White and black dog

The repaired joint took me up Barlow Point

Sometime in mid April I thought that something might be wrong with my left knee. By May I knew something was wrong. The diagnosis was a torn medial meniscus, and I went in for a fix at the very end of May. The first couple weeks of recovery were painfully slow, and at some point I was convinced that I would never walk normally again, let along hike and climb at the mediocre level that I had become accustomed to.

After a few more days I stopped feeling sorry for myself and actually felt good enough to go for a hike. Dani and Jasper had been hitting the trails without me, but were willing to slow down their pace to accompany me up and (hopefully down) this mighty summit along the Mountain Loop Highway.

The parking lot was full when we arrived, but almost everyone else was heading down the road to the Monte Cristo Townsite or Gothic Basin. I braced myself for impact, and off we went through a nice forest and kept on the right path to Barlow Point. Seriously, stay right at all the trail junctions.I stumbled my way to the top without incident, but it was the descent that was worrying me.

We were alone at the top, and decided to hang out for a while. We could see the top of Mt. Dickerman, and if we moved a little down the ridge were able to see Big 4 Mountain, Hall Peak and even Mt. Pugh. Sheep Mountain loomed behind us. It may not be the most spectacular place, but it was better than puttering around in my garden.

Eventually we decided to head down. I had rested and stretched out as much as I could, and after a tentative first few steps got into some sort of rhythm and cruised down the trail. Or at least made it down without falling on my face or having my knee fall off.

The hike was so short that I didn’t think I deserved a post hike beer, but it was sunny and Dani was driving, so I cracked one open. We thought about adding another short hike in the area to our day, but decided against it as neither one of us wanted to deal with the hordes of a sunny Saturday.

This was also Jasper’s 295th different summit. He may not know it, but he’s closing in on 300. Hopefully I can be there to celebrate with him.

All photos here: Barlow Point; June 15, 2013

The Entiat: 4 days, 4 peaks

With a four day weekend coming up, I decided to head to the Entiat and try to climb some of the higher peaks in that area: Cardinal Peak, Emerald Peak, Saska Peak and Pinnacle Mountain. Oggie expressed an interest, and was already in Leavenworth so all I had to do was slow down enough while driving through town so he could jump in my truck. With him safely buckled in we headed east from Leavenworth then north along the shores of Lake Chelan before finally turning up the Entiat River Road. I had never been up this way before, but Oggie had, although on a different trail system.

We arrived at the trailhead a little later than I had hoped, but there were still several hours of daylight left and only 9-ish miles to go to camp. Even a fat guy like me could make it to camp before dark. The first several miles were through forest, with not much in the way of views. It made for quicker travel. We even saw a bear. Or at least what looked like a bear’s butt crashing through the trees away from us. With that excitement behind us we continued onward and upward to an area below Cardinal Peak and our camp for the night.

We wanted to get one of the peaks out of the way that evening, so we decided on Saska Peak, as the route descriptions seemed simple enough. We headed on the trail and before we knew it we were at Saska Pass. Oops, too far. So we backtracked, and then realized that we’d gone too far the other way. Plans were meant to be changed, and instead of Saska the first night we decided to tackle Emerald Peak first. The route was easy, with a couple variations near the top. We took the left side on the way up, saving the other side for the descent. We ran out of mountain soon enough and enjoyed the views while snapping a few photos and snacking on almonds and chocolate.

We descended more directly to the trail, and found a much better camping spot. Since it was late in the day we decided to leave camp where it was for the first night, then move it in the morning. We hiked back to the tent and enjoyed a hearty freeze dried dinner. I wonder why the tent smelled so funny that night…

Morning came, but we were still in the shadows of Cardinal Peak during our ascent of the nasty looking gully. It wasn’t as bad as it looked, but we were cautious not to rain rocks down on each other. Well, I was careful not to rain rocks down on Oggie. He had some business to attend to at the base of the gully so I used that to get a head start on him. We made it to the col between the summit block and the north summit and enjoyed the warmth of the sun on our faces. Time for sunglasses and sunscreen. From the col it was an easy walk around to the south side then a short scramble to the top. Sort of. I saw what I thought was the highest point, and made a beeline towards it. As I got higher the route vanished and what was supposed to be 2nd and 3rd class terrain was starting to look like 4th class. Then I turned around and saw the actual summit back above where we had just traversed. It was an easy finish, and we sat on top, perusing the summit register. Unfortunately it was missing a pencil, and we couldn’t sign in. Colleen signed me in a few weeks later though, so it’s official.

We retraced our steps back to camp (without my detour), and packed up to move the half mile up trail to the great camp spot we had seen the previous night. We wanted to climb Saska before the day was over, but wanted to wait for it to cool down a bit, so we headed to the meadow nearby the new camp and dipped our feet in the icy stream and relaxed for a while. I even managed to get a short nap in without too much bother from the bugs.

Next up, Saska Peak. This time we read the various route descriptions a little more carefully, and actually paid attention to the trail as we hiked along. Turning off at the right spot, we found ourselves at the base of a broad gully, and worked our way up to the crest, only a couple hundred feet below the summit. Looking at the summit block, Oggie decided to wait for me at the pass. He isn’t as into the peakbagging as me, and was quite content with the views from the pass. The final bit wasn’t too difficult, but the rocks were loose, some even falling as I merely looked at them. I made it to the top and did my duty: signed the register, took some photos, ate and drank and rested a bit before descending to Oggie.

After waking him from his nap we continued the descent back to camp and another fine freeze-dried meal. We stayed up well past dark watching a few meteors as the Perseids were supposed to be putting on quite the show. We saw a few, but not as many as I had hoped for. Sleep came quickly.

We woke up early as we had a long day ahead. To get to Pinnacle Mountain we would have to ascend to Saska Pass, then descend all the way to Snow Brushy Creek, then find the abandoned trail to Borealis Pass before the final off trail hike and scramble up Pinnacle. It was cool as we descended, but it was warming up quickly. A cairn adorned with an old Spam can marked the turnoff for the route to Borealis Pass. The old trail was mostly easy to follow, only becoming faint through an old burned area. Eventually we reached Borealis Pass and turned our heads to Pinnacle Mountain, only a few hundred feet higher and less than a mile away. The gully was steep and loose, but we were careful and soon found ourselves on the final summit ridge. Oggie again lost the peakbagging bug only a couple hundred feet from the top, content to enjoy the views while I did my thing on top.

Satisfied that I had indeed summitted Pinnacle Mountain (hey, there was a summit register after all), I backtracked and saw him already at the bottom of the gully. I waved and started my scree ski (screeing?) descent down to him. We were in no hurry to leave as the area around Borealis Pass was very nice, but we knew that we had to leave sometime. The 1,400 foot climb back to Saska Pass was especially fun in the afternoon sun. It was a relief to arrive at the pass and plunk myself down on the little snow patch that was still there. I had thoughts of scrambling up Gopher Peak to the south, but decided to call it a day and head back to camp with Oggie.

The meteor show this last night was much more impressive than the previous night. We stayed up watching them for quite a while before retiring. It would be almost all downhill on the way out.

My photos: Chelan Slam; August 9-12, 2012

Oggie’s Photos

Danichantments

Colleen’s email to us asked if we wanted to join her and the Matt’s for a 3-day/2-night trip to The Enchantments.

We had spent the better part of our 3rd Anniversary there, and I had spent some time there without her when she couldn’t get the time off of work (Ingunn bravely stood in for her). Dani hadn’t spent the night up there, and there were a couple peaks on my list in the area, so we replied with an emphatic “Yes!”

We met Colleen, Matt and other Matt (let’s call him Hutch from here on out) at the trailhead and after some gear shuffling started up the trail towards Colchuck Lake. After a brief food and water break we worked our way around the southern shoreline to the base of the route up Aasgard Pass. As we ascended towards the pass the rest of the group left me, one by one. First it was Hutch and Matt, then Colleen. Finally, Dani left me in her dust. I wasn’t having a very good time. Eventually I made it to the crest and sat down next to Dani. She shared some of her food and we watched the others heading up the Snow Creek Glacier (really a snowfield now) towards Dragontail Peak. I was disappointed not to be joining them, but I had been up it before and needed the break anyway.

We saw them summit, and then return. As they got closer they called us on the radio. We decided to start down the basin a little bit and search for suitable campsites. A few choice spots were already taken, but we managed to find some good ones with a water source not too far away. The tents went up and dinner was prepared. The night was very windy, but our tent stood strong. Only the noise of the permit attached to our tent kept me from a good sleep.

By morning the winds had died down and the goats had moved in. Goats everywhere you looked. Big and small, young and old. All waiting for a chance to drink our pee. Such is the life of a mountain goat.

Colleen, Matt, Hutch and I had big peak plans: McClellan Peak and Enchantment Peak. Dani was more interested in exploring some of the lakes and hiking up to Prusik Pass, so she lounged around camp while the rest of us took off down the trail for McClellan Peak. We had packed crampons and ice axes, and actually needed them for a short (couple hundred feet) section on the north side of McClellan Peak. Once above that it was a relatively easy scramble (with a minor routefinding issue) to the top. We perused the summit register, took photos and ate and drank a little. Then we descended back into the basin before hiking towards Prusik Pass.

At the pass we checked out the various route description(s) and started up towards Enchantment Peak. Most of the ascent was very pleasant, walking through small groves of trees, through warm granite and across some sandy areas. The last 30 feet of the peak looked intimidating at first, but ended up not being all that bad, and we all summitted, although given the small size of the actual highpoint, we took turns on top (that’s what she said?). Matt and Hutch headed towards another high point to the southwest, thinking that it might lead to a shortcut back to the upper basin and our camp. Colleen and I sat and watched them leave then return. The verdict: go back the way we came. So we did.

We got back to camp later than we had expected, and a planned trip up Little Annapurna with Dani didn’t happen. We’d been up it before anyway, and (with apologies to Maurice Herzog) there will be other Little Annapurnas in the lives of men. Dinner and wine topped off the evening, and we sat around watching the sun set and the stars come out. The second night was calm, and I slept well.

All too soon the morning came and we had to pack up and leave. But first, Matt, Hutch and I made a side trip up Witches Tower while the ladies cooled their toes in one of the lakes and talked about girl stuff. The route up Witches Tower wasn’t obvious at first, but as we made our way higher it became quite evident which way to go. Soon enough we ran out of tower and basked in the glory of our conquest. A first ascent. For that day at least. We descended, enjoying a quick glissade along the way and regrouped with the womenfolk.

The descent from Aasgard Pass was uneventful, and once safely around the boulderfield on the south side of Colchuck Lake we found a spot to take off our packs and go for a swim. A very brief swim. The water was cold and there was shrinkage. Refreshed, we continued our descent to the cars at the trailhead. A late lunch/early dinner and beers were presented to us at South in Leavenworth, and we enjoyed them.

My photos: Enchantments; July 27-29, 2012

Dani’s photos: Enchantments (from Dani’s point of view); July 27-29, 2012

Colleen’s photos: Dragontail, McClellan, Enchantment (07/27/12-07/29/12)

The Stout Family Robinson

The early summer weather in this part of the world is not always ideal for outdoor recreation, and the end of June was especially bad this year. However, Jasper spotted a short weather window in the Pasayten that might allow him to lead me up another Top 100 peak (Robinson Mountain – 8,726′) and maybe have time for some lookout bagging the following morning.

The 3:00 am wake up call was shocking, even for me. By 4:00 we were on the road, fortified with breakfast and coffee. The drive over Washington Pass was nice as usual, and soon we found ourselves pulling into the Robinson Creek trailhead. We set boots and paws to trail at or around 8:00 am, and made good time to the bridge over Beauty Creek. A few steps past the bridge Jasper sniffed out the unofficial but obvious path up the Beauty Creek drainage.

Up we went to the outlet stream from the tarn still above us. We crossed it as the guidebooks instructed, then turned left and ascended the open slopes. After a few hundred feet Jasper found the first snow patch and he did his obligatory snow roll. Soon the snow became continuous as we made our way to the tarn at 6,700′. Above the tarn we crossed paths with 4 other people who were descending. They wished us well and we continued up the snow slope to the ridge at 8,000′.

I knew that the summit would still be over a half mile away when we crested the ridge, but it was still a little dispiriting to see how far we still had to go. At least there was a semblance of a boot path and the terrain was mostly mellow. I could make out the really steep section below the last false summit, and knew that might pose a problem for my 4-legged friend. As we got closer I decided to put his harness on and try the gully to the left. After several rocks started moving just by us looking at them, we switched to the more solid, but steep and airy ridge to the right. Jasper had no problems and shortly we surmounted the obstacle and were left with a 5 minute walk to the summit. We had made it in under 6 hours, which is not likely any speed record, but we were satisfied with it.

I tried to send a text message to Dani, but even with 3 bars showing it wouldn’t go through. Instead, I ate a sandwich and looked at some darker clouds coming in from the west. There were views of lots of peaks in all directions, but the high overcast skies weren’t conducive to good photography. At least not for a hack photographer like me.

After about 40 minutes on top we decided to head back down. The descent of the steep airy section was a little more nerve wracking for me as I could actually see how far the drop was. Jasper did fine though, and once we hit flatter ground I removed his harness and gave him a treat. Good dog. We made it back to the top of the snow slope, and prepared for the 1,100 foot glissade. What took an hour to ascend we were able to descend in less than 9 minutes. Jasper was happy and my new pants kept my bum dry. No more duct taped ass crack.

I thought that this trip might be a little tiring for Jasper, but he looked like a puppy again during the glissade and most of the rest of the descent. We arrived at the truck at 5:50 pm, less than 10 hours after starting out. Not bad for a couple old, fat guys. I knew that we wouldn’t make it to the Mazama Store before they closed at 6:00, but Winthrop was only 15 minutes beyond and there was a bigger store. I needed a large beer to supplement my sandwich. We called Dani and told her we were fine and would be spending the night near the next trailhead and hopefully back by dinner the next night.

After eating we found a nice spot to pull off the road only a few miles from the Goat peak Lookout trailhead. Amazingly I had cell service there so we could update our Facebook statuses (stati?). One has to have priorities. Oh, there was that beer too.

We woke up to sunny skies and decided to head up Goat Peak. The trail was shorter than the guidebooks advertise. Unfortunately for us the clouds rolled in and we didn’t get to enjoy the reportedly fine views from this peak. Still, it was another new summit for Jasper (#270 in his peakbagging career) and we can always go back with clearer skies.

On our drive back, the rains began shortly before Washington Pass and didn’t let up until we were past Darrington. We made it back in plenty of time for dinner and a shower. And another beer.

Photos:  Robinson Mountain; July 2, 2012 Goat Peak Lookout; July 3, 2012

Flat and Lazy in Alaska

I had to go to Anchorage for work. I did manage to do a couple hikes and get a little sightseeing in while I was there.

After finishing up most of my site visits for the day I headed to the Mt. Si of Anchorage, Flattop Mountain. I thought I might stay for sunset, but the quicker than expected ascent, very windy conditions on the summit, a later than Seattle area sunset and my increasing hunger forced me down to civilization. Next time I may head further east along the ridge to a couple higher points that don’t see nearly as much traffic as the main Flattop.

After satisfying my hunger I took a short drive down Turnagain Arm to Beluga Point before retreating back to the hotel and a little sleep.

The next morning I headed north to Wasilla and Palmer for some more site visits, then took on a little more challenging trail up Lazy Mountain. I had the summit to myself and got a look at Matanuska Peak, four miles to the east. Another time perhaps.

Not satisfied with my hiking exploits, I tackled Bodenburg Butte, or simply, “The Butte”. I started up froma trailhead on the south side. 18 minutes later I was on the top. It was a short and steep trail. While on top I noticed a trail heading in the other direction. Remembering a trail junction down below I naturally assumed that this was some sort of loop. You know what they say about assumptions…

I descended all the way to the West Side trailhead, and rather than head back up and over thought it might be quicker to walk the road around. After a couple miles of that I realized that the Bodenburg Loop road was a lot longer than just a simple loop around the butte. Luckily I saw a power line corridor and followed it up and over a small ridge, through a short stand of blackberries and to a horse trail a couple hundred feet above the road. Eventually I made it back to the road about 200 feet from the trailhead. I was done with hiking for the day and headed back to Anchorage for dinner and beers.

Flattop Mountain photos

Turnagain Arm photos

Lazy Mountain & Bodenburg Butte photos

Windy and Windier

A few months ago I was looking at maps with snowshoe destinations in mind and I spotted Windy Mountain (5,386) near Stevens Pass. A few days later Carla and Yana made an ascent of it and I thought I might follow in their footsteps soon. Other trips happened and I figured it might be too late in the year to mount a reasonably brush free ascent. Then I saw Matt, Eric and Eric’s trip report and decided to follow in their footsteps the following weekend.

With Jasper in the lead, we headed up from the caboose. We had much better weather than the other groups and managed to find an only moderately annoying route through the brush and hit snow about 3,600′. Matt, Eric and Eric’s tracks were still visible most of the way and we made relatively good time to the top of Windy Mountain. We had sun but little to no wind. Lunches were eaten and Jasper took a short nap while I collected photographic evidence of our summit.

A point to the north-northeast labeled Pt. 5,383 on the map actually looked higher and with good weather and a relatively easy ridge walk ahead of us we made an ascent of it. The final bit kept going but eventually we topped out on a point that was definitely higher than Windy Mountain. Looking back at the GPS track we actually went past Pt. 5,383 to a point inside the 5,400 foot contour. Bonus summit!

The descent was mostly uneventful. We headed slightly east on the Iron Goat trail to the Windy Point overlook before heading back to the trailhead caboose and then back home.

Photographic documentation: Windy Mountain and Pt. 5,383; May 20, 2011

Angels Rest and Devils Rest

Jasper and I had been to Angels Rest several time over the past few years. It’s only 35 minutes from Dani’s mom’s house and the hike while short has some steep spots and pretty decent views of the lower Columbia Gorge. We never had the time to continue on to Devils Rest. Until this time.

Dani was helping her mom with the neighborhood garage sale, and I was told to hike longer as I would be “bored out of my mind” sitting around at a garage sale. I didn’t need to be told twice to take a longer hike, so early Saturday morning we left, with a stop for coffee first. Where there is coffee, there is life. Or at least a better life.

Arriving to a packed trailhead parking lot I realized that I had only been here during winter or midweek, never on a decent late spring weekend. I figured most of the crowds would only go as far as Angels Rest, so we started up the trail. We made good time up to Angels Rest, and for the first time continued on the trail past the ’summit’ and into the woods. I decided to do a loop trip by using the Foxglove Trail, Devils Rest Trail, Wahkeena Trail and finally returning to Angels Rest via the Angels Rest Trail. Everything went smoothly. Almost.

At what looked like a trail junction I kept going straight ahead as the route description said. Never mind that there was no sign indicating that this was actually a junction. And pay no attention to the sticks laid across the path I chose. Or Jasper following his nose down the proper trail. No, I am an experienced hiker and I knew where I was going. Except I really didn’t. After several hours (ok, 15 minutes) of walking on the trail/abandoned road I realized that I was not on the path to Devils Rest, so I turned around and headed back to my not a trail junction.

Well, not so fast. Before I got back to the Foxglove Trail I spotted another faint path heading in the general direction of Devils Rest. So naturally I took it. Another 10 minutes of aimless wandering led me to a dead end. I considered going cross-country to intercept the proper trail, but after finding myself ankle deep in a bog holding on to some devils club, I decided to admit defeat and head back to the real trail. I swear I heard Jasper laughing at me, but he vehemently denies it.

Finally back on the real trail we made it to the top of Devils Rest in less than 20 minutes. The views were underwhelming from this treed summit, but a few minutes east along the loop there was a nice viewpoint with a sheer drop to the valley below. Jasper stayed back from the edge. Good dog.

The rest of the loop went as well as could be expected from such an experienced hiker. I managed to not get misplaced this time and eventually we found the car back at the trailhead. What was supposed to be 10.9 miles with 2,800 feet of gain ended up being ~12.5 miles with ~3,300 feet of gain. I never denied padding my stats. Or miscalculating my ascent times. Or just being a goofball.

We made it back to the garage sale in time to save nephew Jackson from being sold for 50 cents, but niece Taylor and her friends had closed down their lemonade stand. I settled for a beer from the fridge. Jasper sat in the shade and kept a watch on Jackson.

More photos here: Angels Rest & Devils Rest; May 14, 2011

South Bessemer Versification

A rainy Saturday and what should I do?
Another trip up the Middle Fork I had planned.
Team Yellow Dog minus Jo decided to join me,
On top of South Bessemer and Moolock we would stand.

On the road walk Athena tried some cluvert ops,
Pretending to ignore her dad yelling “No, no, no!”
Jasper growled his displeasure at her,
But got real playful at the first patch of snow.

Thick clouds obscured any views we might have had,
And the rain turned to snow as we made our ascent.
Upward and onward we continued to climb,
Reaching the summit a little snow would not prevent.

A short stay on top was all we could do,
As the wind and the snow made us feel unwelcome.
Down lower for rest and luch we all went,
Treats for the dogs, oh yeah, they they all got some.

Back at the saddle we considered Moolock Peak,
Scott said to me “I don’t think I should”
With the effort expended to get us this far,
I thought to myself “I don’t think I could”

We slogged down the road so boring and long,
Athena inspected every culvert once more.
The snow turned to rain as we descended,
And when the rain stopped it started to pour.

We all made it safely back to the waiting cars,
Two pairs of boots and twelve little paws.
Why do we go hiking in weather like this?
The only answer that suffices is “because”

Oh, and it’s better than shopping.

A few photos here: South Bessemer Mountain; May 7, 2011

Sweet on Sauer

We celebrated Mother’s Day by taking a drive to the dry side and hiking up Sauer’s Mountain near Leavenworth. The balsamroot were plentiful, as were the smiles on our faces. There was enough sun to keep us in short sleeves, but enough clouds to cool us down when needed.

We both called our mom from the summit while Jasper drank some water and ate a snack. While the ascent was uncrowded, we ran into lots of other hikers heading up while we descended. It was a great day for a walk.

Photos here: Sauer’s Mountain; May 8, 2011

It was big and it was snowy

Friday hike ideas were being discussed, and this line from Yana’s email piqued my interest, “Are you interested in a day trip up Big Snow via this route?”

I hastily replied “Yes” before really considering how long of a day it might be, especially since I was still planning on going up Mt. Si with TNAB Thursday night. I considered bailing on TNAB, but the thought of seeing a nice sunset from below the haystack led me to hike up the old trail. There was no sunset, at least not from our vantage point stuck in an April blizzard. But at least there were graham crackers. And lots of dogs. I even considered heading home straight from the hike and forgoing the Pour House, but in the end the call of a Blue Moon and the crispy chicken wrap won out. Thanks Kim for forcing me to have a second Blue Moon.

I managed a little over 4 hours sleep before waking up and stumbling to the coffee machine. Right at 5:00 am Yana arrived, apparently having enjoyed about the same amount of sleep. We could always catch up on sleep during the drive up the Middle Fork Road. Speaking of the Middle Fork Road, somehow I had managed to avoid driving up it before. Ok, so I had been to the Granite Lakes Road once before, but no further. This was to change today.

Yana pointed out several points of interest along the way, and even commented on how the road was actually in pretty good shape, for Middle Fork standards. I could barely hear her over the rattling of my brain inside my head as the truck navigated the potholes. We arrived at the Dingford Creek trailhead and the locked gate 50 minutes after passing the Mailbox Peak trailhead, and were on trail at 6:55 sharp. Or maybe it was 6:56.

The trail gained a few hundred feet rather quickly before easing up and becoming annoyingly flat for what seemed like an eternity. We put our snowshoes on sometime before the junction with the Hester Creek trail, and couldn’t be bothered to remove them for the several small stream crossings or the slightly larger crossing of Dingford Creek. As we kept going onward and barely upward, I noticed that the GPS map indicated a ‘Bog’ ahead of us. Luckily our intended route would avoid this potential calamity. Instead, we turned upslope, our goal still out of sight somewhere above the trees.

At this point I realized that Yana had been leading pretty much the whole time. Well, I actually realized it before, but chivalry dictated that I keep quiet and allow her to lead the way. She very politely asked me to break a little trail, and after replying that I would try to break some trail, I managed to actually break a little trail. Very little. Then Yana resumed her rightful place in front again. We even took the snowshoes off for 5 minutes, which ended up being 4 minutes too many. Luckily we encountered better snow as we ascended, and I was able to actually do close to my share of trailbreaking.

A few hundred feet below the top the trees ended, and we had only the open snow slopes to contend with. Luckily they were fairly low angle and soon enough we found ourselves a few feet below the highest point. Well, with all the snow we might have actually been above the summit. We we wary of a summit cornice, but a little reconnaisance to the west for a look back confirmed that the actual summit snow was not corniced, so we sat on top and relaxed, rehydrated and ate what little food we had. We took a few photos and added a couple layers as a breeze threatened to chill us.

All too quickly we had to depart. Our descent was delayed by shutter delay as the afternoon light on the surrounding peaks was quite nice. Adding this peak to Yana’s Summit Sunset Series was tempting, but I really wanted to get home before Saturday morning, so we headed down the slopes to the flatness that awaited us below. As usual, the trail out had been lengthened considerably since the hike in. We made it back to the truck without incident. Well, Yana was hallucinating the smell of french fries and I slipped on a wet root a couple times, but no permanent damage was done.

The GPS track indicated that we went 13.4 miles and gained a total of 5,400 feet. I’ve done longer days with more gain, but this one left me feeling more exhausted than I have felt in quite some time. It’s a good type of exhaustion though.

Thanks Yana for another good day in the mountains.

Some of my photos and a topo map with our route on it: Big Snow Mountain; April 22, 2011