[Sadie's Driver]

What are friends for, anyway ? Show no mercy ! Too bad, driver, that you've been gone two weeks. Get your sorry a$$ moving and up that trail! Well, so the plan was to assault Jolly. The cast of characters included Middle E and Opus - who met the driver and Gus at the 65th P&R at 7:00 a.m.; and Trail Pair. We ended up right behind them just outside of lovely Ronald, Wa. Note: the road is clear all the way to the Sno Park parking area - but it ends there!

Road closed at Sno-Park

But wait, there was Two Dog Dad and the lab-a-doodles waiting for us at the trailhead! What a surprise. Then, pulling up right behind us were a couple more NW Hikers who were heading to Jolly, too. Jack's Mom and Shadow, with (duh) Jack!

Gus' new friend, Jack

Gus had a new buddy! They had a great time - for a while.

Gus

Knowing that Jim K was still nursing a bum knee (from these same "friends" who showed no sympathy for him on Iron Peak last weekend!) - we were fearful this would be (perhaps) a "pointless" trip! But, fortunately, Jack's Mom (Chris) stepped right up even before leaving the parking lot!

Chris immediately fills in on the pointing requirements

Of course, no trip is complete with this group without a few map and GPS checks.

Map consultation

Undaunted, up we started, just a little before 9:00 a.m. It was a beautiful morning, and quite mild (about 45 degrees).

Heading up road from parking area

We decided to stay on the road for a while - until the second switchback - before heading up through some trees to cut off a lot of the road and shorten the distance.

Chris coming up towards intersection with the road

We intersected the road . . . and, you guessed it time to check the maps again and get a few "pointers."

Map check

Barry with another map check

GPS and map check

Pointing substitutes

We reached an interesting, broad, flat area that could be either a meadow or a swampy area when the snow melts.

Heading across large meadow

We crossed this and headed back into the trees to continue or cut-off of the road and the switchbacks. At a fork in the road - one branch heading straight and one heading up, we chose the upper route and soon cut up-slope to head toward the ridge. Here's where we decided to put on snowshoes, because progress was getting tough. This was a steep climb and we would cross the road a couple of times.

Barry and Bob heading up steep slope towards ridge

K, Two Dog Dad David Behind

When we reached one of the crossings of the road, we stopped for a quick snack . . .

Bear's Breast

Barry with Lake Cle Elum behind

Gus' current best friend . . .

but, unfortunately, at this point, Jack and Boonie had a bit of a discussion about "manliness" - and Jack took exception to Boonie's advances. Well, a pretty intense dog-fight ensued. It was at this point that we split routes with Chris, Scott and Jack and our motley crew continued our trek straight up, while Jack's Mom (Chris), Shadow (Scott) and Jack stayed on the road.

Bob and Kolleen on steep slope with gorgeous views behind

The steep route up finally brought us to a ridge line - probably the summer trail between Jolly and Sasse. We headed north to a point where we hit the Jolly summer trail and the ridge that heads east.

Another trail intersection on ridge

David, Barry and Gus at start of ridge

Views from start of ridge

Ridge we will run

Some great views from here.

Ingalls and clouds

The ridge was easy enough to follow to a point where you drop down a little on the south side of the ridge and then head north and east to another ridge.

K coming up to ridge

Jolly in our sight

We stopped for lunch just before we had to drop a couple hundred feet from the ridge to reach another ridge that would take us up to the summit of Jolly - which still looked quite a ways away!

Our destination - Jolly

It was about here that I began to think that a summit was not in my future today . . . my legs were like rubber. Although the snow had been pretty good - a little sloppy lower down, but not too bad above 5000', I was whooped and whining was becoming a viable option. We headed down the slope a little and reached another junction

Another junction with Sasse Mountain trail

where we headed south towards Jolly and the final 500' of climb.

Heading to summit

Barry, David, Bob and Gus heading to summit bump

Bob and K with Gus at summit bump

Barry and David on ridge up to Jolly summit

The views were glorious -

Gorgeous view to the North/Northeast

We all reached the summit and Bob asked me, "Did you bring the wine?" Oh yes, I had a fine whine all worked up and ready to go! A vintage year. But, alas, I had to admit that this was a pretty cool vantage point and probably should just keep my whines to myself. We figure it took us just a little more than 5 hours to get to the summit - in all, we would travel close to 15 miles today and climb about 4500'. Here are some views from the top.

K, Bob and Barry on summit (looking north)

Opus inspecting lady bugs

Driver and Gus on summit

David on the summit wind break

From summit of Jolly - sign to Yellow Peak

Group on summit of Jolly

We stayed on top (with no wind and it was warming up considerably) for about 40 minutes before heading down. About a mile down from the summit, we ran into two skiers - they had started out about 20 minutes before we did in the morning, but took a different route up - they were headed to Jolly. Their descent would be a bit quicker than ours, but it only took us about 3 hours to get back to the cars.

Barry and Gus heading out - nice view ahead!

Nikolai with a quick butt slide

Pooped puppies

A fabulous day to be out - and a good 50 degrees cooler than where I was the same time last week!!! Ok, ok, so they kicked my butt up to the summit, even poor Gus was exhausted - - - it was all he could do to eat his dinner and then stumble up to bed But it was a great day with good friends. A good work-out; no real hazards, but be prepared to burn a few calories!!

[JimK]

Looks like you folks had a great time. Sorry I missed it.

[Yet]

Fun reading!

[puzzlr]

Way to keep it going there at the end. That is a long and tiring route when you have to start at the river.

[Middle E]

[Opus]

What a great trip! Even more amazing - a trip I suggested actually succeeded! We all remember the disasters of North Mountain, Big Snow, and Snow lake. It was indeed a Jolly mountain. All you peak-encyclopedias go nuts on the labeling! Trip photos

GPS tracks

Go dogs go

Gaining the ridge

Blue skies

Tired

Ridge bump

More peaks

Final push

Views

Views

Summit ladybugs

Peaks

Peaks

Peaks

Long way to go

Traversing

Cornice

Pooped

[Sadie's Driver]

[Middle E]

[gone]

Look at all those shorts and short sleeved shirts - yeah! Great pics - looks like it was a lot of fun!

[Shadow]

[TrailPair]

We were happy to go to work today to rest!!! Here are another half dozen photos.

Fortune, Mt. Stuart

Driver and K

Driver near the summit

Opus and Middle E pointing

Bob on the summit

K on Sasse Ridge