[TR] Green Mountain, Middle Fork - Bushwhaching till summit was reached 6/21/2011

[mr.radon]

Trip: Green Mountain, Middle Fork - Bushwhaching till summit was reached

 

Date: 6/21/2011

 

Trip Report:

Topo: http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/1174612

 

Well Matt and I launched on an epic yesterday after work without ever realizing what we were getting into. I made a great decision the day before to pack ice axe, gators, Gu, energy bars and topped off the charge on my GPS. I forgot to recheck my head lamp batteries, they had been sitting unused in my pack for over a month now.

Matt had forwarded a trip report from some guys that attempted this peak. I read it and thought, oh they were just amateurs seeing how they turned around without getting to the summit. There seemed a straight forward path to the peak on the topo map provided by Matt on the drive to the trail head. I figured summer solstice, longest day of the year, no problem. I didn’t realize there is NO trail to this peaks summit!

After work (3:00) I changed and piled into Matt's car. We hit the trail head a little after 4PM, which is a few miles past the Mail Box Peak trail head up the Middle Fork road. The GPS helped find the exact spot we needed to park (right after crossing a certain bridge). After parking the car we had to back track down the road to find the little trail that follows the river. This part of the trail is flat and mushy, but a great trail. Soon we hit an old logging road, we knew we had the right trail. The Topo map allowed us to pick the right turns at the intersections of various log roads. The road started to narrow as we gained elevation, eventually becoming a well maintained trail, in some places marked with red flag tied to tree branches. The weather was warm and muggy, lots of sweat. The blisters I had gotten on McClellan's Butte two days before hurt bad, I compensated by choosing to ignore my feet.

We made pretty good time to about 3,400' where we started to encounter patches of snow. By this time the temps were just a bit lower, but bugs, OMG bugs! What made the bugs even worse was at this point the GPS was frequently checked to see where the easiest route to the summit would be. We tried to go right but moss covered rocks, 4th class scramble, no trees, we gave up. We ascended to our left, which directed us to a steep gully and cliff bands. The climbing was earthy, we actually had to use the ice axe in a few places as pro to ensure we weren't going to tumble down slope, of course at moments like this the bugs knew, flying into our eyes, ears, mouths and biting us unrelentingly. The trees helped us a lot, god knows how they grow on that steep a slope, but many times they were used as aid to keep traction on the slope.

We found ourselves at the top of a short snow pitch below a small steep section. Matt and I knew the descent from here would be very difficult but not impossible. I told Matt I’d check it out and climbed up, this was the crux, going left or right looked just as bad, if not worse. I told Matt I'd try the pitch. Half way up I managed to get two good footholds, but had to take the pack off and throw it to the top of the rocks. It was getting hung up in the trees, darn elastic bands. Once I got to the top I moved upward, the slope started to ease ever so slightly, but the going seemed simpler. Matt joined me and we talked about our prospects. There was no way to descend our route up without a rope, which we certainly did not have. Top out and take the old logging roads out, was what Matt and I agreed too. I did not like the idea of descending from a peak on an unknown route, but it looked okay on the topo and GPS.

Between steep dirt and snow we managed to find a ridge that gave direct access to Green Mountain's saddle. The trail quickly became snow covered, slightly soft from the wonderful day we had. Our trail wandered between the trees, large tree wells made it interesting as we had to negotiate narrow snow bridges. Ice axes and pole came in very helpful. Soon we hit the saddle, turned North and headed up the summit ridge. This pitch is interesting as we had to hop onto rock fins jutting out of the snow. Soon we attained the summit of Green Mountain! The views basking in sunset colors were indescribable, so beautiful they were. Just gorgeous!

Matt and I congratulated ourselves and we looked at the map, we needed a quick descent off the snow seeing how it was 8:20 and the sun would soon be gone. We back tracked, which we late found unnecessary, to the saddle, dropped off the opposite side, traversed on top of an old road to the northern saddle of Green Mountain. This wasn't simple as the slope was steeper than I thought it would be. The snow was soft and poor footing with a bad slide off. From the Northern saddle I decided to descend a steep gully to the logging road below, boot skiing! That road ended up being nothing notable as we were still in snow and the traverse seemed difficult, another road below this one was noted on the GPS and I plundered down traversing to the left as I could to keep us on a ridge and pointed in the right direction.

Soon we hit this road, with the sun almost down (we were on the east side and already in the shade). From here we could see the traverse North on the old logging road to an eventual descent to the road we drove in on, however, much much further North then where the car was parked. Actually, it looked a lot like the South Bessemer trailhead! (it was)

Interestingly I told the GPS to calculate "on road" back to the car, sure enough it highlighted the old logging roads we needed to take to get back. What a useful little tool, but in a car this would have gotten you much trouble!

The old logging road we were on had not been used in decades, lucky for us we were on top of snow and somewhat level. I was very motivated to get off the snow before it became dark. Moving as quickly as possible we had a lot of little streams to cross, soon we were somewhat clear of the snow. However, this road had a LOT of avalanche debris and willows, OMG the willows. Leg cutting twigs. I was glad to have two hiking poles to help out on the uneven terrain. Finally I could not see and Matt had to take off his crampons. I dug into the pack for my headlamp but found the batteries dead! Matt came to save the day, arggg.

Pretty much the logging road was overgrown with willows, in some places so thick it required us to drop off the road grade and hike past the impassable bushes. The road was difficult to follow as it was very overgrown, no trail, no mainteance. The GPS came in handy to insure we were on the grade. The first dry junction we hit, the GPS saved the day, there was no indication the road we needed to be on was BELOW us. We descended into the woods until I said we were now under the road. We traversed level to the grade and finally climbed back up to a now somewhat distinguishable road grade, however, totally overgrown with rocks, willows, dead and living trees and dozens of small creeks, plus did I mention it was pitch black dark and only one head lamp? At one point I had a particularly interesting problem, stepping through the mushy edges of a creek my leg sunk into the goo. The bottom half of my lower leg was sucked into quicksand muck. It took some effort to extricate the leg without losing the shoe attached below. Yuck and ouch, the soaking did not do my blister any good. However, the further North we hiked the better the road got.

As the road got better we noted the beautiful stars that had popped out above us. The sight was electrifying. Matt and I spent a lot of time joking about the mess we were in and glad we were going to get out. At this point I realized we might actually get home without a forced bivy (I had been considering this and we could have done this). I had told Janet where we were going, I hoped she had not called Search & Rescue, as we were already well overdo. It looked like we would get back to the car well after midnight.

The old logging road we were on soon got better and eventually a trail appeared out of no-where. By the time we hit the next road junction the trail turned into a well maintained road, a very familiar road. It was the road up South Bessemer. From there it was easy to follow in Matt's headlamp glow and the pace increased considerably. We hit the familiar points from the previous hike up this road. Soon we were on the Middle Fork, and walking South to the car. For me the biggest challenge was ignoring the blisters on my feet and the road's multiple pot holes.

The car soon appeared ahead of us and relief in sight, 12:35AM! What a day hike there Matt! Nice way to up the ante. Stout hike. I give it a 12 out of 10 for an after work day hike.

 

Gear Notes:

Hiking shoes, gators, ice axe, poles.

 

Approach Notes:

Middle Fork doesn't seem to have as many potholes this year? See Topo.