[ragman and rodman]

A 3 day/2 night backpack trip in the Teanaway Area. Day 1: We hiked the Stafford Creek Trail for 6 miles to Navaho Pass (6000')... where we picked up the County Line Trail and followed it east for less than a quarter-mile and set up our base camp at ~6200 feet just south of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness boundary. Day 2: Loaded up our day packs and returned to Navaho Pass... then stayed on the ridge and followed a good path up to the summit of Peak 6658. Leaving 6658 we found a good path that led us down to a saddle (~6500') that separates the Scatter Creek and Hardscrabble Creek drainages... where we connected with the County Line Trail... opting to follow it down into the Hardscrabble drainage... where the trail immediately loses 500 feet of elevation before beginning to contour around the drainage... always staying between 5800 and 6000 feet for roughly 1.5 miles over to the Volcanic Neck... where we found a good path that led us around the SE side of the Neck and on over to Devils Head (6666'). It was still early so we decided to try and follow a gnarly-looking ridge from the Devils Head summit out to Point 6417. We didn't have any beta on the best way to get over to 6417 and this turned out to be a very time consuming adventure... and we were forced to abandon our attempt at 6345 feet... and while we were within spitting distance of reaching 6417, the terrain would have demanded at least another hour of our time to touch the summit... not to mention the hour it would have taken to get back to the spot where we chose to turn around. For the most part we traced our steps back to base camp... choosing to save some ground and needless elevation gain in a couple of places... (1) opting to traverse 200 feet underneath the summit of Devils Head as we worked our way back to Volcanic Neck, (2) taking a more direct line from the east side of Volcanic Neck down to the County Line Trail and (3) choosing to skip a return to Peak 6658 by staying on the County Line Trail and following it back to Navaho Pass. Day 3: With our base camp being only a 1000 feet below the summit of Navaho Peak, it would have been a shame to not run up there... so that's what we did... except for the running part... as I crawled the .75 miles to the summit (7223') while the others simply meandered their way up... treating it as if it were a morning stroll in the park. After enjoying the summit views for 30 minutes we hiked back to camp, packed our gear and made the 6 mile hike back to the car. Stats, thoughts, photos and GPS tracks: Day 1... TH to base camp... 6.1 miles, 3206 feet of elevation gain Day 2... day hike to 6658 and Devils Head and back to camp... 7.8 miles, 1995 feet of elevation gain Day 3... base camp to Navaho summit and back to camp... 1.6 miles, 1020 feet of elevation gain. Day 3... base camp to car... 6.1 miles, 94 feet of elevation gain Total trip... 21.6 miles, 6315 feet of elevation gain Photos, trailhead directions and downloadable GPS track of our trip to Peak 6658, Devils Head and Navaho Peak. The County Line Trail from the Scatter/Hardscrabble saddle over to Volcanic Neck was surprisingly easy to follow... and while faint in places, there were lots of cairns. If anyone ever has a desire to go from Devils Head out to Point 6417, I can provide some additional thoughts on the subject. --

[wildernessed]

I think Hit the Trail mentioned he ran into you guys up there. I remember those early season hikes up Stafford Creek.

[HitTheTrail]

[ragman and rodman]