the whole scene had a bit of a “Sound of Music” vibe, if the soundtrack was my heavy breathing struggling uphill.

Although the open grass made cross country travel easy, the route quickly gained about 1000′ of elevation, not leveling out until about 5,700′. I paused for a short break here with another tick check before continuing along the ridgeline, the route relatively flat for the first time since the Ladybug Trail. There were a number of flags on the trees assuring me I was on route, although at this point the trail was more well defined with little route finding difficulty staying along the ridge. When the ridge began to steepen once more, I pulled out my GPS to make sure I found the turn off for the traverse west into the Bennett Creek drainage, which I overshot by a few hundred feet, but was able to quickly refind with some easy cross country. The oak trees were replaced by manzanita and I was thankful for the remnants of the old trail, this section not at all over grown and rock lined in place. One spot even seemed to be blown out with dynamite to allow the trail to pass through some granite cliff bands.

It seemed a small shame that so much work had gone into the route entirely abandoned to nature, but it did add more to the adventure for sure. The trail led to a notch to the northeast of 5957T’ before dropping slightly into the Bennett Creek drainage and Surprise Camp. I had hoped that when I entered the pine forest I would be done with any potential bushwacking for the day, but instead found by far the worst of it, with hundreds of downed pine trees across the route.

I stopped at Bennett Creek for a break, but did not need to filter water having taken under 3 hours to cover over half of the distance of the route. Although the spot is known as Surprise Camp, I saw no flat spots where one could pitch a tent, with some littered irrigation tubing that I assume was probably piping water to an illegal pot farm somewhere downstream. I picked up the trail again on the north side of Bennett Creek and quickly lost it in the deadfall. I briefly attempted to follow the GPS track I had downloaded, but when it became clear that the track did not follow the trail, I pocketed my phone and charged directly upslope. This was probably the steepest section of the route, gaining well over 1,000′ in about a half mile, the steep slope littered with downed trees, pine needle duff and a number of short granite cliff bands and pockets that I needed to avoid.

I ran into some manzanita thicket just before gaining Salt Creek Ridge, thankfully finding a well defined use trail along the south side of the ridge that would lead all the way to the summit. Clouds had moved in since leaving Surprise Camp with the bottom edge only a few hundred feet above, the summit completely shrouded in cold mist. The forecast was calling for a chance of snow the following day with these cold clouds being the leading edge of the cold front, bringing unseasonably cold temperatures with it. As I followed the use trail up Salt Creek Ridge, I held out hope that the very summit would be just above the clouds. The temperature continued to drop as I climbed, working around massive boulders and 100′ granite pillars sprinkled along the ridge. The clouds persisted as I topped out onto the summit and I sat behind the summit rocks out of the wind with no views to enjoy. Based on the summit register, I was the first to climb Homers Nose for the year, the summit only seeing a handful of ascents per season. It was actually one of the oldest summit registers I had found in the Sierra going back to 1943 and signed by Chester Versteeg and Robert Marsh.

I was quite pleased with my time having taken about 5 hours with significant cross country travel, and I figured I would tag the eastern summit of Homers Brow (although when viewed from below, the summit of Homers Nose looks like a brow, and the lower eastern summit looks like the nose). I dropped off the summit several hundred feet to the notch between the two peaks, entering a burn area that appeared somewhat recent. It took about 15 minutes to reach the summit of Homers Brow, a few flakes of snow drifting from above as I hit the summit. I found no summit register at the high point, and not looking to lose any heat sitting around with no views, headed back in the direction of Homers Nose. Rather than reclimb the high point, I planned to traverse the slopes to the north, which worked out initially but led to larger patches of snow on the north facing slopes. The few flakes of snow progressed to a snow flurry during the traverse which was actually quite enjoyable, dusting the trees and pine duff.

The snow also covered my footprints from the ascent, and I needed to pull out my GPS as I started down Salt Creek Ridge, the trail now difficult to follow with the thin layer of snow. By the time I reached the slopes where I needed to drop off the ridgeline, the snow had nearly stopped, now with only a stray flake or two dropping from the sky. I had hoped to find a more direct line back to Surprise Camp as I figured I couldn’t do much worse than the loose duff and downed trees from my ascent line. I was wrong. Not only did my descent line somehow have more downed trees, but significantly more granite cliff bands closer to the Bennett Creek drainage, a few requiring some backtracking to get around and one that involved me sliding down steep sand on my butt. It felt like it took just as long to descend back to Surprise Camp from the ridge as my ascent took, and I certainly would not recommend such a direct line to anyone else. Back at Bennett Creek, I filtered a liter of water before picking up the use trail on the far side. Now out of the deadfall and back in the manzanita layer, I could pick up the pace, traversing east back onto the southwest ridge of Homer’s Nose..

As I reached the broad grassy slopes, I spied a juvenile bear foraging in the high grass about 100 yards downslope, which scurried off before I could get too close. When I got to where he was foraging, I found a number of flipped rocks where he had been looking for insects. I pulled out my GPS one last time to make sure I didn’t miss where the old trail traversed back west under 5124T’ and followed the faint path and occasional flag to stay on track. Rather than bushwack back down to Pidgeon Creek, I decided to stay on the old trail as long as possible, finding a number of switchbacks that led me directly to the Ladybug Trail. I was a little surprised that the entrance of the old trail was not marked by a cairn or anything to signal the secret start, and it would be almost impossible to find without a GPS track or very detailed instructions.

The only real notable feature at the turn off was a smooth granite slab just off the north side of the trail, along with an 8 trunked oak tree just before it. I headed back down the Ladybug Trail back to my car, taking only 11.5 hours for the two summits. After stripping off my clothes and rinsing off any potential poison oak along with one final tick check before heading back to the Central Valley for dinner.