Snow Mountain

Snow Mountain is one of those peaks you only really go after because it's on the list. It sits on the Tahoe Ogul Peak List, out above the American River Canyon, and there's no direct trail to the summit — you get partway in on trail and then it's entirely up to you to find a way through the rest.

The day started at a still, glassy lake right at sunrise, granite slabs leading up above the shoreline into forest. It was a beautiful, quiet way to start what turned into a long day — a black bear cub wandered through a meadow of mule's ears not far into the hike, completely unbothered, which was a nice surprise before things got harder.

Once the trail ran out, the next 11 miles were all off-trail — cross-country through brush, talus, and lingering snowfields that were still substantial in mid-June. Deep in some brush and downed branches, I very nearly put a foot down right on a rattlesnake, coiled and camouflaged in a pile of sticks. It never rattled or struck, and I only spotted it because I happened to look down at the right moment. That was the moment this hike went from hard to memorable.

The summit itself is a big, broken slab of granite and talus with a huge 360-degree view — down into the deep cut of the American River Canyon, out to English Mountain and the Sierra Buttes, and on a clear day supposedly all the way to Mount Diablo. No summit register up there, just rock and wind and a long way down in every direction.

Getting back out meant retracing a lot of that same off-trail terrain, picking through snow-streaked cliffs and loose rock with tired legs. Eighteen miles total, more than half of it without a trail underfoot, one bear, one very close call with a rattlesnake, and one of the more genuinely remote, hard-earned summits on the whole Ogul list.