Once you access the ridge it is a rolling affair of lots of ups and downs until you get to Caswell BM. The top is completely bulldozed and despite looking all over I saw no evidence of the BM. That was too bad but not unexpected. Since the route was going so well, I decided to hike to the high point on the west side of the canyon at 3,941. The fire break at times is three cars wide but continues with the up and down action that looks like this.
Caswell BM and Peak 3,941
Unfortunately we have had a lot of fires over the last six months but they have given the hiker an opportunity to get to places that may have been difficult in the past. Case in point the hike I did today. I was unsure if after the Gorman fire whether ridges had been cleared or not but went up there with that hope. Just north of Pyramid Lake is Apple Canyon and a large fire break has been created around the entire canyon. My goal was to hit the western ridge and the high points on it. I got off at Smokey Bear Road and immediately saw a very steep fire break starting from the corner of the exit. I decided to drive down the road a little further to see if another ridge would be accessible and it was but a bit brushy so drove back to the original spot which would be longer but gave me easy access. The place where I parked is a dumping ground with massive amounts of garbage but once you start on the fire break it quickly clears up. The ridge is not particularly high but the fire break is steep in short spurts giving you a little HIT workout. On the way up I saw obvious bobcat tracks coming out of the mountain. I would see lots of deer as well as quail tracks. The only evidence of a person going up here was a couple of dirt bike tracks probably from Hungry Valley on the other side of the freeway.
Once you access the ridge it is a rolling affair of lots of ups and downs until you get to Caswell BM. The top is completely bulldozed and despite looking all over I saw no evidence of the BM. That was too bad but not unexpected. Since the route was going so well, I decided to hike to the high point on the west side of the canyon at 3,941. The fire break at times is three cars wide but continues with the up and down action that looks like this.
The choice to go further up canyon began to pay dividends as view opened up looking out towards Frazier Mountain.
There were also nice views towards Liebre Mountain.
I finally made it to the high point at 3,941 which was unfortunately right next to some power lines. The view however was quite nice as you were at the highpoint above the 5 and Hwy 138. The view just below the peak into Apple Canyon had some very cool rock outcroppings that might be fun for rock climbers.
I started back with a lot of uphill on the reverse trip. After crossing over Caswell I though of taking my closer brushy ridge back to the road as I could see a slight use trail on it but it went just above a sketchy looking RV park with lots of dogs barking so I stayed on the firebreak. I finally made it back down and had a notice from the CHiP on my car stating that I had parked on a highway and that my car would be towed in 72 hours. Apparently the cop thought that I may have abandoned my car there but it was definitely not parked on the highway, anyway. A nice hike that probably could be made into a complete loop of the whole Apple Canyon but you'd need a two car shuttle probably to make that work with one left near the Pyramid Lake exit.
Once you access the ridge it is a rolling affair of lots of ups and downs until you get to Caswell BM. The top is completely bulldozed and despite looking all over I saw no evidence of the BM. That was too bad but not unexpected. Since the route was going so well, I decided to hike to the high point on the west side of the canyon at 3,941. The fire break at times is three cars wide but continues with the up and down action that looks like this.
The choice to go further up canyon began to pay dividends as view opened up looking out towards Frazier Mountain.
There were also nice views towards Liebre Mountain.
I finally made it to the high point at 3,941 which was unfortunately right next to some power lines. The view however was quite nice as you were at the highpoint above the 5 and Hwy 138. The view just below the peak into Apple Canyon had some very cool rock outcroppings that might be fun for rock climbers.
I started back with a lot of uphill on the reverse trip. After crossing over Caswell I though of taking my closer brushy ridge back to the road as I could see a slight use trail on it but it went just above a sketchy looking RV park with lots of dogs barking so I stayed on the firebreak. I finally made it back down and had a notice from the CHiP on my car stating that I had parked on a highway and that my car would be towed in 72 hours. Apparently the cop thought that I may have abandoned my car there but it was definitely not parked on the highway, anyway. A nice hike that probably could be made into a complete loop of the whole Apple Canyon but you'd need a two car shuttle probably to make that work with one left near the Pyramid Lake exit.
I started from the east side of the freeway. Hungry Valley is on the west. The have opened the western section of Hungry Valley which wasn't affected by the fire. The rest remains closed and will for years most probably. That does not affect the road to Alamo Mountain but I believe that gets a seasonal closure every year. I have plans to hike the other side near the Post fire area if I can in the next couple of weeks. I have some exploring in that area that has been on my list for a while.dima wrote: Sun Mar 09, 2025 11:01 pm Thanks for the report. Did you start in the Hungry Valley OHV area? Any idea if the Post fire closure is still a thing? Can we go towards Alamo Mtn?
