spaddock
New member
We had planned to do this route for over 2 months now. The guys I was going with have kids and needed a lot of lead time to get away. All week I was checking the forecast and all week it was saying rain.
The plan was to drive out Friday night, hike in until we found a shelter, then hike Saturday and hike out Sunday. We got to the Garden around 9:30 and the lot was already almost full. With that we figured we had no chance at a lean-to but to our fabulous surprise we found the 2nd leanto 1.5 miles in totally empty.
Saturday morning we got up around 6, had a leisurely breakfast and were off around 7:45. It had rained during the night and was still drizzling when we set out. Everything was wet and misty. I was a little nervous about going up the scramble on Saddleback in the rain. We made it to Bushnell Falls pretty quickly, then Slant Rock, then the Haystack turnoff. My shirt was just not wicking, had it not been for "Leave no trace" I felt like ripping it off and throwing it away right there out of frustration. We kept on going to Haystack and it got extremely windy.
I was chilly and damp, and wondering "Why the heck am I out here"? I wasn't in the zone as usual. As I've gotten closer to #46 I've had funny feelings about it. Early on the thrill would keep me up all night before a hike, now I'm sleeping like a baby. I'm also looking back at all the incredible adventures, and thinking, wow, how did I do that!
We made it up to Haystack in complete fog, had a snack and headed back. At the turnoff we met a couple of guys, one was just about to finish his 46 on Haystack, we congratulated him and wished him luck. He had been working on it for almost 30 years. That seemed to change my mood. I had never met anybody just about to finish, I found it pretty inspriring.
After changing shirts we hammered down the path to Basin, we spent about 2 minutes on top of Basin because of the fog and wind and headed for Saddleback. In the col it started to clear up. What a gift! We got to the scramble on Saddlback and except for almost getting blown off the mountain, it wasn't too bad. When we got to the top of that I was pretty energized, felt like doing one of those Tiger Woods fist pumps. I had not wanted to circle back around Basin had the scramble been to slippery.
The trail down Ore Bed was pretty long, we were glad to finally get off that slippery rock slab that seems to last forever. Had a great meal back at the lean-to and slept really sound.
We wanted to make it to the gathering but unfortunately I had to get back and work Sunday afternoon. Hopefully next time!
#43, #44, and #45. One more to go!
-Shayne
The plan was to drive out Friday night, hike in until we found a shelter, then hike Saturday and hike out Sunday. We got to the Garden around 9:30 and the lot was already almost full. With that we figured we had no chance at a lean-to but to our fabulous surprise we found the 2nd leanto 1.5 miles in totally empty.
Saturday morning we got up around 6, had a leisurely breakfast and were off around 7:45. It had rained during the night and was still drizzling when we set out. Everything was wet and misty. I was a little nervous about going up the scramble on Saddleback in the rain. We made it to Bushnell Falls pretty quickly, then Slant Rock, then the Haystack turnoff. My shirt was just not wicking, had it not been for "Leave no trace" I felt like ripping it off and throwing it away right there out of frustration. We kept on going to Haystack and it got extremely windy.
I was chilly and damp, and wondering "Why the heck am I out here"? I wasn't in the zone as usual. As I've gotten closer to #46 I've had funny feelings about it. Early on the thrill would keep me up all night before a hike, now I'm sleeping like a baby. I'm also looking back at all the incredible adventures, and thinking, wow, how did I do that!
We made it up to Haystack in complete fog, had a snack and headed back. At the turnoff we met a couple of guys, one was just about to finish his 46 on Haystack, we congratulated him and wished him luck. He had been working on it for almost 30 years. That seemed to change my mood. I had never met anybody just about to finish, I found it pretty inspriring.
After changing shirts we hammered down the path to Basin, we spent about 2 minutes on top of Basin because of the fog and wind and headed for Saddleback. In the col it started to clear up. What a gift! We got to the scramble on Saddlback and except for almost getting blown off the mountain, it wasn't too bad. When we got to the top of that I was pretty energized, felt like doing one of those Tiger Woods fist pumps. I had not wanted to circle back around Basin had the scramble been to slippery.
The trail down Ore Bed was pretty long, we were glad to finally get off that slippery rock slab that seems to last forever. Had a great meal back at the lean-to and slept really sound.
We wanted to make it to the gathering but unfortunately I had to get back and work Sunday afternoon. Hopefully next time!
#43, #44, and #45. One more to go!
-Shayne
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