email to family Sep 23 2019 8:47 PM MtTime
Mostly it seems I've been trying to divine what will happen in the
mountains when the Spokane-based (valley) forecast (though modified
somewhat for Bonners Ferry valley and NW Montana areas) calls for rain
chances of 20%, 50% or 70%. Also, trying to regain trust in the timing
of forecasted one-day windows of minimal ppt chances when two weeks
ago their timing was "too fast" with systems that were "stalling"
relative to their prior predictions, and last week when they seemed to
think the systems were slower than they turned out in reality. So,
today was supposed to be rainy, tomorrow & Wednesday only 20% chance
rain, except this morning they forecasted less chance ppt this
afternoon & tonight, and greater chance Wednesday than their prior
forecasts, so the system seems to be moving by faster than they
thought. I'll commit to a full day hike tomorrow, but will be
prepared for rain. Later this week is supposed to be another pattern
change to much cooler, snow in the mt's. After tomorrow, I had hoped
to do two more full-day hikes in the Panhandle area, then make it to
Canada west of here a bit, to finish off the 8mile "Canadian Appendix"
to the PCT, then maybe cross into Washington to explore Mt Baker if
weather is nice (viewed it from afar when I was doing the PCT a few
years back, wanted to stop there while I was in the area at the time,
so, I'd be back in the area now, except, kinda late in the year...)
Then I think I may plan to "backtrack" along the ICT especially some
hikes that I skipped from the Selway River and from the Lochsa River,
back when it was too hot for me to feel like hiking straight up ridges
from the river.
OK, back to where I left off the last email.
Yeah, drove all the way to Mullan from the north-west Idaho/Canada
border. He picked up his car and offered to buy me a burger at a place
he knew about in Mullan. It featured a double quarter-pound burgers, a
stack 4" high, and I stupidly matched what he got - might have been
more symbolically appropriate to get the regular-sized burger, since I
was not yet finished with the ICT, nor had I done it as a pure hike,
and actually part of a much longer hike from the Mexico border like he
had. (see https://www.lbhikes.com/ for his story. He had also
completed the CDT I think just a year ago.) We then drove off in
opposite directions, he had a friend in Missoula (who happened to have
hiked the ICT previously and had given him a bunch of info from that
experience.) me to my usual highway rest spot in CDA, ready to take a
shower the next morning at the truck stop, then the laundry, then use
the library the rest of that Sunday, and probably Monday to take care
of some business, specifically, to deal with my inoperable camera (It
quit working on my hike back from Upper Priest Falls.) Looked up some
repair possibilities and substitute camera possibilities, reminiscent
of my similar experience on my PCT hike on Oregon, but luckily, my
camera revived itself, possibly after wrapping it in my still warm
just-dried laundry. Whew!!!!!!!! My camera time had somehow suddenly
gotten off by 9 minutes probably a week before (still have to figure
out when exactly that started, it was a speeded-up gradual or a sudden
jump, maybe a precursor warning to current ongoing flakiness? I've
been keeping a periodic watch on the camera time drift, trying to keep
it accurate to within a minute, to get accurate GPS location matches
to my tracklogs.)
Monday morning I went back to Sandpoint and used the library there
(which opens an hour earlier, though also closes an hour sooner than
the CDA one. After it closed I headed partially up the Pack Creek Road
where I planned to make two hikes, one west up McCormick Creek to
Fault lake and from there up the divide to above Hunt Lake (that I had
hiked to from the Priest Lake side earlier,) and another on the east
ridge from the Pack River Valley to Dodge Peak and south along the
ridge to White Mt. The weather was still drizzly the next day so I
really just scouted out the two trailheads. The Fault Lake TH was
straightforward, a short drive. The other route up Dodge Peak, well, I
had actually thought the road would pass (nearly) over the peak then
head down the other side, on roads shown on the forest map eventually
ending up in Highland Flats just NW of Naples (the lumber town off of
I95 between Sandpoint and Bonners Ferry, which the ICT passes across.
In fact, Larry-boy had described to me (if I understood correctly,)
that he actually walked this road from Naples west across Dodge peak,
down across the Pack Creek Valley, and then on up to Fault Lake and
over the divide to Hunt Lake. He said this was now the "best route"
after the route over White mt to Dodge Pk then down to Pack Creek had
been blocked or obliterated by private property and logging. So I
thought I might just be able to drive his route in reverse back to
Naples and call it done. No such luck. The road became impassible for
a Zombaru just about where it circled around Dodge peak, scraping over
a steep mound of granite and assorted rocky gullies providing a worthy
challenge for an ATV. If it had not been a rainy day, and also (much)
earlier in the day by the time I got there, I could have just walked
on from there the short remaining distance up Dodge Peak and then
probably the mapped trail across the ridge south to White Mt, but at
this time I was planning to approach Larry-boy's route in my car from
the Naples side first, later.
A forecast rainy Tuesday I spent again in the library, then returned
to Pack Creek and overnighted at the McCormick Cr TH for an early
start to Fault Lake and beyond. That turned out to be a pleasant
rain-pants-on wet autumn foliage hike preoccupying my camera, and
with, as I got higher up, occasional glimpses of peaks strip-teasing
themselves in and out of the clouds, the upper ridges themselves
brightly colored autumn shades. Boggy meadows still drained dry
walkable from the summer despite the surface dampness. A final
scramble up granite mounds guided by rock cairns to Faught Lake
typically alpine with a rock rubble amphitheater on the far side,
accessible fishing platforms on the near side. Looking up to the
north I could see two possible routes up to, as I recalled from the
map, a higher boggy plateau before a final climb up a higher
knife-edge ridge separating Fault Lake in this Pack Creek watershed
from Hunt Lake on the Priest Lake watershed. Sat down for some water
and a snack and to pull out my cell phone to plan a route up, no
phone. I also had misplaced the printed page of the ICT pdf topo map
so had no topo info, just the Forest map. I guess I had left my phone
charging it in the car. OK, so I wasn't sure about the route, there
was a trail shown on the map but Larry-Boy had said it was a bushwhack
on this side as well as the "mapped" bushwhack not on the ICT map for
the route down to Hunt lake from the divide. The clouds were also
becoming more prevalent, mostly covering the top edges of the ridges
above the lake. So, I decided I'd have to do this nice hike again
another time soon, maybe spend less time en route, having photographed
my fill this time.
Got back to the car with enough time to try to scout out the roads
from Highland Flats in Naples up the east side of Dodge Peak, maybe to
overnight half-way up on that side, to do the rest of the drive next
day, maybe do the ridge hike from Dodge Peak south to White Mt, so as
to cover as much as I could of both trail alternates across that ridge
from the Naples-Shiloh-McArthurLake side to the Pack Creek side. Made
it to what on the forest map is FR294 winding first along Highland
Creek before circling around across Roman Nose Creek and Fall Creek to
then climb Apache Ridge to Dodge Peak. Except, there was a closed
gate. It was now dusk. There was a mapped campground called Lloid
Hughes, looked like some kind of Fairground parking lot, the forest
map showed that the CG and the road with the gate were on white square
of the public/private checkerboard that comprises the edges of our
forest land legacy, like some caterpiller-eaten leaf. The white
squares on this edge alternated with purple, state managed logging
land. Just before I got there, I passed a loaded logging truck - the
driver may have closed that gate, I guessed. Anyway, maybe I'll ask
later what the story is there.
But I didn't want to stay at that CG, because, I was thinking that
tomorrow, weather willing, I might try taking the trail from McArthur
Lake up to White Mt. That trail is a long 3000ft climb from a low
2100ft lake level alongside I95 just south of the Shiloh historical
Guard Station still current train station and ICT TH. The "White Mt
Trail", so labeled on the usgs map on my phone, is NOT the official
ICT route shown on the pdf map, which takes a route on roads just
south of there, which I had driven earlier. Those lead into private
property and logged areas, although I may have taken a wrong turn too
far south, probably bypassing a gated road or logging-destroyed road
that the ICT route took. I kind of suspect the White Mt Trail on the
map may peter out in the logged area, but would like to at least
verify that (for when I write that mythical ICT trailhead guidebook.)
Overnighting alongside the railroad Spur on "Shiloh Loop Road" just
before the gated driveway to the historical Guard Station, would be
appropriate, just 2 miles from that trailhead.
But the weather disagreed. It was drizzly that morning, so I decided
instead to scout another TH in the general area with my car, this one
into the ICT "gap" I had created north of Purdy Peak south of Calder
Peak, when I couldn't find the trail south on my loop around Grouse
Pk-BaldEagleMt and KellyPass some weeks ago now. This TH was reached
by a road off of I95 a few miles south from Samuels, where the Pack
Creek Road also junctions I95. East from Samuels FR280 Grouse Creek Rd
ends at the TH for FT488 a few miles short of the ridge just about at
Calder Peak, there joining FT54, which was the recently-maintained
trail I found myself on after doing the mostly off-trail ridge-wak
from Bald Eagle Peak, where I then couldn't find the continuation of
the ICT south, nor this trail FT488, though I found two trails
dissipating into thickets and downed trees that might have been those
trails. Now, Larry-Boy told me that while he did remember some badly
maintained trail in that area, he had no problem getting through, so,
approaching it from the "other side", and "looking harder", might
yield success. Taking that road today got me to a TH a bit earlier
than shown on the map, about a mile short of the mapped TH. OK, noted.
Still raining, didn't feel like doing the hike today. Instead, drove
back to the Sandpoint library for the rest of the day, then, reassured
that Saturday forecast to be a low POP day, set myself up for another
try at the FaultLk/HuntLk divide hike, overnighting at the McCormick
Cr TH off of Pack Creek Rd. There were two pickup trucks parked there
that evening. I set my alarm for an early start.
Next morning there were two more cars parked there. Got myself ready,
made sure I had my phone logging and in my waistpack, started across
the creek, was greeted by another person coming back across the creek.
He was from WSU, here to see the sun rise. Wasted little time on
pictures this time traversing the ridge alongside the creek, the
peekaboo peaks were actually a bit more shy this morning, though it
was earlier than last time, so hopefully, the clouds would burn off
later. Just before I got to the lake some dogs, a fisherman and his
wife passed my by. He had done the hike to the divide between Hunt and
Fault lakers several times, also the climb to Hunt Peak, to the left
(south) of Fault Lake. She said this was one of their favorite hikes,
unlike the other side to Hunt Lake, she called the road ugly, not to
mention the boulder field approach to the lake. He seemed surprised
when I said I was planning to reach the divide today. He suggested
McCormick Lake, south of Fault Lk, would be worth seeing. I asked how
to get there, is there a trail? oh, no, just across that way, he waved
east around the ridge rising gradually from the lake south then west
up Hunt Peak, substantially bare granite slopes. At the lake, there
were already several fisheman lines in the water, and several tents
pitched on a flat south of the lake. "how's the fishing" the man I
talked to asked. "OH", we've sofar caught only one cutthroat between
us all, the other guy admitted. "How big?"
I headed off up the granite mound north of the lake, planning to
circle around it to the higher plateau before scaling the final
divide. It turned out to be easier than I had feared, I stayed high
on the mound, staying mostly on granite, avoiding pushing through
vegetation, ending up perfectly at the level of the plateau, a boggy
area, mostly dry so my shoes didn't get soaked. Actually found a
trail through that area, to the base of the ridge, a steep grassy
slope that I just picked my way up, getting to the knife-edge
overlooking Hunt Lake with surprisingly little effort. So there it
was, Hunt Lake again, recognized the layout. Except, the clouds that
had continued obscuring most of ther ridge tops as well as the peaks,
also obscured the ridgetops and into the distance beyond the bottom
slopes of Hunt Lake. I was thinking I might be missing a glimpse of
Priest Lake, although the orientation of that cirque probably points
too far north anyway, not sure. Just took a few snaps and started
back down. On the return I scaled the from this direction minor rise
to the mound that looked like a steep stack from the Fault Lake side,
took some panos of Fault Laker backdropped by HuntPeak, mostly cloud
covered. Decided to go down the slope west of the mound I was on,
which seemed feasible when viewed from the lake, and indeed was a
straightforward though steep scramble through huckleberry thickets, so
made some non-photo stops, fining existing paths so obviously others
have passed this way.
Back at the lake, the fishing lines were in the water, no one in
sight. Went on to find McArthur Lake, scrambled generally south up
the granite ridge, then heard some shots echoing across the walls of
the cirque, saw some silhouettes of people on the left-most bump on
the knife-edge ridge circling up to Hunt Peak. More shots. I waved.
The silhouettes started down the rubbly slope back toward the lake. I
continued generally south, but realized I was also scaling the bump
the silhouettes had been on. Ended up doing a bit of rock climbing to
get to the top, looking down south to McCormick Lake, very picturesque
lake surrounded by boggy vegetation, in a cirque of its own, another
small lake next to it. The knob I was on was near vertical on three
sides quite tall stack, but there was a vegetated steep slope on the
SW side, and down that I went, toward the lakes.
OK, the library is closing again. Plan to do a hike tomorrow and
probably next day, then probably back to the library.
mountains when the Spokane-based (valley) forecast (though modified
somewhat for Bonners Ferry valley and NW Montana areas) calls for rain
chances of 20%, 50% or 70%. Also, trying to regain trust in the timing
of forecasted one-day windows of minimal ppt chances when two weeks
ago their timing was "too fast" with systems that were "stalling"
relative to their prior predictions, and last week when they seemed to
think the systems were slower than they turned out in reality. So,
today was supposed to be rainy, tomorrow & Wednesday only 20% chance
rain, except this morning they forecasted less chance ppt this
afternoon & tonight, and greater chance Wednesday than their prior
forecasts, so the system seems to be moving by faster than they
thought. I'll commit to a full day hike tomorrow, but will be
prepared for rain. Later this week is supposed to be another pattern
change to much cooler, snow in the mt's. After tomorrow, I had hoped
to do two more full-day hikes in the Panhandle area, then make it to
Canada west of here a bit, to finish off the 8mile "Canadian Appendix"
to the PCT, then maybe cross into Washington to explore Mt Baker if
weather is nice (viewed it from afar when I was doing the PCT a few
years back, wanted to stop there while I was in the area at the time,
so, I'd be back in the area now, except, kinda late in the year...)
Then I think I may plan to "backtrack" along the ICT especially some
hikes that I skipped from the Selway River and from the Lochsa River,
back when it was too hot for me to feel like hiking straight up ridges
from the river.
OK, back to where I left off the last email.
Yeah, drove all the way to Mullan from the north-west Idaho/Canada
border. He picked up his car and offered to buy me a burger at a place
he knew about in Mullan. It featured a double quarter-pound burgers, a
stack 4" high, and I stupidly matched what he got - might have been
more symbolically appropriate to get the regular-sized burger, since I
was not yet finished with the ICT, nor had I done it as a pure hike,
and actually part of a much longer hike from the Mexico border like he
had. (see https://www.lbhikes.com/ for his story. He had also
completed the CDT I think just a year ago.) We then drove off in
opposite directions, he had a friend in Missoula (who happened to have
hiked the ICT previously and had given him a bunch of info from that
experience.) me to my usual highway rest spot in CDA, ready to take a
shower the next morning at the truck stop, then the laundry, then use
the library the rest of that Sunday, and probably Monday to take care
of some business, specifically, to deal with my inoperable camera (It
quit working on my hike back from Upper Priest Falls.) Looked up some
repair possibilities and substitute camera possibilities, reminiscent
of my similar experience on my PCT hike on Oregon, but luckily, my
camera revived itself, possibly after wrapping it in my still warm
just-dried laundry. Whew!!!!!!!! My camera time had somehow suddenly
gotten off by 9 minutes probably a week before (still have to figure
out when exactly that started, it was a speeded-up gradual or a sudden
jump, maybe a precursor warning to current ongoing flakiness? I've
been keeping a periodic watch on the camera time drift, trying to keep
it accurate to within a minute, to get accurate GPS location matches
to my tracklogs.)
Monday morning I went back to Sandpoint and used the library there
(which opens an hour earlier, though also closes an hour sooner than
the CDA one. After it closed I headed partially up the Pack Creek Road
where I planned to make two hikes, one west up McCormick Creek to
Fault lake and from there up the divide to above Hunt Lake (that I had
hiked to from the Priest Lake side earlier,) and another on the east
ridge from the Pack River Valley to Dodge Peak and south along the
ridge to White Mt. The weather was still drizzly the next day so I
really just scouted out the two trailheads. The Fault Lake TH was
straightforward, a short drive. The other route up Dodge Peak, well, I
had actually thought the road would pass (nearly) over the peak then
head down the other side, on roads shown on the forest map eventually
ending up in Highland Flats just NW of Naples (the lumber town off of
I95 between Sandpoint and Bonners Ferry, which the ICT passes across.
In fact, Larry-boy had described to me (if I understood correctly,)
that he actually walked this road from Naples west across Dodge peak,
down across the Pack Creek Valley, and then on up to Fault Lake and
over the divide to Hunt Lake. He said this was now the "best route"
after the route over White mt to Dodge Pk then down to Pack Creek had
been blocked or obliterated by private property and logging. So I
thought I might just be able to drive his route in reverse back to
Naples and call it done. No such luck. The road became impassible for
a Zombaru just about where it circled around Dodge peak, scraping over
a steep mound of granite and assorted rocky gullies providing a worthy
challenge for an ATV. If it had not been a rainy day, and also (much)
earlier in the day by the time I got there, I could have just walked
on from there the short remaining distance up Dodge Peak and then
probably the mapped trail across the ridge south to White Mt, but at
this time I was planning to approach Larry-boy's route in my car from
the Naples side first, later.
A forecast rainy Tuesday I spent again in the library, then returned
to Pack Creek and overnighted at the McCormick Cr TH for an early
start to Fault Lake and beyond. That turned out to be a pleasant
rain-pants-on wet autumn foliage hike preoccupying my camera, and
with, as I got higher up, occasional glimpses of peaks strip-teasing
themselves in and out of the clouds, the upper ridges themselves
brightly colored autumn shades. Boggy meadows still drained dry
walkable from the summer despite the surface dampness. A final
scramble up granite mounds guided by rock cairns to Faught Lake
typically alpine with a rock rubble amphitheater on the far side,
accessible fishing platforms on the near side. Looking up to the
north I could see two possible routes up to, as I recalled from the
map, a higher boggy plateau before a final climb up a higher
knife-edge ridge separating Fault Lake in this Pack Creek watershed
from Hunt Lake on the Priest Lake watershed. Sat down for some water
and a snack and to pull out my cell phone to plan a route up, no
phone. I also had misplaced the printed page of the ICT pdf topo map
so had no topo info, just the Forest map. I guess I had left my phone
charging it in the car. OK, so I wasn't sure about the route, there
was a trail shown on the map but Larry-Boy had said it was a bushwhack
on this side as well as the "mapped" bushwhack not on the ICT map for
the route down to Hunt lake from the divide. The clouds were also
becoming more prevalent, mostly covering the top edges of the ridges
above the lake. So, I decided I'd have to do this nice hike again
another time soon, maybe spend less time en route, having photographed
my fill this time.
Got back to the car with enough time to try to scout out the roads
from Highland Flats in Naples up the east side of Dodge Peak, maybe to
overnight half-way up on that side, to do the rest of the drive next
day, maybe do the ridge hike from Dodge Peak south to White Mt, so as
to cover as much as I could of both trail alternates across that ridge
from the Naples-Shiloh-McArthurLake side to the Pack Creek side. Made
it to what on the forest map is FR294 winding first along Highland
Creek before circling around across Roman Nose Creek and Fall Creek to
then climb Apache Ridge to Dodge Peak. Except, there was a closed
gate. It was now dusk. There was a mapped campground called Lloid
Hughes, looked like some kind of Fairground parking lot, the forest
map showed that the CG and the road with the gate were on white square
of the public/private checkerboard that comprises the edges of our
forest land legacy, like some caterpiller-eaten leaf. The white
squares on this edge alternated with purple, state managed logging
land. Just before I got there, I passed a loaded logging truck - the
driver may have closed that gate, I guessed. Anyway, maybe I'll ask
later what the story is there.
But I didn't want to stay at that CG, because, I was thinking that
tomorrow, weather willing, I might try taking the trail from McArthur
Lake up to White Mt. That trail is a long 3000ft climb from a low
2100ft lake level alongside I95 just south of the Shiloh historical
Guard Station still current train station and ICT TH. The "White Mt
Trail", so labeled on the usgs map on my phone, is NOT the official
ICT route shown on the pdf map, which takes a route on roads just
south of there, which I had driven earlier. Those lead into private
property and logged areas, although I may have taken a wrong turn too
far south, probably bypassing a gated road or logging-destroyed road
that the ICT route took. I kind of suspect the White Mt Trail on the
map may peter out in the logged area, but would like to at least
verify that (for when I write that mythical ICT trailhead guidebook.)
Overnighting alongside the railroad Spur on "Shiloh Loop Road" just
before the gated driveway to the historical Guard Station, would be
appropriate, just 2 miles from that trailhead.
But the weather disagreed. It was drizzly that morning, so I decided
instead to scout another TH in the general area with my car, this one
into the ICT "gap" I had created north of Purdy Peak south of Calder
Peak, when I couldn't find the trail south on my loop around Grouse
Pk-BaldEagleMt and KellyPass some weeks ago now. This TH was reached
by a road off of I95 a few miles south from Samuels, where the Pack
Creek Road also junctions I95. East from Samuels FR280 Grouse Creek Rd
ends at the TH for FT488 a few miles short of the ridge just about at
Calder Peak, there joining FT54, which was the recently-maintained
trail I found myself on after doing the mostly off-trail ridge-wak
from Bald Eagle Peak, where I then couldn't find the continuation of
the ICT south, nor this trail FT488, though I found two trails
dissipating into thickets and downed trees that might have been those
trails. Now, Larry-Boy told me that while he did remember some badly
maintained trail in that area, he had no problem getting through, so,
approaching it from the "other side", and "looking harder", might
yield success. Taking that road today got me to a TH a bit earlier
than shown on the map, about a mile short of the mapped TH. OK, noted.
Still raining, didn't feel like doing the hike today. Instead, drove
back to the Sandpoint library for the rest of the day, then, reassured
that Saturday forecast to be a low POP day, set myself up for another
try at the FaultLk/HuntLk divide hike, overnighting at the McCormick
Cr TH off of Pack Creek Rd. There were two pickup trucks parked there
that evening. I set my alarm for an early start.
Next morning there were two more cars parked there. Got myself ready,
made sure I had my phone logging and in my waistpack, started across
the creek, was greeted by another person coming back across the creek.
He was from WSU, here to see the sun rise. Wasted little time on
pictures this time traversing the ridge alongside the creek, the
peekaboo peaks were actually a bit more shy this morning, though it
was earlier than last time, so hopefully, the clouds would burn off
later. Just before I got to the lake some dogs, a fisherman and his
wife passed my by. He had done the hike to the divide between Hunt and
Fault lakers several times, also the climb to Hunt Peak, to the left
(south) of Fault Lake. She said this was one of their favorite hikes,
unlike the other side to Hunt Lake, she called the road ugly, not to
mention the boulder field approach to the lake. He seemed surprised
when I said I was planning to reach the divide today. He suggested
McCormick Lake, south of Fault Lk, would be worth seeing. I asked how
to get there, is there a trail? oh, no, just across that way, he waved
east around the ridge rising gradually from the lake south then west
up Hunt Peak, substantially bare granite slopes. At the lake, there
were already several fisheman lines in the water, and several tents
pitched on a flat south of the lake. "how's the fishing" the man I
talked to asked. "OH", we've sofar caught only one cutthroat between
us all, the other guy admitted. "How big?"
I headed off up the granite mound north of the lake, planning to
circle around it to the higher plateau before scaling the final
divide. It turned out to be easier than I had feared, I stayed high
on the mound, staying mostly on granite, avoiding pushing through
vegetation, ending up perfectly at the level of the plateau, a boggy
area, mostly dry so my shoes didn't get soaked. Actually found a
trail through that area, to the base of the ridge, a steep grassy
slope that I just picked my way up, getting to the knife-edge
overlooking Hunt Lake with surprisingly little effort. So there it
was, Hunt Lake again, recognized the layout. Except, the clouds that
had continued obscuring most of ther ridge tops as well as the peaks,
also obscured the ridgetops and into the distance beyond the bottom
slopes of Hunt Lake. I was thinking I might be missing a glimpse of
Priest Lake, although the orientation of that cirque probably points
too far north anyway, not sure. Just took a few snaps and started
back down. On the return I scaled the from this direction minor rise
to the mound that looked like a steep stack from the Fault Lake side,
took some panos of Fault Laker backdropped by HuntPeak, mostly cloud
covered. Decided to go down the slope west of the mound I was on,
which seemed feasible when viewed from the lake, and indeed was a
straightforward though steep scramble through huckleberry thickets, so
made some non-photo stops, fining existing paths so obviously others
have passed this way.
Back at the lake, the fishing lines were in the water, no one in
sight. Went on to find McArthur Lake, scrambled generally south up
the granite ridge, then heard some shots echoing across the walls of
the cirque, saw some silhouettes of people on the left-most bump on
the knife-edge ridge circling up to Hunt Peak. More shots. I waved.
The silhouettes started down the rubbly slope back toward the lake. I
continued generally south, but realized I was also scaling the bump
the silhouettes had been on. Ended up doing a bit of rock climbing to
get to the top, looking down south to McCormick Lake, very picturesque
lake surrounded by boggy vegetation, in a cirque of its own, another
small lake next to it. The knob I was on was near vertical on three
sides quite tall stack, but there was a vegetated steep slope on the
SW side, and down that I went, toward the lakes.
OK, the library is closing again. Plan to do a hike tomorrow and
probably next day, then probably back to the library.
No comments:
Post a Comment