Heather and I drove the Angles Crest Highway and parked just below Windy Gap. It was 7am when we started up a faint trail. We quickly reached Windy Gap and followed the PCT for 5.4 miles to the summit of Baden-Powell 9,399', spooking a small group of bighorn sheep along the way. Baden-Powell is named for the founder of the Boyscouts. Near the top there was a large Bristlecone Pine tree with a sign. Supposedly "Wally Waldron" is 1500 years old.
Islip alpenglow
happy to be back on the PCT
Wally Waldron
Baden-Powell summit
Boyscouts founder
From Baden-Powell we backtracked along the ridge hitting each highpoint along the way, Burnham 8997', Throop 9138', and Hawkins 8850'. Then we turned left and followed a side trail to Middle Hawkins 8505'. Back on the PCT we returned to Windy Gap and then took the trail up to Islip 8250'. There were remnants from an old lookout as well as living quarters. Unfortunately both benchmarks have been stolen.
Burnham summit
Throop summit
Islip summit ruins
lookout remnants
Islip summit
We came back to the car just before 2pm. Seeing as there were 3 hours of daylight left, we decided to bag some peaklets. Each one was roughly a mile round-trip with about 500 feet of gain. We started with Akawie 7283', then did Winston 7502' and finished on Lewis 8396' just before dark. This was my personal record for most peaks in a day (9) and a nice way to celebrate our 6 month anniversary.
Akawie summit
Winston summit
Lewis summit
Number 9!
The wind storm which was supposed to hit the following day came in early. It was windy as hell all night long and then slowly tapered off in the morning. We took another short-cut to reach the Waterman trail and then hiked over the shoulder of Waterman and down to Twin Peaks saddle. There was a lot evidence of the Station Fire damage along the way. We were surprised to find some giant red cedars near the saddle.
Twin Peaks
giant red cedar
From the saddle we hiked up uncharacteristically steep terrain to the main east summit of Twin Peaks 7761' where I found the first register of the trip. We then followed the ridge over to the seldom visited West Peak 7596'. The summit had a boulder pile requiring an exposed mantle move to reach the top. On top I discovered a tin can with an original summit register from 1967.
our east peak summit entry
west peak seen from east peak
east peak seen from west peak
original 1967 register
We returned to the saddle and then hiked up to the summit of Waterman 8039' named for the first white woman to traverse the range in the early 1800's. Along the way I spotted a lizard in the trail. Heather thought it was a snake. For a moment we weren't sure. It was a lizard imitating a snake. How funny.
fake snake
Waterman summit
The wind was increasing as we enjoyed our last summit and clouds in the sky looked foreboding. Rumor had it a big storm was coming that would affect the entire west coast. Time to head home.
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