13746 – Wild Wanderer

RT Length: 12.6 miles

Elevation Gain: 4162’

This was my second attempt of Pilot Knob, the first being a few years ago when I tried to link it up with Golden Horn and got caught up in some seriously scary scree. This time I was approaching from the north, my only fear being lingering snow from an early September storm.

I arrived at the Ice Lakes trailhead at 5am and was the only vehicle in the lot. It was a balmy 22 degrees and since I wasn’t in a hurry I decided to take a nap in my truck until first light. I was on the trail at 6:45am. The trail starts at the obvious trailhead sign at the west end of the parking area

From here it was an easy hike on a class 1 trail all the way up to Ice Lakes Basin. The avalanche area was easy to navigate.

Stay left here

And continue to follow the trail to gain the basin

Once in the Ice Lakes Basin the trails get kind of goofy. I skirted Ice Lake to the south and continued heading west.

After Ice Lake there’s a little stream to cross, and then the trail ends and the class 2 section/route finding begins.

Here’s an overall view of the route I took up to Pilot Knob

And step by step (sorry, I couldn’t resist; I thought this was cool)

I followed the drainage west up the basin

And once I reached the basin I turned right and headed for the gully that would lead me to the ridge

There are a lot of ways to ascend this gully, none of them fun. The rock here is loose, the scree runs out below you, and there aren’t many handholds. Basically, pick your line and head for the ridge. Microspikes and poles help. I took the solid line up, the dotted line down, but there are tons of options here

Once on the ridge I continued to skirt the north side of Pilot Knob. There was a little bit of snow here, but nothing that required traction. Here the wind picked up, and in the shadows it got really cold.

I rounded the corner and picked up a faint trail in the scree that continued to skirt the mountain. You basically want to stay high here. The scree here is loose, but much, much more table than the scree when coming from the opposite direction (Golden Horn).

By sticking high here I came upon cairns that led me to the access gully. This gully is extremely well cairned and easy to follow. The climbing is class 3, bordering on class 4, and when you see a cairn and think to yourself “There’s no way I go over that”, you do. Stick to the cairned route here; it goes.

Here are some highlights: I followed the gully northeast to the ridge

Once on the ridge the scrambling got interesting. This is class 4 and there’s exposure, but luckily the rock is grippy. Here’s the exact route I took, staying to the left of the ridge

The last bit to the summit was underwhelming, and very, very windy. And cold. And windy.

I summited Pilot Knob at 11am

Pilot Knob:

Here’s a look down at the way I came in through Ice Lakes Basin

Time to head back. Here’s an overall view of the ridge to the gully

And a step by step view back down the gully

Once down the gully, here’s the route back to the access gully

The access gully was much more fun do descend than ascend. I put on my microspikes and literally scree-surfed the entire way down, stopping a few times when the rubble became dangerously fast.

Once at the bottom of the gully I followed the same route out

Past Ice Lake and down into the lower basin.

And back down to the trailhead

I made it back to my truck at 2pm, making this a 12.6 mile hike with 4162’ of elevation gain in 7 hours. On to the next trailhead!

RT Length: 12.61 Miles

Elevation Gain: 4652’

I drove to the La Plata Gulch Traihead and then took 391 for a little over 2.5 miles to a junction with 382, 391, and 392, where I parked my truck. This is an easy 4WD road in, with a few water holes to navigate.

I parked at what looked to be an avalanche runout area.

Initially I’d intended to make this a loop and incorporate Unnamed 13,300F and PT 12,601, but the area that I’d exit the hike as a loop with had a lot of “no trespassing” signs, so I decided early on just to make this a 2 peak hike.

At 5am I gathered my gear and headed southwest, following 392, passing some dispersed campsites and wiki-ups.

I crossed a bridge and turned right, following 392. There are more dispersed campsites here. The dispersed campsites make it a little difficult to follow/see the road.

In the dark I ended up going too far south on 382, missing the obvious 392 sign, and the not so obvious road. Turn left at this sign, even though there’s no road.

And pass through a gate, now following the 392 4WD road.

Almost immediately I came to a creek crossing that required me to take off my shoes and get out my sandals. The creek was cold (especially at 5am) but the water only went up to my knees in the deepest of places.

Shoes back on, I followed the 4WD road. “4WD Road” is a bit of a misnomer. This was probably a road decades ago, but it has gone into disrepair and hasn’t been used for quite a while. It’s easy to follow, but overgrown in many areas with willows, aspens, and even 10+ foot pine trees.

At 11,950’ I came to a small cabin with a great view.

I peered inside: someone had left a peanut bottle full of trail mix (peanuts and M&M’s?) on a shelf. It was dark and cold inside and I’ve seen horror movies so I didn’t take the bait. I turned around and considered my options. Here the road still had some snow/ice covering it, but early in the morning I could walk across it when necessary without traction. On the way back I was able to see dry spots to navigate down and avoided the snow.

My options were to either take the road or follow the ridge. I decided to take the road up and follow the ridge back down. I wasn’t disappointed. I also placed a cairn here to show where you leave the trail to follow the ridge (even though it should be obvious).

The road really didn’t have much snow on it after I passed this point and was quite easy to follow all the way to the saddle. Several times I intersected with the ridge route as I followed the road.

From the ridge you can see the road, and the path you take to get to Sayres Benchmark

I was really glad I decided to take the road up. Not because it was easier than the ridge, but because it was here I saw some elk. My favorite were the calves, suckling breakfast until they noticed me and their mamas decided it was time for them to leave.

Elk:

Following the road to 13275 feel of elevation I then turned right (south) and followed the ridge, losing 300 or so feet of elevation as I made my way to the saddle. I decided to just follow the ridge, even though it meant going up and down in elevation a few times. (This is all class 2)

There was still some snow on the ridge. I made the 50/50 decision to stick to the right of the ridge and wasn’t disappointed, as later I could see the ridge to the left was impassable due to snow.

I stuck to the right of the snow

Towards the top the tundra gave way to rocks

The top of this is unfortunately not the summit of Sayres Benchmark, even if it looks like it is from far away. Nope, when you get to the top of the ridge turn left (northeast) and hike to another small saddle and then up to the summit of Sayres.

There was more snow here than I would have liked, but it was firm this early in the morning. I decided against putting on spikes or crampons and just hiked across.

After this small saddle I picked one of the many dirt filled gullies and climbed to the top

I summited at 8:40am.

Summit of Sayres:

There was a benchmark that I’m pretty sure is off by 1000’ or so…

There was a summit register, but as always, I didn’t open it. Time to head back the way I came. I turned back and headed towards the small saddle, retracing my steps. Here’s an overview of the route to PT 13460

I was glad the snow was still firm enough not to need traction. Today there was minimal exposure as well.

Here’s an overview of the route back to PT 13,430 (not considered ranked or unranked)

Notice the snow? It’s good here to stick to the left (west side)

Here’s a visual of the route to the top of PT 13,430

I took the road to the ridge, turned right (northeast) and once I was on the ridge the ground turned sandy for a bit, but mostly it was crushed rock.

Here’s a view of PT 13,460 from PT 13,430

Here’s the route I took to get to PT 13,430. I tried to stick to the ridge, but when that wasn’t possible I dipped to the left. This is all class 2, maybe easy 2D (if that can be a thing?)

Here you dip down to the left and climb back up through a short gully

The final trek to 13,460

I summited PT 13,460 at 10:20am. There was as a summit register here.

Summit of 13,460:

Here’s looking back at today’s peaks

I made my way back to PT 13,430, retracing my steps. Here’s an overview of the route back down from the ridge before PT 13,460. You can clearly see the road at the end of the ridge. I circled where my truck is parked.

The ridge started out as rubble and turned to tundra before making it back to the road

Here’s looking back at the ridge. While hiking the ridge I ran into another hiker! I hadn’t expected to see anyone at all today, and as we passed I was thrilled to see she was another female solo hiker. It’s nice to see other women out rocking the mountains. We talked for a bit. I was probably a bit clipped because I had other plans for today and wanted to keep moving, but she did too so after chatting about the weekend weather around the state and other peaks for this weekend we were both on our way.

I followed the road back to the creek crossing, through the gate, turned right, and followed the trail back to my truck. I kept my sandals on after the creek crossing, since it was such a short distance and I’d be changing back into them when I was done anyway.

I made it back to my truck at 12:30pm, making this a 12.61 mile hike with 4652’ of elevation gain in 7.5 hours.

Since it was still early, the weather seemed to be holding up, and I wasn’t yet exhausted I decided to drive over to Independence Pass and see if I could hit a few more ranked 13ers today. As I drove out all of those empty dispersed camping spots were full.

Tag: 13746

Pilot Knob – 13,746

Sayres Benchmark – 13,746 & PT 13,440