13804 – Wild Wanderer

“Castleabra” – 13,804 & PT 13559

RT Length: 15.2 miles

Elevation Gain: 4393’

Peal Pass road is no joke. I drove up late at night (a little after midnight) because I had appointments until 7:30pm, and I was glad I’d decided to drive in so late: there were no other vehicles to pass on this road. Also, it was a Monday night, so I’d missed the weekend traffic. I would have been in trouble if I’d met another vehicle on this road: in the 10+ miles I only saw 2 or 3 possible turn out areas. There are many areas that are shelf road with no visibility of vehicles coming from the other direction. There were potholes several feet deep: more than once I got out to make sure my truck could handle the terrain. The stream crossings were only about a foot deep and easily crossable, but committing since you couldn’t see vehicles coming from the opposite direction.

Since it was night the shadows played tricks, but my truck was able to successfully make it to 10,420’ where I parked it for the night at the junction of 738/402. There was a 4Runner in the 2 vehicle lot and I backed in right next to it. My truck could have made it the last mile should I have chosen to drive further. Knowing I was only going to get a few hours of sleep tonight (it was almost 2am) I quickly went to bed and got up at 4:45am. I was no the trail by 5am. The trail heads up and northeast, following the 4WD dirt road.

I came to another creek crossing and decided to take off my shoes to cross (I kept them on when I crossed on my way back, as I could see the rocks better)

Here’s the rest of the 4WD road

At this point I’d like to stress how much easier this hike would have been had I started in daylight: the trail is faint and hard to find/follow. See the trail?

In the dark I missed it, and continued to follow the road. No worries though, because it was easy to take the road back to the trail when I realized my mistake. Here’s the trail

It aims towards the trees where there’s a registration box. It doesn’t look like this area gets a lot of use.

And now I was ready to hit the trail, but this is what I saw

No real trail to speak of. There are a lot of game trails in the area, which can be both helpful and confusing. I’ll save you the misery I went through route finding in the willows/trees in the dark, and give you the description of the clearer trail I was able to follow on the way back. Basically, avoid the temptation to go right into the trees. Stick as close to Middle Brush Creek as you can for the first 1.3 miles after the trail register, keeping the creek and beaver ponds to your left at all times (you’ll never need to cross the creek, but you can stay close).

The willows become problematic around 11000’, and these willows don’t quit. They range from 2 feet tall to about 10 feet tall, and where they’re over 4 feet tall they grow over the trail towards each other. There is no clearly defined trail that remains constant, but a lot of game trails that weave in and out.

Bears don’t seem to have difficulty finding the trail however

As soon as I entered the willows I started getting wet, and I was confused, as it hadn’t rained last night? Within a couple of yards I was dripping with water. My waterproof jacket was soaked, my pants spongy and my shoes were oozing water. I kept getting hit in the face with cold, wet branches and I had leaves covering my clothes. When I got home I noticed I had red streaks where the branches had whipped my legs. Have I mentioned I’m not a fan of willows? I was getting cold, and encouraged the sun to rise. Fast.

After wretchedly whomping through the willows, and after 4 miles of hiking I came upon a trail to the right (east). I headed towards the trail in the distance and followed it

This was a nice trail through the trees, and then once again, willows.

From here the trail is very obscure until you reach the upper basin. The willows have many, many game trails that make accessing the upper basin possible, but time consuming. I just kept aiming northwest, keeping the creek to my left and rejoicing when I found a game trail. I still got hit in the face with willows, but could see a trail below my knees.

I finally made it out of the willows at 12000’. Here’s the overall route I took to get to “Castleabra”

There are several ways to get to “Castleabra’s” ridge. I went directly up the south face, but could have also taken the gully to the right or left. I didn’t do this because there was a herd of about 30 goats having a grand old time kicking down rocks to the right and I didn’t bring my helmet. I was worried the scree would be brutal to my left going up, so I went straight up the middle. Here’s the route up the south face. This is all class 2 on unstable rock, and there are several access gullies. All go, just pick your line.

After gullies there’s some rubble to deal with to gain the ridge

Once I’d gained the ridge I turned left and headed west

I summited “Castleabra” at 9am. Unfortunately, I’d forgotten my camera at home, so these are all cell phone pics and due to that you get selfies (and sometimes the side of my finger in shots).

Castleabra:

Here’s a look at the route I took in

I was making this a loop, adding in PT 13550 as well. To do that I headed back the way I’d came, then angled down the scree towards the basin. There is no solid trail here, and none of the area cliffs out, so you can descend at any time and make your way scree-surfing towards the basin. Here’s the overall route I took

And step by step, back down the ridge

Here’s looking back up at the route I took down from “Castleabra”. As you can see from this photo, there are several options to gain the ridge for this peak, and the entire ridge is class 2.

Now on to summit PT 13550. The trick is to stay high and gain the ridge as quickly as possible. Don’t dip down further than you have to, because you’ll just have to re-gain the elevation later.

Once on the ridge it’s loose and rocky but all class 2. I followed the ridge to a false summit

I summited PT 13550 at 11am

13550:

Here’s a look back over at “Castleabra” and Castle Peak

It had been a long day and I was tired. I hadn’t gotten much sleep last night, and I was hiking slower than usual in the heat (but at least it’s warmed up and I’d dried out). Time to head back down the ridge

Here’s the route I took down the ridge and through the upper basin

And back down to through the willows. Luckily, I had a good idea of where I was going and the willows had dried out in the afternoon sun, so they weren’t as miserable as on the trek in. Here’s the overall route through the willows

And step by step. Yes, I was on a trail. Anyone have a chainsaw?

Back through the trees and across the talus trail

And back down to the creek/beaver ponds, following game trails where available

I picked up the faint trail that led back to the trailhead

And took the 4WD road back to my truck

I made it back to my truck at 2pm, making this a 15.2 mile hike with 4393’ of elevation gain in 9 hours.

When I got back to my truck I noticed a faint dusting of water droplets had landed on my truck last night. Just a few here and there on the dirt that coated the vehicle from the drive in. The skies had been clear when I went to bed, and I didn’t get more than 2.5 hours of sleep, but it must have sprinkled a bit in that time. Even a quick, light sprinkle of rain can cause the willows to turn into a nightmare. Next time I’ll wear my waterproof pants when willows are involved, no matter the weather.

Luckily, since it was a Tuesday I didn’t pass another vehicle on my way down (I’d been worried about that). Oh, and someone was moving cattle on my drive out. The wrangler was clicking and clucking to the cows and making swishing noises. She thanked me for stopping to let them by, and I thanked her for allowing me to take a photo and complemented her on her chaps (they were really cool). I miss farm/ranch life (kind of…). Time to head home and get more work done.

Mt Arkansas – 13,804

RT Length: 6 miles

Elevation Gain: 2759’

I got a late start on this one but I didn’t mind much. I made it to the Freemont Pass South trailhead just before 6am, surprised to see two other vehicles already parked there. I’m not sure we made the best use of our parking spaces

When I looked up at the mountain I could see headlamps. Wow! It’s not often I’m not the first person out. That’s what happens when you sleep in. They were taking a different route to the ridge than I planned on taking, and I wondered if they knew something I didn’t? You can’t really see them, but they’re circled here. The orange line is how I gained the ridge

I put on my microspikes under my snowshoes and headed out. As the sun started to rise I followed the road as it wound southwest, switchbacking a couple of times

There were plenty of tracks on the road until I came to a straightaway. All tracks went left (east) but my instructions said to go right, so I got to be the first one on the new snow!

After about a quarter mile I turned left and entered the trees

There was no trail here but I could see the mountain. I trenched my way south, sometimes coming across ski tracks or old game trails

Eventually I made it to treeline and had no difficulty figuring out the route before me. There were some large snow drifts towards the end of the basin I wanted to avoid so I decided to gain the ridge early. The snow here was soft and sugary and I was once again glad I’d worn snowshoes.

Here’s the path I took up the ridge

It’s steeper than it looks. Once on top of the ridge I ran into the tracks of the hikers I’d seen that morning. None of the tracks headed back down so they must still be on the mountain. I turned southwest and started up the ridge

The snow here wasn’t consistent. In some places there wasn’t any snow, and in others it was consolidated. I saw just enough postholing tracks from the hikers above me to convince me to keep my snowshoes on.

I followed the ridge to a small saddle and ascended the hill.

I completely thought I was nearing the end of this climb and kept looking for the other hikers. They should have been way ahead of me. Why hadn’t I seen them yet? I kept feeling like I was getting closer and closer to the end, which meant they should have been on their way back by now. At the top of that hill there was a pole. This pole is important, as it signifies the correct route to take back down. It’s good to make a mental note of where this is. I went right here

This is where the fun began. Once again, I totally assumed this was the summit (it wasn’t). I went up and over

And saw this

No worries… that must be the summit (it wasn’t). It was an easy class 2 hike though, until I came to a short class 4 section here, which was interesting in snowshoes

At the top of the class 4 section my heart sank: I still had a long ways to the actual summit, and it looked like all class 3+ from here. I couldn’t see the other hikers anywhere and I was getting seriously worried because all tracks still pointed up.

I looked for the class 2 section as an alternate, but there was so much snow it wasn’t a viable option. If I was going to continue I was going to have to climb class 3 in the snow. That wasn’t going to be possible with my snowshoes on. I seriously considered turning back. This would be an easy hike with no snow, one I could do quickly next summer. I debated my chances of success in the current conditions.

I decided since it was a nice day I’d take it one step at a time and turn back if necessary. The snowshoes weren’t necessary so I sat down to take them off and stash them while I summited. Just as I was kicking them off (I didn’t want to take my gloves off so there was a bit of a struggle) I saw the group of hikers coming towards me. No, they hadn’t been slow, it had just been a much longer ridge than I’d anticipated and they’d been behind rocks when I’d made it within final view of the actual summit. I waited for them to pass me. I had a hard time making conversation (my mouth was frozen and it was difficult to make words) but we had a quick chat. They said the headwall on the way they’d come up hadn’t been fun. I wished them luck and we were on our separate ways. I was so glad I’d decided to put on my spikes under my snowshoes! It was worth it not to need to take off my gloves. The wind wasn’t too terrible, but I’d need all the feeling in my fingers I could get for some class 3 scrambling.

This last route on the ridge mainly sticks to the ridge, but it does dip down a few times to the right. Here’s the route I took

It looked like the group ahead of me had gone a little higher in places than I did but I felt their route looked class 4 and felt more comfortable staying a bit lower. I was never more than 30 or so feet below the ridge and most of the time I was right on top. The last push to the summit was on class 2 rocks

There was a big cairn indicating the summit. I was thrilled I’d decided not to turn back! That had been easier than I’d anticipated.

Here’s my summit photo

It is much harder to work a camera with large gloves on than you’d think. If you have a few minutes to spare you can watch one of my attempts (I couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t working. Turns out it was on video mode). This sort of stuff happens frequently and wastes time on the summit. I tend to give up quickly and go with the first shot I take, especially when it’s cold and time has more meaning.

Summit Post

Here’s a look back down the ridge

The trail down the ridge was pretty similar to the way up. Here’s a look at the tricky sections

Remember how I said that pole was important? Here’s why: You don’t follow this ridge all the way down. You’ll eventually turn left and follow a different ridge

The wind was starting to pick up, and some of the trenches forming were body-sized because of the sugary snow

The pole is circled here in red. Follow the ridge to the left, don’t go straight or it will take you to point 12923.

From here I followed the ridge to just before the headwall

Looking back things started to get windy

I turned left and headed down the side of the mountain. Down was much easier than up.

Here’s my exit route back into the trees

My tracks were mostly gone in a lot of the basin but I could see where they picked up near treeline

Once at treeline I just followed my tracks back to my truck, doing my best to form a nice trench

I made it back to my truck at 12:30pm, making this a 6 mile hike with 2759’ of elevation gain in 6 and a half hours. The hike had felt longer distance wise than it was, and I it felt shorter time wise. I guess I kind of went into a zone when crossing the ridge and lost track of time.