Four of us ended up on this one as a third choice. West side destinations were not too appealing with low clouds and rain, so we opted for an easy trip east to Jolly and Skookum. A mile and a half up FS Road 4315 there's a gate and it was closed (6.5 miles remained to the trailhead!). Dammit, what now? Feeling a bout of laziness suddenly coming over me, going home to sleep crossed my mind, but I stayed quiet!
But wait...we had a Green Trails map with us, so all was well. We spotted Red Mountain, a Home Court peak none of has had been up, so we headed thataways...Down the dirt road and then back down the main drag until we came to the turn off for Cooper Lake. The route up Red starts along the side of the road to Cooper Lake at an obscure trailhead (2600') - there's one small turn-out just across the road from the trailhead, but that's it. Turns out the trail is an old miner's path, so it wastes no time making it's way up to the small basin just below the true summit of Red. Generally the tread is pretty faint as few folks probably ever come up this way, but never is the trail hard to follow.
At 4600' we entered a basin and the trail tends to fade, but flagging and a faint boot path mark the way up to a few adits on the hill side above. We aimed right for the mine tailings and had no trouble getting up to 5200' through the open terrain. We poked about the adits and tailings for a bit and then headed on up. With the superb Green Trails map at our side we had a tough time determining what the high point actually was. Left or right? We debated for a bit and then decided that it must be the red high points off to the right
Continuing up from the adits was a chore in climbing class 3 rock with 6" of spicy choss on each step and hand hold. Not the best conditions, but we all wandered up the hill without incident and eventually made the nice summit area in the partial fog. Once up, it was evident that we had made the right decision and we were in fact at the true summit (the high points just north of point 5722'). Good views to most of the Cle Elum drainage, but low clouds blocked extended views over to the crest or beyond to the Stuart Range.
The descent went nice and quick aside from the horrible down climbing through the class 3 choss factory. This is one of those routes I'd never do twice and definitely not when it's wet. Overall, the outing was pretty good and made for a nice impromptu back-up plan.
"spicy choss" eh?
We got over 7 grand and never left a valley floor--should have tagged along with me and R this weekend!
Eh? Where did you go? I got no invite!
Actually, Red was a decent trip, I have no complaints. Spicy choss is good choss...the kind that adds a little bit of excitment to a routine route.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate NWHikers.net earns from qualifying purchases when you use our link(s).