[b00]

castle+buck heaven(6887) 6-22 - 6-25-2017

almost to buck heaven

an incredibly beautiful, but for me, extremely painful trip. i've had the photos done for a while, but it has been too much for me to write much about this. fortunately this year, i am so very happy to say, the excruciating pain is just a memory. after the long drive from seattle, we car camped at hozomeen camp. in the morning a mama bear and a couple of cubs did dawn patrol through the campground. i was very optimistic when we started the trip and figured maybe my foot and leg pains would be behind me. the trail went well and it was nice and sunny. nice trails all the way to nightmare camp. once on the other side of the creek we started on the abandoned freezeout creek trail. almost immediately the trail was obliterated by a slide. fortunately matt had been here before and without a lot of major difficulty, he led us through the slide and brush to re-gain the trail. if you don't find the trail, this could be miserable. this trail sees almost no use, yet surprisingly, we saw some very recent footprints. after that, the trail was actually pretty nice until it wasn't. we knew there would be major difficulties crossing down logs on a steep section of the abandoned trail. what we did not know was how lucky we would be - someone had recently come in and cleared some of the more difficult spots. it still was a struggle with overnight packs, but we were very happy it was not as bad as it would have been. thank you! there was no bridge for the creek crossing just before the cabin. thankfully we found an easy way across. the cabin, which has a big paddle lock on the door(to get in, you bend the nails on the lock hasp), is amazing and well maintained. the grounds around the cabin have a large well stocked wood shed, comfortable, with reclining backs, benches, a fire pit. inside is well stocked too - food, lantern, fuel, woodstove, mouse-proof cupboards, bunk beds, shuttered windows, books, magazines, a log book... . one of the nicest backcountry cabins i've been to. carla and matt slept in the cabin and i slept nearby.

in the log book inside the cabin, we discovered the recent footprints belonged to three people we knew - fritz k, richard b and mike t - who were one day ahead of us and were also going to do castle. from the cabin we headed up a vague trail and then headed off trail up toward buck heaven. my left foot and right leg were screaming at me. after 6.5 hours, we had reached buck heaven. since it was only 1:30, carla and matt went and did another peak. i curled up in the fetal position. it was a beautiful spot and after a while of not moving, the pain subsided. if i just rest up and stop pissing off my body, i thought, i could make up castle the next day. getting down from buck heaven was pleasant and i was not hurting too much :>) in the valley, we dropped our packs and made our way up the valley, first through a little brush, toward castle. in the snow we could see the others' footprints. the snow was very reasonable. we soon cramponed up and the snow steepened. we worked the routes and then i found a cool, but steep snow route to the ridge. being in the lead for a while on the moderately steep snow took my mind off my body and was fun. a reasonable transition from steep snow to a few kittie litter covered rocks, some exposed class 3 moves and we were on to the easy castle sw ridge and walked it to the summit. great views! the descent (except for one spot on a steep snow traverse. when it was one of the worst possible places. a place where carla and matt had traversed before me. maybe because my feet are far bigger, one of the foot steps on the traverse blew out big time. fortunately my self-belay and some limbs of a tree worked to stop me - new underwear time!) was a blur for me, as i just tried to focus on moving and not my body. near dark, we made it back to the cabin. what a cool spot! the next day was awful for me and i made the choice of going faster, so i could get off my feet sooner. a rather typical response for me. when i returned to the car, i found a note from r3h: "hey wood! hope castle went well, plus the bonus peaks, i can't wait to hear about it - eric." he left the note after he made his amazing ascent of south hozomeen and a bonus peak as a day trip! crazy incredible! thanks for the note bud! castle was a fair bit of work, rugged terrain and really beautiful! ps - almost 6 months after we ascended castle, we learned that we were not the only ones on the peak that day(yes the other 3 had been up there the day before), but there was another team of two, working a new route, who finished it that day - congrats! quick and dirty route info: from hope bc, take silver skagit road to hozomeen camp. hike trail to nightmare camp, on the w side of lightning creek, the abandoned freezeout creek trail is washed out for ~.25mi. head n along lightning creek .2 and then head uphill e through brush to find that trail that switchbacks east out of the valley. follow trail(not accurately shown on usgs maps) to the cabin at ~3500'(just across freezeout creek.) head up the the freezeout creek trail(as best as you can follow it) to ~4800' and then ascend brush, then reasonable terrain in big trees and more brush to ridge just n of pt 6332, then take easy ridge to camp at buck heaven aka pt6887. descend buckheaven e ridge saddle, and then take path of least resistance down to freezeout creek, drop packs, then up creek and then take snow(moderately steep) up to castle sw ridge, hitting the ridge ~7900', and then hike to summit.

on the freezeout creek trail

camp on buck heaven

near camp on buck heaven with hozomeen, which r3h was climbing behind carla

descending from buck heaven

descending from buck heaven

almost to castle's ridge

near the freezeout creek trail washout

buck heaven

buck heaven

buck heaven

buck heaven

buck heaven

near castle's ridge

castle summit

castle summit

castle summit

castle summit

approaching buck heaven

day one - 12.78 mi 3154' gain 7:58 car to freezeout creek cabin day two - 5.46mi 3637' gain 6:35 freezeout creek cabin to buck heaven summit(camp) day three - 10.06mi 3090' gain 0:28 buck heaven camp to buck heaven/full moon rising saddle 0:53 wait for matt 0:49 full moon rising saddle to valley floor(5360') 4:11 valley floor(5360') to castle summit (including 0:22 take break and drop packs at 5370') 0:26 summit stay 6:28 castle summit to camp (including 0:32 take break and grab packs at 5370') 13:15 day three total day four - 12.24mi 1372' gain 6:25 freezeout creek cabin to car total - 40.6mi 11,150' gain equipment: ice axe, crampons equipment brought, but not used:

our route to castle's ridge

[awilsondc]

Looks lovely! Sorry to hear about the foot and leg pain. Nothing like adding a little (or in this case, a lot of) extra suffering to a long trip. That cabin looks pretty cool too!

[raising3hikers]

thanks for finally posting your TR! cool to see your vehicle at the Hozomeen TH and glad the trip went well for everybody! such a remote area to explore

[Matt]

You forgot to mention that one of us also did Full Moon in the morning.

[b00]

[iron]

at least this fetal position is better than the one you assume with your annual dr. appt. better views for sure.

[cascadetraverser]

Bummer about the foot and leg. Seems like most times a good hike cures most ails but not all. In 1979, I was part of an SCA trail crew camped at Nightmare camp and doing trail work on the trail up to Willow Lake. A Olympic employer/horse packer, Jim Leon, had heard of the cabin and was going there to retrieve a couple of Gerry Cans and brought 3 youngens along (Steve, Eric and I). The trail was clear from Nightmare camp all the way to the cabin although lightly used back even then. When we got there, the cabin felt like we had passed back in time 20-30 years as the cabin had stacks of WW2 era magazines and old sleeping bags and even dated canned foods. It really felt like a time warp and it made quite an impression on my young self. I suspect all that stuff is gone but glad to hear it still stands....

[b00]

[iron]

should've used the food. stefan told me he just made some soup for his parents using canned food from the '70s. and, he wasn't trying to intentionally kill them since he ate it too.

[cascadetraverser]

We were young and hungry but not that hungry! Thought about it though....How does the trail from Willow Lake to Nightmare camp look?? I might need to go back there and spruce it up after all these years!!

[b00]

[Matt]

The trail from Willow Lake to Nightmare camp was in good condition.

[cascadetraverser]

Thanks for the update; I gotta go up there again soon!

[James Kyle]

Hi There, I am very new to this website and this world of extreme hiking. I would like to chat with you about this trip over the phone if you could. Let me know and have a great day! Kyle

[iron]

hollywood only knows extreme hiking.