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| Hiking | 9.88 Miles |
2,291 AEG |
| | Hiking | 9.88 Miles | 5 Hrs 15 Mns | | 2.06 mph |
| 2,291 ft AEG | 27 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | This hike was pretty fun, but I didn't really know what to expect at first. There was a very alive bee colony in a dead tree next to the trail which was cool. A lot of the stream crossings (and even the minor ones up on the switchbacks) had water, probably because of the recent rains but if it's like that year round that's really nice. What I thought was interesting was the peregrine falcon area and we ended up seeing one soaring around and calling by the cliffs from the switchbacks. The sun was a bit harsh on the switchbacks but thankfully a breeze came once we started getting close to the saddle.
The view from the saddle was spectacular and I knew it would just get better from there. Now that the trail had started to level out, the turn off for the peak came fast. We continued on the social trail following the creek and cairns until we got off track. Well we didn't really want to back track so we bushwhacked through some manzanita and navigated boulders until we got to a more manageable section of trail following a different creek. We still didn't really know where we were going so we followed the tracks more closely. From the creek, we continued up a scrubby, rocky slope and once we crested the ridge, it was a little flat area that was relatively open. We followed what seemed like the most trafficked route and then started heading up using our intuition because we lost track of the route. We generally followed the creek that was covered in giant boulders until it seemed the peak had appeared right in front of us. We whacked up to a relatively clear social path going up to the peak. This part was one that I feared a bit from the satellite image but it was actually pretty easy.
Up at the ridge, tons of ladybugs appeared. We saw some lower down but there were tons up here. Almost every rock we grabbed into for support had them under our fingers. There was a bit of snow in the shadows and I would not trust standing on it one bit. Up at the true summit was the summit register in an ammo can, some wooden debris, possibly belonging to an old sign, and the USGS benchmark. The views from the top were spectacular. You could see so far in every direction. The reference mark was pretty visible and a bit of precarious positioning to get a top down picture. The CGS station mark was on the second highest summit and was next to a big drop. We headed back down to a flatter area before all of the rocks to eat lunch.
After that, we headed down. Now, I forgot my watch to record the track so I am using my hiking partner’s and he diverged from the easiest route right at the beginning but got back onto it right after. It was so much easier to find the path going down and there was almost a clear path the whole way down. And the interesting thing is the path that we took up vs. down was very similar, despite the difference in effort and time. We tried to set up cairns along the way but definitely missed a few spots. We found the key point where the optimal path continued and we followed the wrong one. There is a little rocky part that rises up from the creek and the clear path follows the creek. We took the clear path when it really leads you nowhere. We laid some sticks over the wrong way and set up some puny cairns the right way. The hike down to the trail seemed to fly along and ended up being about 10 minutes faster. Along the way we saw many cairns, some dictating different routes to the top but ultimately route finding skills are necessary for most of the route if you get off track even a tiny bit. |
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Alkali Spring |
Dripping |
Dripping |
| | | Didn't look for the spring but there were a few streams in the area lightly flowing | | _____________________
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