Sirretta Peak, North Sirretta, Seven Teacups

[tekewin]

My wife and I spent Memorial Day weekend in Kernville. Kernville is a river town, not a mountain town. The culture was different than Lone Pine or Bishop. That's not a judgment, just an observation. Recreation was geared around the Kern River, fishing and rafting, not the surrounding mountains.

The drive to Sirretta (9,983') trailhead took one hour and 15 minutes on Cherry Hill Road and Forest Road 23S07. About half of the drive was on dirt, but the roads were smooth and sedan friendly. There were several parties camping around Big Meadow, but we were the only hikers. The trail started in a cedar and pine forest, mostly cedar. It was beautiful from the first step, but Sirretta was not visible for a while. The trail followed a wide draw with soft, powdery dirt. As we got higher, the views got better. We stepped off the trail to let three dirt bikes pass that were descending the trail. This was the first time I'd encountered dirt bikes on a national forest trail. Tall rock piles dotted the ridge, but we couldn't positively identify Sirretta from below. We veered onto the summit use trail where cairns marked the start. It got steeper as we headed for the summit plateau, then we turned southwest for the last quarter mile. The summit was a 100' boulder pile.









I led us to the west side looking for an easy scramble, but instead found more difficult class 2. The easiest route was probably directly from the NE and that's how we descended. On top was a large cairn and a benchmark, but I could not locate a register. We took a lunch break and enjoyed nice views of Owens, Sawtooth, and Olancha. If not for clouds, we might have seen Whitney. Big Meadow looked even bigger from Sirretta. The north summit of Sirretta (peak 9984) was less than a half mile away and officially 1' higher, so it claimed the higher prominence (1710'). Leisa wasn't interested, but waited 20 minutes for me to bag it. Sirretta North was a shorter class 2 scramble, maybe 50'. It didn't look as high as Sirretta, so I walked past it at first to see if something was higher further north. Finding nothing, I came back and climbed it, finding a register in a glass jar but no benchmark. It also had nice views and was worth the small effort. The descent was uneventful. With pristine forest and granite, Sirretta made my favorites list. Highly recommended.








Summit rocks for Sirretta North

The Seven Teacups are a series of granite pools that we hiked to a different day. It's about a 4 mile round trip with a little scrambling to get down to them. The pools were a lot deeper than photos I'd seen. For you canyoneers, ropewiki rates the canyon (https://ropewiki.com/Seven_Teacups) 3C III (v3a4 III). Looked hard to me even with ropes and gear.

[Sean]

Thanks for the report and photos. Looks like a beautiful area. There should be a word for when the higher peak appears to be lower than the lower peak. I've experienced this on a couple summits. It's probably because your eye level is actually higher than the higher peak. It might be different if you could look from ground level. Also, distance and depth perception might be a factor if you're far enough away.

[Girl Hiker]

Nice! I did the seven teacups a few years ago!

[evdog]

Siretta is a cool spot! I love the Bristlecone pines up there. I'm glad the upper mountain survived the fire a couple years ago. The fire got up the east side of the mountain within half or 3/4 mile of the summit.

Were you able to tell whether the dirt bikes came over from the east side, or if they climbed up the way they came down? There may have been an obvious u-turn track if they turned around. I've taken my mountain bike over the summit a couple times. When I rode it last summer there was a lot of deadfall in the burn zone, but I was told it was all cleared later in the summer. If they were able to ride over from the east side the trail may still be mostly clear, which would be good to know.

The mountains around Kernville are unusual for Socal as well in that a lot of the area is open to dirt bikes, the exceptions being Wilderness areas and Sequoia National Monument. They maintain most of the trails, cutting out deadfall. If you've encountered them in more wide open desert areas you might expect conflict with them on trails. But the steep and challenging terrain slows them down a lot and also filters out the unskilled idiots. I've biked the area a lot and never had any issues with them.

[tekewin]

Siretta is a cool spot! I love the Bristlecone pines up there. I'm glad the upper mountain survived the fire a couple years ago. The fire got up the east side of the mountain within half or 3/4 mile of the summit.

Were you able to tell whether the dirt bikes came over from the east side, or if they climbed up the way they came down? There may have been an obvious u-turn track if they turned around.

We saw tracks near where the use trail splits, but don't know if they turned around or came over the pass. They were all skilled going slow enough now to leave a giant dust cloud behind. I don't remember much burn damage around Sirretta, but it was severe in other nearby areas.