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| Hiking | 14.14 Miles |
3,386 AEG |
| | Hiking | 14.14 Miles | 9 Hrs 54 Mns | | 1.48 mph |
| 3,386 ft AEG | 20 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | While pondering hikes for the post turkey-day weekend, it occurred to me that I've been meaning to make my way around Battleship and pay a visit back to LaBarge Box...of course, I had to do it the more difficult way (from Canyon Lake rather than from First Water TH)  because I can apparently never settle for easy (or easier). I knew to expect water in the creeks since I had just seen Boulder earlier in the week. While trying to determine who I might be able to lure out to join me, I figured I might give Wally a try. Sure enough, he seemed up for it, if perhaps slightly disappointed in the route mileage...so I offered up the suggestion of summiting battleship to add mileage and AEG - we left it on the table as a possibility to be explored when we got to the saddle.
We got to the trailhead to find several of the allocated parking spaces occupied. After getting my shoes on, we scampered across the SR-88 and headed up the trail. While I've been to canyon lake several times this past year, it's been a number of years (in the double digits ) since I've hiked up the Boulder Canyon Trail. I remembered that it climbed right from the start...and had nice views...but that was about all I recalled of it. Sure enough, it climbs...and it has nice views  and plenty of wolfberries for snacking upon, should you enjoy such things.
As we were heading down towards LaBarge Creek, we noticed mist rising up off the water - a unique sight for sure! When we hit the creek, we decided to make our way up the drainage to work our way around Battleship in a clockwise direction. While we had been making a decent pace while on trail, once we had to start rock hopping our way up-canyon, things slowed down quite a bit. The main watercourse is relatively free of debris, though with the water flowing, it made for careful foot placement in attempts to keep my feet dry (with success!). We made a couple stops along the way - first to have a look at what remains of Aylors camp/hut, and second to eyeball a cave/alcove that is marked with a faint black cross. Eventually we found ourselves at the large boulder section just before the lower box. While no minnows were observed, there were definitely tadpoles in the pools. A quick scramble over the boulders brought us to the to the box, where we took a small detour to visit and snap some photos before heading up the short climb to the saddle. The use trail for this route has become well established and was easy to follow the whole way.
When we hit the peel-off for the Battleship Summit, we checked the time, and I figured "why not...it's right there...and I haven't been to the top!" Wally checked with me a couple times on the way up whether I wanted to turn back...perhaps he was hoping I'd come to my senses and call it off alas, once the challenging scrambles were done and the narrow bit was crossed, there was nothing more for it than to finish it off.
We enjoyed the views from the summit while I quickly ate my lunch (a requisite post-thanksgiving turkey sandwich). After fueling back up, we made our way back down and continued on our loop. The trail down from the saddle is similarly well established and easy to follow. While I had originally contemplated heading down Boulder Creek past where the trail separates, we'd both had more than enough rock hopping to consider it. The return to the trailhead was uneventful, though my pace climbing out of LaBarge along the trail was much slower than my pace heading in from the lake. Thanks, Wally, for joining me and leading the way up to the top of Battleship!
Other people: Got lapped on the initial climb, saw a pair of backpackers headed out as we were descending towards LaBarge Creek, a pair of folk at LaBarge Creek, a group of people camped at the Box, a single hiker heading down from the saddle, 4 others on Battleship (two descending while we were heading up, and two arriving at the summit just before we were getting ready to leave), and a large cluster of folk at the LaBarge canyon viewpoint as we were on our way out. |
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Wildflowers Observation Light
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| Happier when hiking....I may not move fast (and I'm often distracted by wildflowers), but I'll get there eventually |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
because I can apparently never settle for easy (or easier). I knew to expect water in the creeks since I had just seen Boulder earlier in the week. While trying to determine who I might be able to lure out to join me, I figured I might give Wally a try. Sure enough, he seemed up for it, if perhaps slightly disappointed in the route mileage...so I offered up the suggestion of summiting battleship to add mileage and AEG - we left it on the table as a possibility to be explored when we got to the saddle.
and plenty of wolfberries for snacking upon, should you enjoy such things. 
