[JoeFrei]

Windy Peak Yesterday my friend Fletcher and I drove to the trail head to Windy Peak and car camped at the Long Swamp Camp. We planned an early start up Windy but slept longer than planned. We started hiking at 11 am. We decided to take the Cathedral Driveway trail that quickly meets the Windy Creek tail and eventually meets up with the Windy Peak trail near the summit.

Fletcher ahead

New growth in the old burn

We follow Windy Creek for the majority of the hike through an old burn with big hills all around us. There was a lot of new growth in the old burn. The trail was easy to follow for the whole hike.

Windy Creek

Windy Peak far ahead of us

As we reach higher altitude we started to see golden larch trees all around us. At this point the clouds also began to move in around Windy Peak.

We reached the Summit of Windy Peak at 1:11 pm. We signed the registry at the top. #92 on Washington's Bulger List. This was my fifth bulger peak and Fletcher's 49th. We did not stay at the top long as it was very windy and cold. The summit is at 8,333 feet.

The hike out was mostly downhill and was really a relaxing walk. We saw some grouse and enjoyed the scenery. This was a ten mile roundtrip hike and we got back to the car by 3:10pm. There were a lot of cows on the side of the road on our drive out. We decided to take a scenic drive to the old ghost town of Nighthawk WA near the Canadian border and to Oroville WA. This was really beautiful country to drive through. A fun trip overall.

[Michael Lewis]

Looks like a nice hike. I didn't realize there were so many larches up there. And man, Fletcher, you are knocking those Bulgers out!

[Fletcher]

My days off this week began with a botched attempt at climbing Boston Peak when a storm hovering over Cascade Pass had other plans Monday morning.

doesnt look too bad over Eldorado

storm over the Stehekin Valley

We were back at the car at 9am. I decided I would head east and climb Windy, thinking the weather might be better over there. I split from Adam and Heather and headed east. After lunch in Twisp, I parked the car and took a nap along the Methow somewhere. I woke up around 3pm with lost motivation and decided to be lazy and head home. Back at home Monday night, Joe wanted to go for a hike on Wednesday, "well we could go to Windy.." We arrived at Long Swamp just before midnight Tuesday night. The stars were promising, the forecast for Wednesday was not. We ended up waiting out the rain all morning, and our decision to make mad dash for Windy at 11am was a good idea, as we got rained on hardly at all for the entirety of the hike.

Pasayten snags

Joe + Larch

I want to go to Horseshoe Basin

nice conditions on Windy

Topaz Mountain

summitshot

larch again, probably be peaking (in this part of the Pasayten at least) within a week

Pasayten snags

we had lunch waiting for us at the car

[iron]

wow. those larches sure have turned already! one unsolicited tip for being a bulger list peakbagger: do not do them under bad or questionable weather. i know the list is powerfully addicting and everyone wants to finish, but for these peaks, you really want views and want to enjoy them to the maximum extent possible. there's a good chance you'll not go back for at least half of them, so make it count. i've seen too many of my friends push and push under viewless days and it never made sense to me. YMMV.

[Fletcher]

iron, I get what your saying. But I also think there is a case to be made about enjoying the mountains regardless of what the weather is like. Sometimes when you gamble with the forecast, you get rained on all day, other times the weather is better than expected and you end up having a great trip. I was in the Pasayten earlier this season and we got hit by a big thunderstorm, the storm cleared around sunset and watching the alpenglow on the remaining storm clouds blowing around rugged peaks was one of the coolest things I have seen this year. If I hadn't decided to go anyways, ignoring the 40 or 50 percent chance of storms, I wouldn't of witnessed that. Yesterday on Windy, I enjoyed the dreariness and gloominess in the burned out snag forest of Windy Creek. It was eerily peaceful and beautiful. Watching Topaz Mountain disappear and reappear between low clouds was also a fun thing to watch while we were up high on Windy. It's all about finding enjoyment in whatever conditions you experience, IMO.