Crag Peak
4/10/03
via Kennedy Campground

Elevation: 9,480+ ft.
Distance (via Kennedy CG): 8 miles one-way
Elevation Gain: 3,400 ft.
Starting Elevation: 6,100 ft.
Difficulty: Moderate
Navigation: Moderately difficult in places due to thick brush and Manzanita
Time Required: 8-10 hours (depends on how effectively you navigate the brush)
Rating: Class 2 with a small amount of easy Class 3


Crag Peak is often climbed from Albanita Meadows but because the Sherman Pass Road was closed I decided to hike it from Kennedy Campground as others have done.  I arrived at the campground around 10:00am.  I drove up through nine mile canyon which although typically quite desolate was filled with a variety of wildflowers.

Not wanting to race to the summit, I took a very leisurely pace.

Notes:

Clover meadow is divided into a lower and an upper portion.  I never did figure out where the best place to leave the PCT was and had to deal with brush in the meadow both to and from the summit.  Note that the upper (North) meadow does have a prominent cattle trail that leads West/SouthWest out of the meadow toward the direction of peak.  Getting to this trail is the trick.  It only becomes prominent on the other side of the meadow opposite the PCT.  Note that there are several types of brush in the meadow.  The sagebrush is the least troublesome.  The thorn bushes are probably the worst.

You must also deal with some pretty thick manzanita the closer you get to the summit.  Negotiating this maze is fairy tricky.  I'm not sure if my path was optimal or not but I popped up on top just North of the rocky point that lies North of point 9414 on the topo.  From here I proceded North staying about as high as possible on the crest.  At one point shortly before reaching the summit block I strayed over to the West side of the crest to avoid the thick manzanita.

Looking at the topo, the Northern most complex of rock is the true summit area.  It's not the area that lies under the words "Crag Peak".  The Northern most block consists of at least 3 close pinnacles of rock.  The middle one is apparently the summit (where the register is) though the Northernmost pinnacle actually looks a few feet higher.  When approaching on the East side, there is a fairly large fallen tree just North of a wide crack.  This tree lies at the base of a crack as well but the crack about 80 feet to the South is the easist route up.

Log:

10:00am - Arrived at Kennedy Campground
10:15am - Signed in and left the trailhead
10:57am - Crossed Kern River Footbridge
11:54am - Reached Southern Portion of Clover Meadow
04:11pm - Reached Summit
04:34pm - Left Summit
06:25pm - Reached Clover Meadow
07:49pm - Reached Footbridge
08:41pm - Reached Vehicle

Stats:

Time from Vehicle to Summit: 6 hrs 11 mins
Time from Summit to Vehicle: 4 hrs 7 mins