[rockitbiker]

Gilbert Peak 8184 ft (8201 ft BM) 21 miles 4300 ft

Gilbert TOPO

I have been wanting to get up Gilbert all summer and this past weekend was my opportunity. I had originally tried to make it an organized over nighter, but the weather forecast messed that up, so luck would turn it into a surgical strike under clear and sunny skies. Without anyone to join me for the hike, I turned my plans into a solo attempt for Labor Day weekend, but a friend showed up at the cabin last minute Saturday and laid out a plan for a day hike the next day and the plan was set. We woke up at 5am Sunday and fired up the coffee and went through our bags one last time. After some quick breakfast, we were on the road for the 20 minute drive from the cabin to the Conrad Meadow trail head.

Conrad Meadow free range country

The weather was perfect with the sun still below the Divide Ridge to the east of us. We threw our packs on are were off in a flash at 0630. It didn't take long before we ran into our first bit of wildlife, well I suppose not too wild since they will be steaks shortly. After scaring off a few herd of free range cattle we soon had the trail to ourselves. The trail is in great shape due to all the horsemen that travel it and brush it out. That does make for some dusty trails though, but we figured if we kept moving fast we would leave the dust behind us which worked good for Jeff, but I did get my share of the black nuggets.

Gilbert from Conrad Meadow

Gilbert on the way up the Loop Trail

Surprise Lake

The loop trail came quickly and we made the choice to go left up to Surprise Lake. Again the trail on the loop was in fine shape and easy to travel at a good rate of speed. At about 5000 ft we ran into some tasty crop of ripe huckleberries, but didn't stay long as we had some grand plans for the day. Once at the lake, we took our first break and got our bearings for the plan of attack to get to the Klickton Divide. We opted to run with Beckey's route which basically gained the Divide right after Surprise Lake.

The start of the Klickton Divide

Following the Beckey route or is it a goat track

The goats build good trails

Just shortly after the lake we ran into another large alpine meadow which ran all the way up the east end of the Divide and that is where we set course. We found as many goat paths as we could grinding our way up the 1000 ft that it would take to gain the Divide. I was quite amazed at some of the highways the goats have carved up there which made our course pretty easy. It definitely is the land of the goats even though we never saw any, we saw plenty of goat sign. Finally after an hour we finally ground out the last bit to be amazed with spectacular views of Adams and St Helens as well as Gilbert and the Tieton Valley. Quite awesome.

Adams pops out on the Divide

St Helens in the distance

Looking back from where we came

Once on the Klickton Divide, it was just a case of following the meandering ridgeline which had a pretty well worn boot and/or goat track in it. The ridge was long and felt mostly level the entire time, yet we were gaining elevation slowly as we kept approaching Gilbert. The views of Gilbert just got more impressive the closer we got and the views around us were pretty outstanding on this sunny day. It wasn't until the last hundred feet of the climb that we finally ran into the class 2 scrambling for the summit, a short 20 ft climb on rotten rock with sandy footsteps. I am planning on dust broom the next time to brush off the steps, but other than that it was pretty exciting to finally make the climb I had been thinking about since getting a cabin in the area.

The Klickton Divide goes on and on

The Buddha cairn

Hiking the weathered Divide

Looking down on Warm Lake with Surprise in the distance

Another half mile to Gilbert

Jeff showing off the true summit

Hanging on the summit block

Goat Citadel, Big Horn, Ives and Old Snowy

Mt Rainier

Cold Lake and Conrad Glacier

We were pretty excited to be making the summit at our turnaround time, 5 1/2 hrs after starting, but that didn't leave us much time to relish it and off we were. The downclimb over the sandy rotten scramble took some care but after that, the dusty trail provided a nice cushion for the down hill steps. For the exit, we planned on continuing the loop trail by dropping out through Warm Lake and then down to the rest of the loop, a short mile from where we left it before. The drop into Warm Lake was pretty exciting as we decided to skip the text book route and just do some scree skiing down to the lake. The sandy soil again made it a pretty fun drop of 400 ft to get to the lake from the Divide.

The Meade Glacier

Looking back on Gilbert

Scree skiing into Warm Lake

Warm Lake

Tieton above Warm Lake

Meadows looking down to Surprise Lake

Once down at Warm Lake, we decided to fill out water bottles as the sun had been sucking the moisture out of us most of the day. When I dropped my filter into the lake I could instantly feel why the lake got its name and had I had more time, definitely would have jumped in for a swim. After getting properly hydrated and some food on board, we started scouting for the best route to drop onto the trail below. It didn't take long to find another goat trail and we just made our way down at a goat's pace until we ran into something that was too big for a goat track... yeah back on the Loop Trail. From the maps we had, it looked shorter to follow the Loop Trail on out and back to the junction at the South Fork of the Tieton, but boy were we wrong . When we got to the point that the trail was supposed to drop, we found the horsemen had redesigned the trail and put in the switchbacks from hell . They easily traveled a 1/2 mile just to drop 100 ft of elevation, which might be good for some mule going up, but were were tired packers wanting to go down. Well being good stewards, we stayed on trail and toughed out the extra mileage with dreams of cold beers back at the truck. The last few miles on the way out started to become a blur as the hot dusty trails had started to make my feet feel like fried ground beef. By the time we got back to the meadows, even the cows had taken cover to chill in the hottest part of the day. We were both quite excited to be back at the truck 10 1/2 hours after we had started this adventure and too find that the beers where still there in the cooler and never tasted so good . What an awesome day to be out in the woods even though it was a quick one.

Continuing the Loop Trail

Sunny skies still in Conrad Meadow

[RichP]

Nice TR. This is one I hope to do this year. Thanks for the reminder.

[Tag Man]

Nice report! Impressive mileage too. Thanks for sharing.

[Tazz]

thats some distance for a day trip. Good stuff. I love warm lake. That is the route we did 8 yrs ago...up to warm lake climb gilbert and then back out via warm lake. Thanks for the report. Cold lake looks really cloudy this year. it is usually that teal color if i remember right.

[puzzlr]

Good description of the whole hike -- not too many on this peak. I'm not sure I would have been as responsible as you on those horse switchbacks.

[Magellan]

Great TR!

[kbatku]

got to make it that way soon