Bishop Peak 2-17-2023
Wow! What a great morning hike this turned out to be. I will be back for more!
I started off right around 7am, it was about 34 degrees at the trailhead, with beautiful blues skies to go with it. The Alltrails directions to the Patricia Drive Trailhead were spot on. Parking is on the street though. There were only 3 or 4 cars there when I arrived so plenty of parking spaces were available. Of course, this is Friday, tomorrow may be another story.
The trail is very easy to follow, with signposts pointing you in the right direction throughout the hike. One thing I like about these signposts is they all include a location code (such as BP – 14) in the event you need to call 911. For those who have never seen these or aren’t sure what they are here is a little insight. If I pass a sign post that has BP -14 on it (I like to take pictures of them as I go by) and lets say about a ¼ mile past that sign post you or someone else gets injured and you need to call 911. You can let them know you location by using the location code BP – 14 and stating that you are ascending the Bishop Peak Trail from Patricia Drive Trailhead and you past the BP – 14 location sign about ¼ mile ago. This gives emergency response a great starting point and allows them to zoom in on your location much faster than if you didn’t have that code.
Back to the start. You begin this hike right around 360 feet above sea level and hit the actual summit at about 1550 feet, unless you stop at the bench that says, “End of Trail” then you’re right under 1500 feet. Alltrails lists this as a 3.4-mile hike. Which is correct, unless you scramble through the brush and a few rocks (mostly class 2) another one tenth of a mile. Then your total (like mine) will be nearer to 3.6 miles.
For an avid hiker and someone who is in pretty good shape, the elevation gain isn’t bad at all. The first .7 miles gains about 535 feet then levels out and drops down a little. The final .8 miles to the summit is about 755 feet in gain. Easy day. If you’re a relatively new hiker or are just trying to get back into your hiking condition, this trail is very doable for all levels. Mostly due to the hike being short.
A few things to note. The trail, right at the ¾ mile mark and for about a ½ mile, is heavily lined with poison oak. Easy to avoid, but if you are one of those who look at poison oak and start scratching, just be aware. There is much less as you get nearer to the summit bench, but it is still there. If you choose to take the .1-mile scramble to where the actual summit (and summit register) is, then be aware that that there is again a lot of poison oak, and it is a little more difficult to avoid as the trail up is much narrower.
The actual summit wasn’t too hard to find. There are a few different routes leading up to it. I followed around the right side of the summit and loop around to approach from the west and walked right up to the summit register can. At this point you’re about 6 feet below the summit rock. Which is climbable, but narrow. I opted not to climb that final six feet or so since my balance, due to my knee issues, is not too good right now.
The register can had one small memo pad in it which was completely soaked. Since I was using one to take my notes, I decided to replace the old soggy memo pad with a newer one. Then I relocated the register can a few feet, so it wasn’t so much in the open. Hopefully, it will stay dry for a while.
I only saw a small handful of hikers on my way up, but coming down there were probably a dozen or more heading up. Another cool aspect of this hike is the ability to choose to do some rock climbing or boulder. You walk right past a rock wall (which according to Mountain Project is Crack Wall) which is great for doing some lead and top rope climbing. As I was descending there were two climbers setting up to climb. A little further down the trail there were two others doing some bouldering. Making this an even more adventurous hike. You can doing the summit in the early am, then come back down and spend the late morning early afternoon climbing or bouldering.
All in all, a very fun morning. I didn’t run into any fellow challengers, but I was able to share the idea of the challenge with a few others on the trail. 😊
Responses
Glad you had a great day. Absolutely amazing hike log, Philip. Lots of great details in there. 🙌