[Randy]

I met up with Matt R. and Shella B. at the North Bend Safeway at the comfortable time of 0730. This relaxed start time was a very strong motivating factor in getting me in the mountains this weekend; that, and I hadn't had the pleasure of Matt and Shella's fine company since June, so it was about time. After getting out nearly every weekend since April I was looking for any excuse to stay home (rain!), but what's another day in the hills especially if it's nice and dry on the eastside. Earlier in the year we had tried for these two, but the gate had been closed about 1.5 miles up FS Road 4315, so we called ahead and knew we had a road up to 5400' this time - this should be considered cheating! At the end of 4315 we caught the trail heading up along a subtle rib towards a saddle to the north of Jolly. The trail goes up and down for a bit before reaching the saddle at about 6000'. From here we went south and up a rutted out trail to the summit of Jolly at a little over 6400'. Remnants of the former lookout site were scattered here and there and we spent about 30 minutes enjoying the views and sunshine. From Jolly, Skookum is plainly visible as is the entire route which involves a very pleasant ridge walk. But, to get there we had descend back to the saddle at 6000' and then down another 400' to another saddle before we were able to gain elevation again. There’s a trail most of the way, but about 3/4 of the way across the ridge traverse it fades and we merely put one foot in front of the other and somehow found our way over to the base of the false summit. We went up some fun rocks to the top of the false summit and then down a up a bit to the true summit. The final little summit block has a couple fun moves on it if wanted, but is otherwise more easily touched than climbed. More fine views and comfortable September weather was enjoyed here before the Yellow Jackets finally chased us off. Being as this was a very relaxed day we had plenty of time to goof off on the way back and satisfy some climbing needs by cragging on some fun, but loose, high points along the great ridgeline. After an hour or so of fun along the ridge we headed on out the way we had come. A great day with a couple of great people.