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| Hiking | 12.78 Miles |
2,730 AEG |
| | Hiking | 12.78 Miles | 5 Hrs 35 Mns | | 2.37 mph |
| 2,730 ft AEG | 11 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | I headed over to Rathdrum to hike some of the trails there, and to see how close I could get to the summit before snow became an issue. Headed up Westwood Loop, then Frog Spit and a moment on Monarch and Skyline before reaching Hi Frequency. All the downed trees have been cleared.
Reached StormKing Pkwy at the tower, then continued uphill. The ground had been frozen since near the trailhead, and now had occasional ice and snow on it. Nothing of concern. The short connector from the road up to the saddle was where the snow really showed up. That connector is quite steep and rocky and was covered in snow and muddy ice. I carefully made my way uphill, using some boot tracks from probably yesterday and kicking little steps in the mud.
Once at the saddle, the trail was completely snow covered, but the snow was pretty firm, so it was easy hiking on the gentle incline. After a while, the boot prints ended, but I kept going. Eventually, the snow become softer and I was sinking with each step, so I turned around about a half mile and 500 vertical feet from the summit. That final push to the summit is fairly steep, and I was not motivated enough since the clouds were obscuring the views.
Descending was easy, and the steep connector was okay, but tedious. Once below that, there was nothing of difficulty. I took the road farther east towards the saddle on the other side of the mountain, but turned around along the scree slope. A helicopter had been hovering over me, then moved to the saddle, so I didn’t want to hike towards whatever he was looking for.
Took StormKing Pkwy most of the way back down. At one point, I noticed what looked like a brown horse on the ground, a second later I realized it was a moose calf. It hadn’t been dead long, very fresh, obviously eaten by something large. Based on the contents spilling from the intestines, this calf did not die of hunger. I left the area quickly, since whatever (bear? mtn lion?) was eating it was probably still nearby and might come back for another nibble, and since mom might be nearby and probably wasn’t in a good mood.
The helicopter came back after a while, still circling above the saddle. He hovered over me again, but I ignored him. He circled over the saddle for quite a while, then headed back towards the airport. I saw no footprints of anyone else near that saddle, but there are several other roads over there. Took Majestic Passage for the final mile of the descent. I like the trees along that trail. Then finished up on South Hawkhaven which connects back to the parking lot.
Nice workout. Temps were 32 at the start, in the 20s up higher, and 42 at the finish. A few snow flurries, and snow falling on all the surrounding mountains, especially to the east. Saw one e-biker near the trailhead, but nobody else all day. |
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| Stop crying and just go do the hike. |
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