[Randy]

Just got back from a little skirmish over in Teanaway country. Also along for the trip were Beave and Mike Collins. When it's pouring in Seattle it's a good bet that the MFK Snoqualmie is socked in and wet, so we changed plans and headed east. We left the De Roux Creek trailhead under overcast skies and set off on a moderate pace up the trail. A few muddy spots here and there and a bit of horse dung, but other than that the trail is clear of obstructions to about 4800' - where the snow starts. After reaching snow, we paralleled the creek for a bit before crossing it on a convenient snow bridge. From here we sidehilled it up and to the NW until reaching about 5800'. Here the view right over your head is not of the true summit. To gain the true summit we angled left a bit, over the ridge line obvious on the quad, and then ascended NW across snow and talus to the summit of Esmeralda. Very few views this day, as the cloud cover intensified during our summit stay. We took a more direct route down to De Roux creek on the descent, crossing it at about 5150'. From here Mike and Beave were looking to do Koppen Mountain, but since I had already been up that one, I chose to explore up the ridge line to Point 6260' which from Esmeralda Peak is the red colored hulk SE of Big Boulder Creek. From De Roux Creek the ascent is straight forward and only a minor cornice remains at the top. The ridge is an easy walk along grassy slopes. Near the top there were 3 or 4 "stacks" about 6' high, that could have all been the high point I was looking for. As I walked along I climbed up each one of them just to make sure. Finally, I reached the end of the ridge where once again it began to drop off. I sat atop the last stack, crunched a cliff bar, and waited for a view of Koppen, Beave, and Mike. It never came, in fact, the clouds thickened and the rain became too heavy for my liking, so I left the way I had come. For the return I decided to walk the ridge as far as I could. I hurried my way along thinking that Mike and Beave were probably getting close to being off Koppen, until I came to Point 5631'. Good views into the adjoining valley from here, but I didn't stay long. I descended the high point north directly down to the creek. Just before reaching the creek I picked up our foot steps from on the way in and also found Mike and Beave's steps leading toward Koppen. Once I picked up the main trail again I soon realized two things. 1) Mike and Beave were still somewhere on Koppen, no big deal. 2) I was unfortunate enough to get "Freshiez" all the way back to the truck. More often than not, "Freshiez" are a good thing when skiing or snowboarding, when hiking on horse trails they are a very bad thing. About a mile before the trailhead I passed 15 horses, so you can just imagine how many "Freshiez" I came across! For the day I walked roughly 9 miles and gained 4500'.