16 miles of hiking • 6500' elevation gain • 1 night
New Summit - 8 of 20 for the Year 2013
Had an opportunity to sneak out again this weekend and take Mindy up to the hills. With so much work piling up at the office, I knew that I had to go in and work on Saturday. But could I still get out and go climbing ? Possibly if I car camped on Saturday night and got an early start on Sunday. Now where to go.....??? I looked at my map on Went Hiking and saw all the thumb tacks spread out around Washington and realized that I have been neglecting the Mountain Loop Highway area. Usually I try to complete at least 1 climb a year in this area. So a quick look at the forecast, my short list of peaks to do for the area and then I was off to pack and get the heck outta town.
Everything timed out perfect. We got to the car camping spot along the Stilly around 9:00ish. Had a few beers, played with the dog and then it was off to bed before 10. Woke up the following morning around 5:00 and started to gear up for an early start. I figured that it would be nice to get the approach done while it was still cool out and then if we had time on the way back we could hit up Stillaguamish Peak. Could I finally get my 2-fer for the year ?
The approach went quick and before long we were high up in the Forgotten Meadows. The trail was snow free up until this point. Then I searched around for a bit before locating a steep muddy gulley that dropped down into the valley below the SE face of Forgotten. From there it was a long traverse below the face with patchy snow and blow downs. Eventually we came up and around to the NE face and began our climb up a nice little chute that lead up to a meadow just below the summit scramble. We were making good time and Stillaguamish was well within our grasp. I gave Mindy lots of water and some scooby snacks on the Summit. She played around and cooled off on a small patch of snow, until the biting flies began to swarm around her. We quickly down climbed the top part of the snow gulley and slid down the rest. The traverse back across to the meadow seemed to go quicker this time around. Once we were back in the meadow I filtered some water and let Mindy rest again in the shade. A black dog on snow is like frying an egg on a rock !!! I watched her start playing with rocks and if anyone knows Mindy, she has to find the biggest one and try to figure out a way to carry it. At this point I knew we could make a run for Stillaguamish. So I pulled out my beta and spotted the ridge / summit from a clearing in the meadow.
I quickly checked my cell phone for the time and it was right around noon. So time was not going to be an issue. Off we went and before long we picked up the trail and followed it for as long as we could on the ridge crest. Now this is where the fun began !!! The information I had said that the trail does become non existent in a few areas, but just stay close to the ridge. Well non existent if probably an understatement. This was some of the thickest schwacking that I have encountered in a long time and to top it off we were side hilling on a very steep slope. This went on for about 15 minutes going back and forth from the ridge to the brush. Some parts of the ridge were cliffed-out and it would force you back down into the jungle. Mindy was really struggling with down climbing these sections. The brush was so thick she could hardly find her way through at ground level. There was one area that was full of dead limbs and they were just like barbs poking her every which way. I spent some time breaking them down and trying to clear a path for her, but eventually it just got to be too much. She wouldn't come anymore... then she looked at me and gave me the "ARE YOU KIDDING ME" look. This is not the first time she has given me this look. She knows when enough is enough !! So we turned around just shy of hitting the meadow for Stillaguamish and from what my report said.... "the meadow is nice leisurely stroll to a perfect flat top summit where you can have a nice picnic" Yeah no crap, anything would be a stroll after that bushwhack. So only 1 summit this trip and the 2-fer has once again eluded me.
The descent was pretty much Forgotten.... Ohh wait I still have scratches and bug bites from all the bushwhackin !!! So maybe not all is Forgotten =)
