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'

07/27/14 Trapper Peak 10,157' #64

View of snowfield and summit (right) from upper ridge

My friends and their family decided to head back to Salmon, ID early Sunday morning and so I also decided to not stick around for the last day of the bluegrass festival.  I had my sights on Trapper Peak.  Not only was it a peak above 10,000 feet, but also it was the highest peak in Ravali County and in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness.  I knew it was a peak I wanted to climb for the peak challenge.

I left the festival and drove less than 30 minutes to get to the trailhead.  I knew there were a couple routes up the peak, but not knowing much about any of them, I decided to just take the standard route up the trail.  I was slightly disappointed to see a couple cars in the parking lot, but it was a little after 8:00 a.m. on a popular peak and I almost expected there to be more.  I packed up and hit the trail.

North Trapper (far right) and Bitterroot range to El Capitan (far left)

Immediately the trail started to climb steeply.  I knew the trail was not very long and figured that meant it would be rather steep.  That was fine with me as I was looking to have a climb that would not take me all day.  I hoped to have it be a half-day adventure and leave me the afternoon to figure out what to do next.

It was a beautiful morning and after just a short ways the trail neared a rocky ridge, where I had some views through the trees over across the drainage to Boulder Peak and the beautiful ridges that led up to and away from that peak.  The trail eventually turned away from the rocky ridge and headed back into the forest.  It maintained a steep grade and I climbed and climbed.  It came to a point that I started wishing for some switchbacks.  The trail was so steep in spots and heading directly up the fall-line that it had gotten wide from use and water damage.  This made it very rutted in spots and quite rocky, which added to the steepness, made it a bit difficult.  I was excited to be out there, though, and carried on with a smile on my face.

East Trapper

Eventually I caught up to a couple that had left before me.  They were still a bit below treeline when I saw them and they were not moving very fast.  I said hello and carried on up the mountain.  Not long after passing them I ran into a lone hiker coming down from the summit.  He must have gotten quite an early start.  After meeting him I carried on through the thinning forest and could tell I was nearing treeline.  A bit further and the trees really thinned out and I had some of my first real views up toward the peak.  Here the trail seemed to lessen in grade and I worked my way up to a ridge where I met another single hiker coming down from the summit.  He had come up another route and I asked him about it.  He said that in the summer it was the only route he took and I vowed to try that route the next time I ascended the peak.

Unnamed highpoint southwest of Trapper

Not long after meeting with him I continued on and the trail became more and more faint as it died out in large boulders.  I hopped from one to another for a while and then made my way to a snow slope on the edge of the ridge that helped me ascend the slope easier.  Once past the snow I was out on the large boulders again working my way up the mountain.  The footing was a bit difficult and the traveling was slow but before long I found my way to the final high saddle and from there it was about ten minutes of boulder hopping to the summit.

I had the top to myself and sat up there for some time taking in the views, snapping photos, and eating my snacks.  Eventually the couple I had passed far below made it to the high saddle.  I had been up there for some time and decided to let them enjoy the top for themselves and I started to descend.  From the saddle I decided to traverse a bit and see if the boulder hopping was any better.  It was and I found my way down to where the trail disappeared and had a lovely stroll along the high ridge for a bit before the trail started descending.

Alpine flower on high ridge

At this point, I started seeing more hikers coming up the trail.  I began to pass groups every so often and the trail started to remind me more and more of climbing a 14er in Colorado.  I eventually came to a family down in the thin trees just below treeline.  The mother was sitting on a log and not looking very comfortable.  She asked me how far it was.  I told her it was not too far.  She asked what that meant.  I said that it meant that I had been enjoying myself and had not been paying attention as to how long it had taken me to get down to that point.  I said they were almost to a spot where they could see the summit.  This encouraged them slightly and I'm not sure if they made it.  The view when you can first see the summit does not make you feel like you are very close.

Alpine views looking toward unnamed highpoint and Boulder Peak

I passed more and more people coming up and I was glad to be descending.  Most of the looks on faces said that people were tired and hoping they were higher than they were and I tried not to make it seem to bad for most of them.  This part really reminded me of the Colorado 14ers.  There were a lot of people asking if they were almost there yet and looking like they were not going to make it.  Hopefully most of them did.  As the trail was steep I came down the mountain pretty quickly.  I made it to my car and since it was still early in the afternoon I decided to go back to the bluegrass festival and catch the last couple bands before heading back north to Missoula.

Elevation gain:  3800'     Total gain: 113,080'

07/25/14 Fox Peak 8796' #63

Climbing through the more-recent burn

On the 25th of July I headed south.  I was planning on meeting my friend and his family down near Hamilton for a bluegrass festival for the weekend.  For the day I was hoping to get up a couple of peaks near Skalkaho Pass.  As I turned onto the Skalkaho Pass Road I saw a sign that said it was closed 15 miles ahead.  I was worried that this would not be far enough to get me to the pass.  I drove down the road and was excited when there was no closure at 15 miles.  After another mile or two I thought I just might make it to the pass after all.  Just after I thought this I rounded a corner and saw the gate.  I had been shut down.

Since I didn't really have a backup plan I went off of what I had remembered about the maps and research I had done on the area before heading out there.  I had remembered reading on a website that the trail up Skalkaho Creek was only supposed to be four miles or so up to Trail 313, which is pretty high on and around the ridge.  I figured from there I could climb at least one, and probably two or three if I felt strong.

Jerry Lake and Fox Peak

The trailhead was closer to the road than the website implied and I started hiking up the trail which was an old roadbed.  After maybe 1.5 miles I had to cross Skalkaho Creek.  I took off my shoes and socks and hobbled across the rocky-bottomed but slow-moving creek.  From there I climbed into a burn and the trail flattened out as I walked a little above the creek.  The old burn provided excellent views and the drainage felt deep and unvisited.  I carried on and marveled at how wild the hills were and walked and walked.  Eventually I checked to see how long I had been walking.  It had been over an hour and I could tell I was not near the lake, Jerry Lake.

The trail had been traversing not far from the creek through the burn and had yet to do most of the climbing.  This is when I first realized the mileage I had seen online was quite wrong.  I was too committed at this point and carried on.  Eventually the trail crossed a couple small creeks and then turned up a smaller break in the hills and climbed following a creek.  The terrain was fun to travel through and the burn added some mystery to the undulations in the narrowing drainage and eventually I hiked out of the burn.  The climb had eased for a bit and I saw a crude bridge over the creek.  I crossed it and found what I could only figure was a spot hunters used often for a hunting camp.  It was in a great spot and it looked well used.

Fox Peak from the ridge

At this point I was starting to wonder how far Jerry Lake really was from where I took a brief break.  "I had to be close to the junction," I told myself.  I continued, climbing again, and into a newer burn (probably from the summer before).  The trail was shot with all the water that came out of the hillside because it no longer had roots to support.  The trail was wet and muddy for a few hundred feet or so and then it started getting rockier.  As I carried on climbing up the trail, admiring the flowers, I heard something crashing through the brush below me.  I never saw what it was, but I am pretty sure it was an elk.

Looking down on the route taken

I could tell from the terrain that I was nearing the lake.  The trail flattened out again and traversed on a large bench up toward Jerry Lake.  On the last traverse I was back in the green trees and brush.  There was a lot of elk sign and it even smelled of them in spots.  No wonder there was that camp lower down on the trail.  About 15 minutes after the trail stopped climbing so steeply I came to Jerry Lake.  It was a small, beautiful lake.  It didn't look very deep, but it's location made it a worthy destination.  I thought about how great of a camping spot Jerry Lake would make.  It would be an incredible base to climb Fox, Congdon, an unnamed peak, and Kent Peak.

Congdon and Kent from Fox

I could see up to the summit of Fox and I set out with a time limit.  I was worried I would be too late to meet my friends if I didn't set limits, so at the lake I gave myself an hour to get to the top.  From there I had even set time limits to get back to the lake and car.  I hurried up the trail, which headed up the ridge for a bit.  After about 600 feet the trail left the ridge to traverse toward Congdon.  I left the trail and climbed right up the ridge.  The rock was fun in spots, but it was mostly tedious boulder hopping which took more mental and physical energy than I really wanted to be using.  I fought my fatigue for the rest of the way through the rocks until quite high on the ridge the angle mellowed out a bit and it was less rocky.  It was a pleasant last push to the summit.  I touched all of the highest rocks and sat down for a quick snack.  I sat looking toward the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness.  These are some impressive-looking peaks and my list of peaks I want to climb grew.

Closer view of Kent Peak, highest peak in the Sapphire Range

After eating and snapping some photos I headed back down to the trail and Jerry Lake.  I carried on down the trail and found it went faster than it had on the way up.  I rejoiced upon seeing the creek crossing.  Once across, however, I did not really want to put my socks and shoes back on my aching feet.  I did, knowing I was now only 1.5 miles from the car.  I walked the remaining distance back to the car, fighting the question in my head, "How much further?" all the way.  Fox Peak had been a great climb.  I had been completely fooled on the distance of the hike and I felt it.  For this reason I think Fox Peak was the hardest peak I had to work for up to this point. 

Looking to the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness

Elevation gain:  3540'     Total gain:  109,280'

07/24/14 Unnamed 7723 and Unnamed 8620 #61 and #62

Heading into the burn

On the 24th of July I set out to do a quick climb of two peaks.  The round-trip distance was supposed to be 7.7 miles for Unnamed 8620 according to a Bitterroot Mountain climbing guide I have.  In that book, the peak is unofficially called Glen Lake Peak due to its proximity to Glen Lake.  As I turned onto the road to take me up to the trailhead I found a sign that said the road was closed ahead.  I didn't have a good backup plan so I carried on to see where the road was closed.  It was closed quite a ways from the trailhead, but I had my bike in the back of the car.  I sat in my car at the closure thinking about what I would do as it started to sprinkle and the clouds looked like there could be more rain in the future.  I decided to go for it.

Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness

I biked up the road and came to the "washout" that had the road closed.  I was surprised as it seemed to me that most vehicles could have made it past.  Instead of getting angry I took the optimistic stance that I would not see anyone else that day at what my book said was a popular hike to the lake.  I must have had to bike or push my bike (I'm not a big fan of riding a bike uphill) at least five miles.  Eventually I made it to the trailhead.

I was a bit worried about the weather even though the clouds seemed to be losing some intensity and retreating toward the crest.  It was quite breezy and I knew much of the trail passed through a burn.  This made me more nervous than the rain.  I set out up the trail and came to where the burn started.  I could see dark clouds headed my way and so I stopped a bit and found a tree to hunker under while I put on some rain gear.  The clouds never quite made it, dissipating as they made it further east.  I carried on out into the burn.  The wind was blowing and I kept my eyes and ears open for falling trees.  Thankfully nothing fell close to me.

Glen Lake

I made it up to a bit of a saddle and the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness boundary.  Here I left the trail and headed up the rounded Unnamed 7723.  The downfall wasn't too difficult to negotiate and I made my way up to the top quickly.  The top was not all that evident and I walked around to all the point that looked highest.  It was beautiful with beargrass blooming everywhere.  As the summit was still in the burn and didn't have great, unobstructed views, I headed down to the west and met up with the trail on its way over to Glen Lake.

Beargrass between the lakes

I saw where the trail branched to the right and made note of it.  I planned on coming down that trail from above Glen Lake on my return if I could find it on the other side.  I continued on and shortly came to Glen Lake.  It is a beautiful little lake nestled into the mountainside.  From the lake, I made my way up toward the unnamed lakes above Glen.  The trail pretty much disappeared and I just kept hiking up through the burn, rocks, and beargrass.  I eventually came to one of the upper lakes and walked around it and began ascending Unnamed 8620.

First tricky boulder

 I started up the only way I found I could maybe make it and stopped short.  It required a bit of a move to get to the highest point.  I was pretty sure I could get up but not sure how easy it would be to get down (that often seems to be the problem).  I backed off.  I stood there and looked at the moves for a bit and then started again.  I was able to get a bit higher and then went for it.  I swung my leg up and got on the last sloped section of the rock and crawled the last two to three feet to where I could touch the top--there was some decent exposure pulling off to the east.  I turned around and moved back to the steep section of the boulder and edged off it.  It was going to be difficult to get my feet back in the right spots without turning in to the rock, but it wasn't too high off the ground.  I edged myself down, and with my body stretched out, jumped the last five feet or so to the ground.  This worked out just fine and I was smiling back on the ground.

Last tricky boulder

There was yet one boulder I had seen further east on the ridge that I didn't know if it was taller.  The map showed the highpoint being out on the western edge of the mountain, but this one boulder had me wondering.  As I made it back over that direction, I stopped and dropped my pack and started up it.  I came to a spot where it narrowed to a three-foot catwalk for about five feet to the highpoint.  The drop offs on either side were significant.  I hesitated and then went for it, again crawling across the scariest section until I could touch the top.  These are times I ask how important it is to actually touch the true top.  Apparently it is important enough to me to crawl across a catwalk to make sure I feel I have made it up the peak.

View back to the summit ridge from an upper lake

I made it off, gathered my things, and thankfully started hiking down.  I found a trail that took me all they way down to the upper two lakes.  From there, I found the other trail that bypassed Glen Lake and took it down to the main trail.  It was nice to loop the hike a bit.  Over the course of the day the clouds had retreated even further to the west and I had good views.  The wind also died down and the hike back through the burn was much less stressful.  I made it back to my bike and then had an enjoyable bike ride down to the car.  It had been two good peaks in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness.

Elevation gain:  3920     Total gain:  105,740'