RT Length: 10.43 miles
Elevation Gain: 3117’
My plans for this weekend changed last minute. I got gas and was on my way, but suddenly my engine light turned on, saying there was a transmission problem, and to get to my dealer right away. I have less than 25,000 miles on my truck, so this concerned me. I decided to pull over on the side of the road to google what could be wrong. The next exit I came to there was a man wearing only jeans, holding a 6 foot 2×4 over his shoulders, swaying back and forth on the side of the off-ramp. It was 1am. I decided to wait for the next exit.
I googled the warning notification, and it turned out the light could be one of over 40 things wrong. With cars and mountaineering, hope is not a strategy. I thought about it for a minute, and finally decided driving 6 hours and then another hour off road was probably a bad idea, so I turned around and headed to the nearest dealership, and slept in my truck until they opened at 7am.
Bugs. Bugs were what was wrong. Bugs on my windshield and bugs on my grille were obscuring the sensors from doing their jobs. The sensors were now clean, and I was good to go, with the admonition I should wash my truck more often. To which I replied “It’s a truck. It’s supposed to get dirty. If not, you have no business owning a truck.” Seriously though, washing my truck in the summer lasts a good 6 hour drive to the next trailhead, and doesn’t seem worth the money. I got a high five and was out of there, now a day behind, so summit modifications would need to be made.
I made it to the trailhead in a thunderstorm, which I’d expected. It was my plan to wait it out, and start in the morning. I parked 6 miles past Cottonwood Lake, at the junctions of 344 and 349. There are dispersed campsites closer, but I planned to be here for a few days and this made a good base camp.
I was up and on the trail at 4:15am to a clear, starry night ski, hoping to get in my summits before the clouds and rain came at 9am. I followed road 344 west for 1.4 miles.
I then turned right onto 344G. There were several dispersed campsites here as well.
I followed this road all the way to 12,020.
I passed an old log cabin
Staying left, I continued to 12,020
At 12,020 I turned left, and followed a trail northeast through Mineral Basin
This is where I was headed, towards the saddle. The road is sometimes a trail, sometimes two ruts, but it goes all the way to the saddle.
I’m going to apologize for the pictures on the ridge. The weather forecast said 57% sky cover until 9am, when the clouds were supposed to roll in, but as you can see, they arrived early. I thought about waiting the clouds out, but it was obvious they were just accumulating. At one point I even turned back, knowing I’d need to do this hike again anyway to get better pictures, but turned around again and summited, because I was so close. While this is a class 2 ridge hike, I hiked it with my compass out the entire time, as I couldn’t see more than a few yards ahead of me at a time. I’m going to show you some really terrible pictures of the route, but know from the saddle it’s .7 miles southwest, and then .8 miles south/southeast along the ridge, mostly on tundra with a few rocks thrown in.
At the saddle I turned left, and headed up the ridge
The summit is obvious, after quite a few false summits. Here I saw a mountain goat run past me into the mist. The summit was noted by an obvious cairn (that needs a new summit register)
It’s important to note by this time I was feeling like a popsicle. I could not feel my hands and my feet felt like blocks of ice. Apparently it’s wet and cold hiking inside of a cloud.
I summited Mt Kruetzer at 7am
Mt Kruetzer:
I made my way back to the saddle. I’ll apologize again for the terrible pictures, and promise to climb these peaks again someday so I can get better photos of the route.
Back on the saddle, I headed northeast towards Chalk Rock mountain
This is the route I took up. It was obvious why it’s named “Chalk Rock Mountain”. There were game trails here, and the summit was surprisingly close. From the saddle, it was only .3 miles to the summit.
The summit was relatively flat, without a noticeable cairn
I summited Chalk Rock Mountain at 8:10am
Chalk Rock Mountain:
More than ready to be out of the clouds, I turned around and headed southwest back to the saddle.
Back on the saddle, I turned left and followed the road back down into the basin
This is the route out of the basin
I turned right onto the road and followed it back down
Back at road 344 I turned left, and followed it back to my campsite
I made it back to my truck at 9:45am, making this a 10.43 mile hike with 3117’ of elevation gain in 5 hours, 30 minutes. Now it’s time to dry out my shoes, socks, and feet for tomorrow morning.
On to the next trailhead!
Oh, and this is what the mountain looked like as I hiked down. The clouds never went away!
The next morning I hiked Jones Mountain B. Unlike yesterday, the there were no visible stars, as the sky was cloudy. However, once I made it to the ridge, I could see Kruetzer and Chalk Rock were clear. Here are some more visuals of the route
As you can see, it’s mostly a ridge hike.
Wild Wanderer 