Quick Stats: 6.3 Miles & 1,288′ gain via North Ridge from Barrett Stoddard Truck Trail.
After the madness that was our 4th / 5th class ascent of Mount Agassiz, we were in the mood for something a little less crazy. We also now had Frankie’s son Wyatt with us, so we also had no choice but to do something less crazy. Since I still have it in my mind that I will complete the Sierra Club’s “Lower Peaks Committee” list someday (legit mountaineering makes time for simple hikes scarce, so we’ll see), I decided to look at some objectives two women and a 12 year old non-hiker could do in a morning. Since we were already staying in Claremont, Stoddard Peak seemed like an obvious choice for a bunch of reasons, and off we were!
Most of the hike is on a truck trail, so it’s nothing of note. There comes a point where you diverge off onto a lightly maintained use trail that takes you over a couple of Fukrili Points (AKA “False Summits”) on the way to the summit of Stoddard Peak.
Something special about this hike is that not only is it the first time we’ve done a “family hike,” but this is also Wyatt’s first summit! We promised him pancakes just below the summit, and he made that clear in his summit register entry.
In keeping with the newly coined motto from Chocolate Peak (“Every mountain is 3rd class if you try hard enough.”), we noticed some granite along the way to the top that made for a fun little side quest along our descent. To our shock, Wyatt even joined in the fun of the scramble!
Before long we were off of the ridgeline hiking trail and back to the truck trail, which made for a super easy descent hike. . . followed by pancakes for Wyatt.