Hiking Black Lassic and Pickett Mountains
Driving CA Highway 36 from the Pacific to the Valley | Hiking Black Lassic and Pickett Mountains | Camping in Six Rivers & Trinity National Forests | December 2025
After finishing our errands and exploring in Eureka, we left the Pacific Coast Highway and followed CA-36 East into the California Coast range. The road was winding and slow as we passed through ranch and timberlands before eventually entering into Six Rivers National Forest. In the town of Mad River, we saw signs for the National Forest Ranger Station and decided to stop in for the latest information and any recommendations. It wasn’t the most productive interaction if I’m honest. Most of the recommended recreation areas were far afield and well off the highway. But we got paper copies of the Motor Vehicle Use Maps to supplement the ones I had downloaded on Avenza and soon we were heading South.
Our first stop was to the Lassics, a set of higher peaks with a decent road to just below them. The forest road climbed and climbed. The ranger had indicated that there was a fire ring at the base of the peak, but we never found that. Rather, we found a widening of the road with enough room to pull off to the side for the evening. After all, we were way out in the woods, certainly no one would be driving by. It even offered expansive views looking out to the East.
After settling in the van, we decided to walk the road together and enjoy the sunset and moon rise. Way off to the East we saw something that looked snow capped, but might have been clouds. As we were walking, forest service vehicles started passing; first two, then whole fleets of trucks and firetrucks from the local hotshot brigades. I think there was maybe 25 vehicles in total that passed us by. We think they were doing a training/prescribed burn further down the road. So much for a quiet backroad. On the way back to the van, I went and tagged a minor summit just for the list, and then we settled in for the night.
The next morning, after breakfast, I packed a bag and set off to hike the highest and most prominent of the nearby peaks: Black Lassic. It was a bald jut of rock and scree that dominated our view from the van, and from the road and the drive up it looked like an impressive and challenging peak. Steep drop offs covered three sides of the summit, but that fourth direction offered an easier and gradual ascent to the top. From the summit I had 360* views, and I was able to confirm that the snowcapped peak we had seen yesterday was Mt. Shasta! Overall, I think this was one of the best cost/reward peaks I got to do on this trip, so it is surprising to me how little it gets visitors. Peakbagger only has 61 visitors logged, which, for reference is the second lowest visitation of a P600 I’ve climbed, and #1 is Lanaihale.
After I returned to the van (you can see a trail recording here) we decided to continue East on CA-36 a few more miles before settling in for the weekend. We ended up driving down Horse Ridge Lookout Rd, which was mostly paved, and found a nice clearing at the base of Pickett Peak and overlooked Ruth Lake, an impoundment of the Mad River.
We had sun to charge the battery and reception, and it was pleasantly warm during the day, and so we stayed here for two nights, walking up and down the road for exercise. On the second day, I followed an abandoned forest road to the top of Pickett Peak and the firetower there. The views from the top were obstructed, but I did get some excellent views of Mt. Shasta and Mt. Eddy to the Northeast. Unfortunately, there wasn’t really a clear view back towards the Lassics.
Overall, we enjoyed our time in these seldom explored parts of the Coast Range. And we probably could have stayed longer. The forest roads seemed to be in a state where you could explore even more up and down. But we still had many places we wanted to visit on this trip, and so we’ll remember this place as somewhere to return to someday should we ever get the opportunity.
