08/15/14 Petty Mountain 7270' #70

Albert Point from the trail

On the 15th I set out to climb my 70th peak of the challenge.  I wanted to make it special as 70 seemed like an important mark.  I had been thinking about Petty Mountain all summer as I had climbed at least four peaks in the same area and used some of the trails that I would need to use to climb Petty.  Most people climb Petty from Petty Creek, but I had spent so much time in the Albert Creek drainage already and had my mind set on using the trails that circle the rim of that drainage.  I was going to start from the Albert Creek Trailhead, but I decided I would actually save some mileage from starting at the unmarked trailhead on the road up above Albert Creek.  I made the long, bumpy ride up that road to the start of the trail and began my adventure.

View toward Petty Mountain from the ridge extending from Albert Point

View toward Petty from highpoint

The trail descends initially from the road to the junction with the trail that drops down to Albert Creek.  I could have carried on from there and just followed the trail up the ridge to the summit of Petty, but I had had it in my mind to do the big loop for this peak and it was fitting for #70.  At the junction, I turned and headed down toward Albert Creek, turning at the next junction, in almost one mile, to the right and descending further to the creek.  The total loss of elevation was about 1000 feet from the trailhead to the creek.  I didn't mind as the creek is a great spot with a nice little footbridge and because the ridge that extends from Albert Point toward Petty was incredible.  I had spent a little time on that trail earlier in the summer and was looking forward to walking the entire ridge.

Summit hitchrail

I crossed the creek and began my climb up to the ridge.  Once there, I enjoyed the walk through the cool forest and recalled the previous hike where I had been up there.  There were some spots with great huckleberries and I stopped to sample them.  The trail along the ridge is very nice with an open forest and decent views.  It also feels surprisingly remote.  I saw quite a bit of bear and lion sign in torn up and flipped logs and cat scat.  Both of these helped to increase the feelings of being in a place more remote than it actually was.

Clouds moving in

The day had started a bit overcast, which was fitting as the day I climbed Albert Point along with the two unnamed 5620s it was raining.  However, once I made it up to the ridge, the sun was out.  I thoroughly enjoyed my time walking on the trail along the ridge, gaining and losing elevation here and there as I slowly climbed toward the head of the drainage.  Eventually the trail came to what seemed like a four-wheeler road.  The junction was unmarked and I was glad I wasn't heading in the opposite direction as I may have missed the trail.  I was expecting it to be a trail junction and not as much of a road as it was.  It was still a very rough and very steep road and I climbed quickly to some highpoints along the ridge.  I stopped on one and had a quick snack and took some photos before heading for the summit.

Enveloped

The storms seemed to be building and there were dark clouds around and rumbling from thunder could be heard in the distance.  I dropped off a highpoint and onto a trail from the end of the four-wheeler road.  This took me past another trail junction, and I stayed on the ridge trail.  In less than 30 minutes from the highpoint where I had stopped I came to the summit of Petty Mountain.  It was a bit of a strange summit, as it was not very obvious where the highpoint was.  There were some concrete blocks, which had helped hold down a structure or tower that was no longer there and a hitch rail right on the top.  I had carried one beer up to celebrate and I sat on a concrete block and drank it as the storm clouds moved in.

View back toward Petty

The clouds and the rumbling came closer and closer and I knew I had to head out.  I quickly followed the trail along the high, open ridge until the ridge became more defined and started dropping.  I thought for sure I would be hit with some rain and lightning and thunder, but some clouds moved in over the ridge and enveloped the ridge and me along with it.  I was able to descend quickly and really was not rained on much until I was closer to the end of my loop and the last five-minute climb back up to my car.  My knees hurt a bit on the hike down and I was worried for what that might mean for the remainder of the peak challenge.  Despite that, it had been a great day, and I had climbed a peak via a route I had been wanting to do since May.  I highly recommend it!

Elevation gain: 3650'     Total gain:  127,320'

08/07-08/14 Cleveland Mountain 7337' and Welcome Benchmark 7723' #68 and #69

Suspension bridge at start of the trail

I set out on the morning of the 7th excited about a plan I had to ascend some of the peaks in the Welcome Creek Wilderness.  My plan was to hike up the trail up Welcome Creek and to climb Cleveland Mountain and then make it over to Welcome Benchmark and then find a place to camp for the night.  The next morning I would try to climb a couple more unnamed summits before hiking back to the car.  As you can tell from the title of this post, I only made it up the first two peaks.

Wilderness boundary

I made it up to the trailhead along Rock Creek.  I really loved going back there and was excited to be to a new spot deeper down the drainage.  I packed the last bit of my bag and set out.  Right from the trailhead there is a long and high suspension bridge over the creek, which makes for an exciting start to a hike.  I carried on up the trail and was almost immediately in the wilderness.  The trail turned up the Welcome Creek drainage and I began exploring a new wilderness.  It was a warm day and the trail was pretty rocky.  The drainage reminded me of the other hike I had done off Rock Creek to head up Burnt and Babcock Mountains.  The drainage was steep and rocky, but at least it was not so tight that there was no creek.  Occasionally the trail walked by the creek and it made some lovely music as I continued up the drainage.

Old homestead along trail

Eventually I came to a creek crossing on a small bridge and then crossed the mostly-dry creek coming out of a side drainage.  At this point I carried on a bit further and found I had lost the trail.  I backtracked and made another attempt to find the trail and could not find the right way.  I did not want to be thwarted so early into the hike, so I backtracked a bit further.  Here, near the side-drainage creek, I found the trail climbed a bit and didn't stay near Welcome Creek.  It was hard to see because there were a few trees down at this point.  Glad to be back on the trail, I continued on up the rocky trail as it now traveled 100 feet or more above the creek.  It was beautiful.

On top of Cleveland

Not much further I came across an old homestead cabin.  I was ready for a break and sat to have lunch at the cabin.  The trail and cabin were quite a bit above the creek at this point.  After lunch, I hiked further up the drainage.  Beyond the cabin the drainage seemed to be a bit more lush, less rocky, and had bigger trees, which I appreciated for the shade they covered the trail with.  I had been under the impression that to climb Cleveland alone would be about a 15-mile day.  The further I made it up the trail, the more I started to question this.  It seemed to take a very long time to get to the point where the trail finally left the creek and really started climbing up toward the peak.

Tangle of trees on the trail

The first part of that climb was through a burn and was quite hot.  There were quite a few trees down across the trail too.  I pushed on and the second half of the climb was through a green forest, which was much cooler.  I kept going until I hit the junction with another trail.  Here I sat down briefly and had some water.  I didn't rest long as I knew I was near the summit.  I started hiking again and made it to the top within five minutes.  There were some trees up top and the views weren't great, but I was excited to be up there.  As I was quite tired and because I realized my initial plan of climbing 4-5 peaks was out of the question, I pulled out my sleeping pad, took off my shoes and found a place to lay down in the shade.  I rested for 20-30 minutes before putting my shoes back on, packing up, and heading back to the trail.

A little past the junction with the Welcome Creek Trail I came back into a burn.  At first it wasn't too bad as I descended to a saddle.  At that point, however, the downfall was thick.  I pushed on, going over and around the worst tangles and as more time passed I questioned what I was doing out there.  I could tell from the map that the trail traversed around a hill before climbing up that hill and heading toward Welcome Benchmark.  With how bad the downed trees were I decided to leave the trail and just set out toward the top of the hill to hopefully save some time and cut off some of my hiking through the worst of it.

Two tops of Welcome Benchmark

It was perhaps slightly better off trail, or at least I told myself that.  As I was nearing the top of the hill and the trail again, I saw a little, spotted fawn in the mess of trees.  It was all alone and walking around.  I said hello and warned it to be careful as it was lucky I was not a mountain lion or bear.  Not long after seeing the fawn I hit the trail and turned toward the second peak.  It took me less than a minute to realize that this section of trail had been cleared.  I was ecstatic as that meant I would be able to hike at a normal pace.  I started up the trail as it climbed another slope.  At the top of that climb, I left the burn and found myself in a nice, open forest on a great trail.  This section from the burn to the peak was my favorite part of the trail.  It was pretty flat and in a great forest on a ridge.  I was enjoying myself and looked down the trail and saw a black bear thoroughly enjoying himself too walking toward me.  I pulled out my camera and took a blurry photo.  As I stood right on the trail I thought he saw me and continued walking toward me.  As he came closer I finally said, "hey bear," and it snapped him out of his daydreaming.  He seemed utterly shocked that he was not alone up there and he stopped and quickly spun and took off running the way I needed to go.

Smokey morning from the summit

I cautiously hiked up the trail and eventually decided the bear had turned off the ridge somewhere and probably was no longer between me and the summit.  I was excited to have seen a bear.  It was the only bear I saw on this peak challenge that was not in Glacier.  As I neared the summit I came across some cool rock outcrops.  There were still some blooming beargrass hiding in some of the rocks in spots.  Within 45 minutes of seeing the bear I came to the summit area.  Before going to the top, I found a spot where I would sleep and a spot to hang my food.  Then I took my dinner with me up to the summit.  There were two highpoints near on another and I couldn't really tell which was higher, so I went to both.  As I neared the second, I walked to the edge to look down one drainage.  Sitting there on a rock that I had not seen until approaching the edge was a golden eagle.  I was quite close and it took off as soon as it saw me.

Beargrass

I sat up top and enjoyed the views and my dinner as the evening advanced.  Eventually there were a couple of white tail bucks walking around near the top and headed toward my things.  I walked that way to make sure they didn't take my backpack or sleeping bag and then stayed out watching it get darker from the summit.  Eventually I walked over to my sleeping bag and crawled in and fell asleep.

It was great getting to wake up in such a spot.  I immediately went back to the summit and watched a new day starting.  I had a small breakfast up top, packed up, and then headed back down the trail.  I again enjoyed the high forest on the ridge and decided to stay on the trail instead of taking the "shortcut" where I had seen the fawn in hopes that the trail was cleared at least down to the junction at the bottom of the hill.  It was cleared almost down to the junction and then the trail traversing that hill really wasn't that bad until I neared the saddle again.  It was slow going, but I was in high spirits and had more energy than I had the afternoon before.  I pushed through the downfall and made it back to the Welcome Creek Trail.  Along the upper reaches of that trail in the burn before making it down to the creek I stopped often to eat handfuls of huckleberries.

Trail junction

The hike out seemed to take less time, but it was still a long hike and I'm not sure Cleveland is a 15-mile round trip.  Either way, I had finally made it to the Welcome Creek Wilderness and climbed two peaks, one being the highest in the wilderness.  I would love to go back.

Elevation gain:  4940'     Total gain:  123,670'