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May 8, 2020
Hobb's Peak
I've been slowly stalking Hobb's Peak this year. I spend a lot of time at Evergreen Lake, and pass by Hobb's Peak fairly frequently, and finally decided to see how I could access the peak. Of course, predictably, it's nearly impossible to get there. But now I've finally found a guy that explains in detail how to access the peak.
https://www.peakbagger.com/peak.aspx?pid=82204
There's a detailed explanation on how to access the park here:
https://www.peakbagger.com/climber/ascent.aspx?aid=903519
Ascent Trip Report
I found this route on LOJs another cryptic route on DMP land and they key is to learn that there is an easement between private property that takes you from the Marshdale Elementary School Public Property to the actual DMP public use space. I had tried to access from public roads adjacent to the DMP lands and as usual - greeted with all sorts of a no trespassing signs.
Parking at Marshdale Park is easy and gets you away from parking in an elementary school property. You can find the trail to the easement either directly behind the steep embankment of the eastern most parking lot of the school in the back OR......walking 200 feet up hill of the Marshdale Park parking lot to the cul-de-sac and just before the paving ends on your right will be the use trail. The use trail merges with the back of the schools embankment lot trail and heads due north between two fences. House on your right ( to the east) and a fenced off lands to the left (west). This well used trail heads north up into the actual DMP lands and you will see signage telling you what you can and can not due. The impressive rock cliffs are seen ahead.
I hiked this peak twice to figure out how to do it. Like all DMP lands, they are short on maps, signage, or any type of helpful information. It is trial and error hiking. Once you get onto the DMP land the main trail splits in two. If you have a dog or want to hike class 1 to the peak stay right and head north along the eastern property line. The trail will eventually swing west along the north property line and make an easy ascent of the impressive cliff bands. The last 100 yards of the trail are not well developed. This is the route I found later that day and will use in the future when I bring my wife and dog back. BUT for my first ascent, I did not like trail bearing to the right as it looked like it would go onto to private land so I took the left swing. The left bearing trail takes you to a handful of poorly developed, steep, user trails that head for the steep cliff bands.
The material is class 2 to 2+ with scree and sand not fun. I found a hard to follow use trial that slipped through a broken exposure in the otherwise class 4 and 5 cliffs and ended up on the summit without having to scramble at all.
After finding the summit, I explored the backside trails that take you off public property and then back to the ridge and climbed around the false summits to satisfy myself I had tagged the true peak earlier. The rock bands up top would yield some fun rappels and afford nice views albeit not very high above the houses and school below.
On the way down after fighting the steep scree and sandy use trail I found the well developed trail that skirts up the eastern boundary and around the back of the summit and took it back to the top thus verifying that is the easier way to the top and better way to come back and show my wife and dog. So there is two ways to the top, the steep class 2 to 2+ undeveloped seam through the cliff band or the well developed class 1 trail along the east boundary.
Posted by Rob Kiser on May 8, 2020 at 1:42 AM
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