email to family Aug 27 2019 7:50 PM Mt Time
Continuing from my last email. Moon Pass 10am Pacific time Saturday
Aug 17. There were a bunch of bikers and ATVers at the Pass and I had
already packed the night before so wasted no time getting on the trail
before getting "lost" among the bikers. This time I managed to get a
fairly complete set of basemaps on my phone, and it showed a trail
switchbacking up the end of this ridge then ending near the top. The
CdA Forest map just shows the ridge line boundary between the St Joe
and CdA forests but labels that "16 NRT" which would be FS16 National
Recreation Trl. I guess I'd be following the NRT along the spine of
the ridge, so I took the bikers scar straight up. But it soon frayed
into several branches as the bikers failed to make headway due to
downed logs and thick undergrowth, and I finally found myself in a
dense expanse of ripe huckleberry bushes, which distracted my
navigation task for a good while. I eventually wandered into what
must have been the top end of the switchback trail shown on the map, a
jeep trail junction with 3 possible directions, one seemed to come
from the pass, another came to an massive tree fall and thick growth
beyond, the third I took and promptly thinned down into a single
track. It did follow the spine of the ridge for the most part, and I
chose to climb to each off-trail knoll that was accessible, but did
find myself "inadvertently" following the trail down the northern
slope of one wooded high point, that trail coming to an intersection
with a dirt road matching FS16A on the Forest map, coming up from
Wallace, but the road seemed to continue south down the ridge, whereas
non of the maps showed such a road. (Possibly it was a loging road,
which are not shown on the FS maps.) The trail crossed the road and
began along series of switchbacks up Gold Hill, a major prominence. I
noted one small trickling creek on that slope, a rarity on my hikes
along the ridgeline, and might want to filter water there on my way
back, though right now I was full. The trail again tried to divert me
from the very top of Gold Hill, despite it being a mostly treeless
grassy or low shrub peak. I of course I insisted on scrambling to the
top, to good expansive views, northwards down upon the town of Mullan,
south into the St Joe watershed. I stayed on the ridgeline for the
next few prominances, but had to climb down into another significant
gap occupied by another road, this the one coming up from Boulder
Creek which was one of the routes I had considered to get to the
ridge. More prominances following the ridge, until I was faced with a
steep climb up tyhe prominent N-S ridge just west of Stevens Peak. I
decided to set up tent there.
It was deeply cloudy and somewhat windy this whole time, and I
expected any moment to be rained on, but only noticed occasional
thick-fog-like dampness. I had trusted the forecast saying partly
cloudy in the afternoon and sunny the following few days, and brought
minimal rain protection, no rain fly on the tent (I would wrap myself
and stuff in the tent floor if it did rain. I was lucky. The next
day was also mostly cloudy and quite windy. I hid my tent where I had
camped, hiking on with just my waist back.
Library about to close again (got here very late.. will tell that
story in time...)
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