Miller Peak , Jester Peak 7.7.08

I am still licking my wounds from last week's brush bash so for today I decided a trail hike was in order. Again for me the weather was ideal. I had been eyeing a loop trip leaving on the Miller Peak Trail and coming out the Bear Creek Trail. I would bag two more summits along the way. The Stafford Creek Road is a little bumpy but no major issues. I parked and packed up. I had anticipated around 7 hours for the 15 miles but I wanted to try to get home an hour earlier so I kept a brisk pace for the balance of the day. There is very little snow remaining in the area so route finding was of no issue. I steamed to Miller Peak's summit, #62 on the B/C 100, in just over two hours. Right behind me were two older gentlemen which surprised me. I found out they had come from the Blewett side making more sense to me. I couldn't envision them making the same climb in less than 2 hours. I snapped some pictures and had some small talk with the my summit companions. I considered just returning to the car but I figured I could still make my evening's plan if I pushed it. I cut some mileage off by dropping more directly to the trail off the summit. I followed the ridge dropping down to 5000' and then regaining the elevation to reach Jester Mountain 5520+' #84 on the B/C 100. The views were not exactly stunning so I dropped down and then climbed up to 5489', which had much better views. I was now downhill all the way to the car. I passed two ladies at the 3-way intersection. I dropped quickly passing a nice spring just after the junction. I was happy to let the dogs drink their fill. The trail crosses the creek many times but the water was low enough that I never got my wet feet. I passed the climbers that I had met on Miller Peak just before exiting. They had followed my up route down and now were ascending my descent route. I don't know for sure if they actually knew were they were going but they seemed in good spirits. The mosquitoes were very bad along Bear Creek which pushed me to move even faster. I was very pleased to make it back to the car a whole hour before I had expected to exit.




Approx 15 miles 4100' of climb 6 hours car to car.