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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Huckleberry fingers |
Elevation gain: 3560' Total gain: 118,730'
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