08/05/14 Unnamed 7054 #67

Unnamed 7054 from the trail

On the 5th of August I set out to complete my goal of climbing all the ranked peaks in the Blue Point quadrangle.  It seemed fitting as I had climbed the other two peaks two days earlier.  I drove up the Marshall Canyon Road and parked at the dirt road that headed up the west side of the canyon.  I rode (and pushed) my bike up the road until I made it to the trail that headed up the mountain toward Sheep Mountain.  I pushed my bike a bit further and stashed it in the brush.  I had no desire to push it up the trail, which I knew would be steeper than the road.  Mostly I wanted it so that I could cruise back down the last three or so miles of dirt road to the car at the end of the day.

Woody Mountain

I started hiking up the trail.  It was a nice trail, but it was hot that day.  The forest was open enough that I spent more time in the sun than I wanted to.  Before getting up near the saddle the forest was a bit thicker and I enjoyed a bit of a walk in the shade.  At that point the trail dropped slightly and then followed the ridge up toward the summit.  Before ascending, I found myself in some thick huckleberries and made mental notes as to where I would stop on my way down to pick berries.

Blue Point

I carried on and thoroughly enjoyed the trail from that point on, despite it being rather steep.  I pushed on up the trail and came to a spot where the trail started traversing in a direction I didn't want to go.  At that point, I left the trail and started heading directly up toward the top.  Near the top I found an old road and crossed it.  Finding the true summit was difficult as it was a broad field of beargrass with some sparse trees here and there.  I walked around and touched every highpoint I could find and satisfied myself that in one of those points, I had touched the top.

I moved back over to the eastern edge, where it dropped off more significantly and sat on some rocks and ate a snack and snapped some photos.  I looked over at Blue Point and contemplated heading over to it.  It is not a ranked summit, but it is a named summit.  If I had more energy and if it hadn't been so hot I may have gone for it, but under those conditions, I would not have been very happy.  It turned out later in the day that I was glad I didn't go for it.

Sappy cones

I followed the old road as I knew it would take me to the trail and maybe be easier walking than the little bit of off-trail walking I had done at the end on the way up.  It did take me to the trail and I followed it around the top of the hill and back down toward the saddle.  When the huckleberries were thick again I stopped for a bit and picked a full water bottle's worth.  Then I made my way back down the trail to my bike.

When I found my bike in the brush I discovered that the back tire was flat.  This was when I was glad I hadn't hiked on to Blue Point.  I now had at least three extra miles to walk that I thought I could have easily coasted on my bike.  Instead of taking 15-20 minutes it took me at least an hour.  I tried to remain in good spirits as it had been a great day.

Huckleberry fingers

Elevation gain:  3560'     Total gain:  118,730'

08/03/14 Unnamed 6750 and Sheep Mountain 7646' #65 and #66

Unnamed 6750 from Sheep Mountain

I set out on the 3rd of August with two goals.  First, I wanted to climb another peak in the Blue Point quadrangle map on my way to climbing all three of those ranked summits.  I already had climbed one of the other ones, Sheep Mountain, in October 2013 and Unnamed 6750 seemed like it might be the most difficult of the three to get to.  My second goal was to have a two peak day and by also climbing Sheep Mountain I could do just that. 

I drove up to the trailhead and started hiking on the beautiful, sunny morning.  I made it up to the saddle and turned away from Sheep to head toward Unnamed 6750 first.  The huckleberries in and around the saddle were incredible.  I told myself that if I had the time later in the day I would return and pick some.  I carried on past the trail that headed down toward Rattlesnake Creek and I was on trail I had not hiked before.  It was a nice trail through forest and huckleberries.

On top of Unnamed 6750

The trail started climbing and I knew I would need to leave it soon.  Eventually I found a spot and started bushwhacking toward the unnamed peak.  At first it wasn't too brushy, but all the brush and grass was wet from the morning dew and I found that my shoes and legs were wet after a few minutes.  This didn't bother me as the day was shaping up to be a warm one.  After twenty minutes or so the brush was suddenly much thicker and I had to deal with a lot of the whacking in bushwhacking.  It was mostly tall false azalea that was giving me difficulties, which was annoying but not as annoying as if it had been alder.

My grouse friend as he walks away

Every so often I found what seemed like bits of game trails that negotiated the worst of the thickness and then they too would fade out in the overgrowth.  I continued to push on and eventually it opened up near the top and the last couple hundred feet of vertical gain was relatively open and pleasant.  I was surprised at how nice of a summit I came upon.  It was still in the trees with few views but it was open with a nice rock outcrop barely pushing through the grasses.  It felt like a peaceful place and I enjoyed being there.  I decided to sit down and enjoy this obscure place and ate some snacks and meditated on being in such a lovely, out-of-the-way location that was rarely visited.  That, and I was in no rush to get back to the bushwhacking.

On top of Sheep Mountain

Eventually I decided to leave and head back to the trail and make my way up Sheep Mountain.  The bushwhack going back down didn't seem to be as bad as it had been on the way up.  That is usually the case that going up through the brush is more difficult than going down through it.  I took a slightly different route, staying a bit closer to the broad, rounded ridge and found my way back to the trail pretty easily.  I had made a friend of a lone grouse on my way.

Once back on the trail I made my way back toward Sheep Mountain and started climbing up that wonderful trail.  Surprisingly those slopes did not hold the same bounty of huckleberries as down near the saddle.  I slowly made my way up the switchbacks through the heat and eventually found myself near the top.  It is really a great trail and near the top there was quite a gathering of beargrass that was pleasant to see.  It was only a couple of switchbacks from there and I was up on top at the rock structure that is slowly falling apart. 

Sheep Mountain benchmark

I spent some time up there taking in the hazy views and chatting with the many ladybugs that congregated on top.  After some time and a couple photos I found the benchmark and then headed back down to the saddle to pick huckleberries.  I filled most of a water bottle in a short time and then headed down the trail to the car.  What a great day!

Elevation gain: 2090'    Total gain: 115,170'