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| Beargrass in bloom |
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| Spring beauty |
We started up the trail and were amazed at all the beargrass that was blooming and getting ready to bloom. We made it a bit up the trail and found that it hadn't been cleared of the downfall yet this year. The further we went we realized it probably hadn't been cleared in a number of years. It was an old road bed and in spots the downfall was thick. We made it over and around the trees and continued to climb. After some time we started wondering where the White Mountain Trail was and if we had passed it. Not long after beginning that conversation we came to a spot where we had a bit more of a view. What we could see was the ridge we needed to be on and at the end was the White Mountain Lookout. We had missed the turn and we had missed it by quite a bit.
At that point we decided we would just keep going and we didn't care where we ended up. It was a beautiful day and when the old road wasn't blocked by trees the walking was quite nice. As we climbed higher the beargrass had not started to bloom, but the spring beauties were covering the forest floor. In spots they were so thick that they almost looked like snow from a distance. Eventually we did come to snow and decided to keep going. We could still follow the old road easily enough and we had the energy.
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| Mariposa lily |
As the snow became deeper I talked about trying to get to the ridge we were close to and perhaps climbing Pilot Knob. Everyone was for it and we left the old road and cut back and up to the broad ridge. We walked through the snow in the trees and never really knew if we were on the ridge, but the going was easy and we continued to climb. After some time we came to a spot we felt was near the top. We pushed on a bit and found a nice rock outcrop to sit on. From the top of that we could see it was a bit higher to the south.
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| View to the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness |
Jake and I pushed on to see if we could find the true summit. It took us maybe another 10-15 minutes and we were standing on the summit. We found the metal benchmark and looked around. There was another rock outcrop that looked higher. We decided to head over to it and see how hard it was to get up it. We had to drop a bit and then walked over to it and we walked around looking for a safe way to climb. There was a way we could have gotten up, but the down climb would have been scary and possibly dangerous. After looking at it and thinking about it for five minutes we decided it would be a smarter decision to not climb it.
As we walked away I was a bit frustrated to have spent so much time and energy to get near the top and not get up a summit. I reassured myself that it had been a beautiful day and that it was great being out. Yet always in my mind was the rock that looked higher.
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| Rock that looked higher |
We followed our melting tracks back down to the old road and followed the snow back to where the road was dry. On the way, we crossed some moose tracks we had seen on the way up. Near them we saw fresh bear tracks that hadn't been there on our way up. It's always fun to see bears, but it is also cool knowing it had crossed our path when we had been up high. I wondered where it was going and what it might be looking for.
We made it back to the dry road and walked it back to the car. On the way, near one of the thickest sections of downfall we found the White Mountain Lookout Trail. It was hard to find and we had been focused on getting around the trees and we had missed it. As there were many huckleberry plants we all said we would come back and hike that trail as well.
I struggled for a long time on whether or not to climb Pilot Knob. We had, after all, seen the metal benchmark. Would the 1934 crew that placed it not have climbed to the highest point? I went back to the USGS Quadrangle map and looked closer. The spot we had ascended with the benchmark was shown on the map to be a whole contour line higher than the rock we had walked over to. This would have meant the map was wrong too if the other rock was indeed higher. Could a map be that wrong? A whole contour line wrong? I thought back to how many peaks I had been on, even some recent ones, and how another summit looked higher until I went over to it and climbed it and looked back. It has happened to me often. It's very hard to determine a high point if there are other points near the same height.
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| Pilot Knob benchmark |
I decided to count Pilot Knob based on a few things. One was the difficulty in visually determining a high point. The rock may have looked higher because it stood out alone. The second was the fact that the benchmark was in the spot it was shown on the map. The third was that the map showed the point with the benchmark being one contour line higher. I could be wrong, but I'm putting my faith in the 1934 survey crew and the USGS map. Perhaps I'll even try to climb one extra peak to make up for it all at the end.
Elevation gain: 2045' Total gain: 64,185'
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