Mt Lola Trail

Near: Truckee
Trip Type: Hike
Distance: 10 miles (low estimate)
Elevation: 6,600 - 9,100 feet
Vegetation: Pine Forest
Surface: Dirt (and snow)
Last Visit: October 2016

It's October and the summer hiking season is coming to a close.  We headed out to Tahoe National Forest just after the first snows of the season hit the region.  We hiked Mt. Lola, an unassuming peak, just off the PCT north of the Donner Pass area.  At a bit over 9,100 feet, Mt. Lola is the highest peak between I-80 and Mt. Lassen, yet it's usually overshadowed by all the more dramatic peaks around Lake Tahoe just to the southeast.  The usual ascent from the north is a steady climb up a pleasant, but unremarkable creek drainage.  The real payoff comes at the peak with fantastic views of the spires of Castle Peak to the south, and Sierra Buttes to the north.

Rules and Regulations:

Mt. Lola lies in the Tahoe National Forest.  No permits are required for hiking or dispersed camping, but a permit is required for any campfire outside of a developed campground.  Dogs are allowed off leash if they are under voice control.

Trailhead:

The trailhead is not hard to reach, but google had trouble navigating us there, so I'm including a bit more detail than usual here.  The parking area is a small spur just off Hennes Pass Road.  To get here take Hwy 89 to Little Truckee Summit, north of Truckee.  From there head east Jackson Meadows Road (Forrest Road 07, or on some maps "Fiberboard Road") for about 1.5 miles.  At this point you'll see a sign directing you to turn left for Independence Lake.  Take this dirt road over a bridge over the Little Truckee river, then turn right onto Hennes Pass Road.  Stay straight on Hennes Pass Road for about 3 miles, ignoring several turn-offs with various levels of signage.  The Mt. Lola trailhead is a small parking lot just south of the road on a high spot with the very beat-up sign pictured below.  If you descend down into and open field (Perazzo Meadows) and cross a small creek, you've gone too far.   Note that if you're navigating with topomap package that uses USFS data, the trailhead is erroneously marked a few hundred yards west of its true location. 

The tattered remains of the sign for the Mt Lola Trail.

The optimal route to the trailhead is highlighted in yellow below.  Note that on some maps Hennes Pass Road goes all the way to Hwy 89 and it looks like you can skip Jackson Meadows Road, but as of fall 2016 that is not the case, we tried.  Alternatively, you can drive a bit farther on Jackson Meadows Road, overshooting the trailhead, then take a turnoff for Perazzo Meadows and follow Hennes Pass Road back east to the trailhead, but we found the road to be in better shape east of the trailhead than west of it.  

Map to the trailhead from Hwy 89

Route:

Caltopo Map: http://caltopo.com/m/5UAC

Trail profile.  Milage estimates here are probably on the low end as tracing routes by hand tends to straighten them a bit.

I haven't found a map for this trail that's quite right, but other than the trailhead being shifted a bit west, the USFS map on Caltopo was actually the best I could find.  The trail climbs gently over a low rise, then follows a creek valley steadily up to Cold Stream Meadow.  An old road parallels most of the route, but except a short stretch to cross the creek on a collapsing old bridge (safe to walk on, but I wouldn't take a truck over it), the trail stays off the roadbed and mostly well shaded.  South of the meadow, the trail crosses back south of the stream and climbs more sharply to ridgeline forming the southern limit of the creek drainage.  At the ridge, dramatic views open up to the south across the peaks of the Lake Tahoe Basin and to the east over Independence Lake. The trail follows the ridge to the summit a half a mile to the southwest.

We only saw two people all day on the trail.  Granted we had to hike the upper half of the route through a foot of snow... but given the lightly tread state of the trail, I suspect this route is not heavily used even in peak season.  The route is relatively well blazed (for California) in the ecologically dubious, we-don't-need-no-paint-let's-hack-a-square-patch-in-every-fifth-tree style for at least most of the route.  We lost the blazes on the final climb to the ridge, though, and followed some purposeful-looking boot tracks through the snow from there.

The trail and Cold Stream

A few hints of fall color were visible here and there, but pine forest dominates the route.

The summit

Looking north towards Sierra Buttes