West Miller Creek Road 3.30.05

Winter has finally arrived. With the regional snow level near 1500ft I chose The West Fork Miller River Jeep Road. I have been up the road numerous times but hadn't gone too far past Coney Creek. I have always found the road somewhat unpleasant due to the many areas where water flow has stripped away all the soil. This has left the exposed rocks which are mostly quite smooth and slippery. With the snow starting almost from the start I made my way up the road. I switched to snowshoes after about 1.5 miles, which wasn't really needed but I thought I might as well give them some use. The weather was a mixed bag sun, snow and rain. It was quite cool for the end of March. I turned around just past Cleopatra Creek the snow was close to 2 feet at the modest elevation of 2400ft. I enjoyed watching the dogs run through the untracked snow, for some reason they always seem to enjoy it more. I had hoped to use this trip to scout for future trips, too bad for me the low cloud level prevented this.

Mount Washington 3.22.05

I don't usually spend much time south of I-90, but I was looking for something close and something I hadn't climbed. I had a bit of trouble finding my jump of point and wasted a bit of time that would have been most useful later. The Trail/Road was in good shape and I merely followed some fresh tracks from those who had gone before me. I have been feeling quite ill again lately, so I was downing coughdrops like they were going out of style. I was quite sure that I would have plenty of daylight even with a late 2:30 start. I was thankful to have someone in front of me showing the way. I left the road and climbed one of the sister peaks of Mt Washington. I had hoped that it was the actual summit, I mean how much further could it be? My thought with it only being 3400ft of climb it would only take around 2 hours. I didn't count on the very LONG traverse that barely climbs any elevation at all. I had already passed my turn around time, but I have been falling a bit short lately, I wasn't about to turn around now. I managed to make the summit just at 5:15. I knew even if I hustled I had a good hour of hiking in the dark. I managed to bumble and stumble my way in the dark, only rolling my ankle 3 times. It would have been helpful to check my battery level in my headlamp prior to leaving. I guess I could have just changed them with the fresh ones in my pack, what challenge would that be.... to actually see were you are going!

Jolly Mt. 3.15.05

I had hoped to be able to drive to the trailhead, but wasn't really expecting to. Of course the first part of the road was glare ice, I gave myself a 50/50 chance of making it. Since it was such a nice day and I had plenty of time I decided to walk to 7 or so miles to the trailhead. The rest of the road was for the most part was quite passable. Around 3 hours later I made it to the trailhead, The first was a bit hard to follow but upon reaching the ridgeline it became more apparent. I followed the ridge to a nice point just past the junction to West Teanaway, were I was quite content to have lunch on a nice sun soaked spot. I shaved quite a bit of time on the descent by cutting some of the swichbacks. Although the day was quite long (around 16 miles) and I really didn't climb anything it was a quite satisfying day.

Mailbox Peak 3.1.05

I was looking forward all week to a rematch with Mailbox. I was quite pleased that the overnight rain had passed and left some hazy sunshine. Today I had plenty of time so I didn't really press the issue on the way up. There was almost no snow at all on the trail, so the upper portions went quicker. I found the going much easier than last week. I reached the summit in a little more than 2 hours and was greeted with some howling winds. I put every article of clothing on that I had but is was no match for the biting wind. I didn't even think of going on the West Defiance. The wind was strong enough to move me, at every ounce of 235 lbs that is saying something. I quickly downclimbed to get out of the wind and made it back to the truck without any mishaps.