Big Creek Lookout 5368', Blow Past Peak 5487', Blowout Ridge

I had done this trail once before on my way to Blowout Mt in some heavy snow showers some years ago. As is it being with most trips I don't remember much of it. I do remember having much trepidation with the condition of many of the bridges on the road that hopscotches Log Creek. I think I may have used a smaller spur road of the main Forest Road #41. For today I just stayed on #4110 until I reached the road that accesses Blowout TR 1318. Some of the bridges were indeed suspect but I was emboldened by the obvious recent traffic that was evident. I parked at the multi junction, for some reason it never entered my mind to try driving the spur road to the trailhead. I instead of walked the 2.5 miles of drivable road to the trail. I did chastise myself a bit realizing I would also have to walk that stretch of road back to the car. Undaunted I made quick time to the trailhead, with the near ideal weather. The trail itself is typical of the areas multi use trails. Stretches of motorcycle chewed up tread with nice, forested stretches. After passing both objectives the trail drops to a small pass as it moves towards Blowout Mt. and then does a rising traverse to reach a trail junction where I headed down into the basin to reach Blowout Ridge. The trail was in good shape and even surprisingly passed quite a bit of moving water albeit moving very slowly. Once I crested to the South side of the ridge, I left the trail to reach the ridgeline. I was still 1/2 mile from the highpoint but the dogs lost their steam, so I decide to give them a break in the shade. I contemplated continuing on the trail hoping it connected with the road I was parked on. I thought it would be actually shorter than retracing my steps. That portion was off the map I had printed so I thought it best to relent and head back the way I had come. I wasn't too enthused with having to do two more climbs before starting the descent proper. Thankfully all the climbs are relatively short. The final descent of the trail was tedious with all the larger loose rocks but thankfully it is also short. 10.5 Miles 3130' of climb 4:35

Scout Patrol Peak 4627'

It has been a while since I posted anything mostly because I haven't been doing anything to inspire any awe in anyone. But today's escapade is a good reason for me to start again. Over the years I have done so many trips that I don't remember many details of the majority of my outings. To be fair I hadn't intended on doing Scout Patrol today so I wouldn't have read my report on my previous climb. If I had, it would have taken some of the anxiety of the day out of the equation. The goal for today was to do Songbird Peak, South of I-90 utilizing using the climber's trail that leaves the Iron Horse Trail near Olallie State Park but as things usually go I found the road closed preventing my access, although I could have got off at exit 42 and backtracked but I wasn't interested in doing that. I debated on what to do instead and settled on Humpback via the steep but easy to follow climbers trail. I parked off the gated spur on Hansen Creek Road. I walked the mining access road until I reached the climber's trail. I have been nursing some chronic Achilles pain on my left heel so I was curious to see how it would respond to the steep climb. The Achilles was up to it but my weak-minded resolve was not. After 700' of climb I just couldn't make myself continue. I backtracked to the car and opted for Plan C. I drove to the gated end of the Hasen Creek road and parked in the spacious parking area. I walked the road until the first junction where I turned on to a spur road and walked to its end just below Scout Patrol's summit. The 600' of climb to the summit was straightforward and went quickly. The only thing I remember from my previous trip was that I had injured myself on this portion and it involved quite a bit of blood. Not wanting to have a repeat I did take extra care. I didn't linger on the summit and continued on a faint path leading to what I had hoped would be a logging road beneath me. I was off a bit on my line and soon found myself in a steep and extremely brushy slope. Realizing my error, I tried to do a rising traverse to get myself back on track. The brush was so thick that I had to unleash both dogs and soon I wasn't able to locate one of my pups. I couldn't see more than a few feet, and I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with my situation. I called to my older dog to find his sister, and he obeyed and herded her to an area much more hospitable. I reunited with my pets and firmly released both of them. Evidently my dog is a better route finder that myself because he put us on a brushless ramp that put us back on the logging road in short order. Feeling much better about things I walked the road feeling very relieved. I soon reached a gate and then realized the road I was on is in the forbidden watershed area so maybe not repeating this route would be best. With about a mile to go it began raining enough for me to put on my raingear and soon was followed by numerous thunderclaps. I ran the last mile not wanting to get caught in the middle of a thundershower. Much to my relief I made it to the car and back on the freeway before the heavens unloaded. Looking back to Scout Patrol from the freeway was 50 shades of black as the area was getting hit quite hard. When I returned home and read my previous trip report and realized that I headed the other way on the road as I had done on my previous trip I would have been rewarded with a much shorter easy to follow path to Hansen Creek Road. Anyhow it is good to be back posting, Humpback 2.6 miles 755' of climb 1:14 Scout Patrol 6.81 miles 1407' of climb 2:43 and I am looking forward to doing may more. Regards E

Change Peak, Mt Washington

In an effort to re-establish my fitness level I headed up last week to do Mt. Washington. Originally I had hoped to do Change Peak but when I reached my jump off point I wasn't too enthused with the snow conditions so I opted to stay on the beaten path to the Mt Washington summit. There was continuous snow from the parking lot to the summit and there were many postholes to be had. I did switch to snowshoes to give me more consistent footing about 2/3 of the way up.

This week I had much more resolve buoyed by my better than expected legs from the previous week. I was simply amazed that the snow had receded so much in one week without really warm weather. I did not hit continuous snow until 2800'. Shortly after reaching snow I was at the junction with The Great Wall Trail at around 2950'. There where a few sets of boot prints to follow making it snowshoes unnecessary. I passed what I am guessing is the Great Wall, which was a bit underwhelming. A short ways passed the wall I was on my own breaking trail. The snow was consistent so I stayed with booting it. Once I joined the main road I switched to snowshoes. I had planed on heading left(east) but I looking at the map I wasn't crazy about the long road walk to the east. I instead decided to head up the north ridge which looked reasonable. I was happy to find an old snowshoe track heading my way. The grade isn't overly steep but is choked with many small trees but overall it is mostly pleasant. I  quickly reached the non descript summit. Not wanting to descend via my ascent route I headed down the south ridge to reach the road on the eastern side of the ridge. I had a hard time coaxing the new pup down a short talus field. I found it very interesting that dogs do not have an innate sense of what to do with rock slides and there is a learning curve for them. After some extra coaxing I was able to get the pub to rejoin me. I was now on easy terrain for the road walk to Mt. Washington's summit. I did have some trepidation due to some thundershowers nearby and gave some serious thought to dropping west off the ridge to regain the trail below. In the end my fears were unwarranted and I had no problem reaching the summit. All was left was the tedious descent to the car that was highlighted with a fall, which resulted in a sprain left wrist despite falling on my right side. All in all it was a very enjoyable day.


Approx  10 miles 3600' of climb 5:30 car to car
 

Solo snowshoe with solo snowshoe Monahan 3775’

With the new dog I have been longing to get out and do some climbing . I thought Monahan’ west ridge would be a good test for the young pups legs and not be overly taxing for his now aged brother. I parked just past Monahan road where there was enough space to keep me mostly off the road. I backtracked on the road and used the power line  access road to reach the forested slopes above. The snow was highly variable but improved once I was in the forest . The grade isn’t overly steep but there are enough bumps along the ridge to make navigating interesting . I ended up getting sucked too far south and had to traverse an unpleasant clear cut. Once back on the ridge the going once again was straightforward . 


The last bit there was a very steep 75’ portion that I was unable to coax the dogs up. Not wanting to downclimb and the reclimb the portion with each dog I decided  since I had already climbed Monahan I was good to head back . On the downclimb of a steeper portion my snowshoe submarined and wedged under a rock, luckily I was able to spin out of the tension on my leg avoiding injury . It took some time to figure out how to get my self righted , once free I was dismayed to see I had broken the hinge on my snowshoe . I managed to make it a short ways before it came  completely apart . I was forced to do more than half the descent with only one snowshoe . I managed to make decent time with only a sore left leg from constantly having to push up from my postholing right leg . Really good to get out again