onestep
New member
Wow, Jim Barnjum (the whacker formally known as Gamehiker) & I set out from the Discovery Trail head at 8:10 am Saturday morning. Our plan was to bag the 4 bitchcocks that I needed. Somewhere along the 'whack the topic of doing all 5 came up and the rest is history.
We started out looking for the the logging road that runs from behind Discovery and up into the valley SW of the W-M-S peaks. It took a while but we stumbled upon it. We followed the often overgrown road until we where just to the SE of the ridge that runs S off the West Peak. The bearing was "uphill" and off we went through mostly friendly woods and ridge to the West Peak.
The woods going from the W to M peak weren't quite as friendly... the uphill from the col was thick. On the Middle Peak we found the handy work of 2 of our groups members... a new sign and a great canister! Thanks guys!!
Over to the N peak was mostly easy sailing down to the col... from there up to the Heli-pad was nasty. The helicopter pad looks like a large tent platform, and has great views!! What a place to spend the night. The summit jar was easily spotted in the open woods of the summit.
We then dropped off the N peak in an easterly direction. The slope was STEEP but the woods where open. We came out on the Cedar Brook trail which we followed uphil till abreast of the East Peak. We left the trail, scrambled up and over and around a cliff face to find open woods to the summit jar. The "jar" is an upside down hanging 1 pint plastic nalgene. JimC & I where unable to open it last December. Thanks for signing us in Phil...!
With 4 down and one to go we headed off towards the S peak. The ascent from the col, past the bump, and up to the summit was the nastiest stretch of the trip for me. Thick, blowdowny, steep... slow going, tired, heavy legs, wahhhhhhhhhh wha wha (the sound of a grown 'whacker whining). We found the jar, signed in. Next stop? The CAR!
We followed the ridge off the S peak heading towards the col with the M peak. After a while we figured we went far enough along the ridge to miss the reported nasty stuff one hits if bailing directly off the summit. We started bending toward the SW searching out the path of least resistance and we headed downhill. It did not take long till we where in the crap which lasted for quite a while. No 50' rule here, it was all thick. We eventually got sucked into a drainage that fed into another stream that soon brought us to a wide overgrown logging road. Not the same one we used in the morning but it headed in the correct direction. (thanks Jim for saying "lets go this way", I was sure we should have gone the other way on the road!) This wide logging road eventually spilled us out onto the trail behind the Discovery parking lot. We started up this road in the AM but it was so overgrown initially that we dismissed it as "not what we're looking for".
Back to the car at 8pm. 12 hours, 5 Hitchcocks, one great whackin buddy!
Life is good.
pictures here
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/.3k
We started out looking for the the logging road that runs from behind Discovery and up into the valley SW of the W-M-S peaks. It took a while but we stumbled upon it. We followed the often overgrown road until we where just to the SE of the ridge that runs S off the West Peak. The bearing was "uphill" and off we went through mostly friendly woods and ridge to the West Peak.
The woods going from the W to M peak weren't quite as friendly... the uphill from the col was thick. On the Middle Peak we found the handy work of 2 of our groups members... a new sign and a great canister! Thanks guys!!
Over to the N peak was mostly easy sailing down to the col... from there up to the Heli-pad was nasty. The helicopter pad looks like a large tent platform, and has great views!! What a place to spend the night. The summit jar was easily spotted in the open woods of the summit.
We then dropped off the N peak in an easterly direction. The slope was STEEP but the woods where open. We came out on the Cedar Brook trail which we followed uphil till abreast of the East Peak. We left the trail, scrambled up and over and around a cliff face to find open woods to the summit jar. The "jar" is an upside down hanging 1 pint plastic nalgene. JimC & I where unable to open it last December. Thanks for signing us in Phil...!
With 4 down and one to go we headed off towards the S peak. The ascent from the col, past the bump, and up to the summit was the nastiest stretch of the trip for me. Thick, blowdowny, steep... slow going, tired, heavy legs, wahhhhhhhhhh wha wha (the sound of a grown 'whacker whining). We found the jar, signed in. Next stop? The CAR!
We followed the ridge off the S peak heading towards the col with the M peak. After a while we figured we went far enough along the ridge to miss the reported nasty stuff one hits if bailing directly off the summit. We started bending toward the SW searching out the path of least resistance and we headed downhill. It did not take long till we where in the crap which lasted for quite a while. No 50' rule here, it was all thick. We eventually got sucked into a drainage that fed into another stream that soon brought us to a wide overgrown logging road. Not the same one we used in the morning but it headed in the correct direction. (thanks Jim for saying "lets go this way", I was sure we should have gone the other way on the road!) This wide logging road eventually spilled us out onto the trail behind the Discovery parking lot. We started up this road in the AM but it was so overgrown initially that we dismissed it as "not what we're looking for".
Back to the car at 8pm. 12 hours, 5 Hitchcocks, one great whackin buddy!
Life is good.
pictures here
--
/.3k
