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Joined: 29 Jun 2004 Posts: 4399 | TRs | Pics
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Tue Sep 01, 2020 6:07 pm
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The Riverside Baker (aka "the hubski"), and I celebrated ten years of happy hiking and tied boots by taking (what else?) a backpacking trip!
We drove alllllllll the way to Big Hill Camp, a former lookout site. The FS says there's a campground there. Really, it's just a cabin with bunks, one picnic table, and an outhouse. There isn't room for more than 2 vehicles up there - three max. When we arrived, two guys had staked out the picnic table, but we were able to find a nice flat spot for our rig. We got there in time for a lovely sunset over Lake Chelan. It was peaceful up there.
Lake Chelan from Big Hill cabin available for hunters our private view spot bring your guitar pick bunks inside the cabin at Big Hill
The next day, we moved the rig down to the trailhead and started hiking to Pyramid Mountain with our overnight packs.
What a great trail! It runs the west ridge of the Chelan Mountains, and it's pretty easy traveling, never getting that steep. It had nice views of Glacier Peak and the Entiat. Every once in a while, we'd get a nice peek of Lake Chelan. We kept our eyes on a fire which was to the west of us.
smoldering fire Glacier Peak pleasant trail down to the east of the ridge, a nice meadow and basin peek-a-boo of Lake Chelan
We finally found a camp in the bend of the ridge below Pyramid, between two water seeps. As a backpack, this could be tricky later season due to water not being so plentiful. We were lucky to find a small bit of running water.
After we dropped our overnight gear, we continued another 1,500' up to summit Pyramid Mountain. What a magnificent treat! We could see the Enchantments and Stuart, Maude, Seven Finger Jack, the Gardners, Hoser-mean, the North Cascades, and a nice portion of Lake Chelan. We could also see the route we took a few years ago up Prince Creek to Star/Courtney across the lake. Lots of larch trees in this area. I enjoyed seeing Tiffany Mountain waaaay on the horizon and recalled our trip there last year.
Cardinal in the distance. heading up to Pyramid Pyramid Mountain Glacier Peak Hubski sends out In-Reach Lake Chelan looking south to Lake Chelan pano from Pyramid marker, Pyramid Mountain looking west - you can see the Monte Cristos from here artifact benchmark from benchmark to Chelan
We checked the summit register for fun entries. Sure enough - we saw Action Betty and Wildernessed's entry from several years prior. Made me think of my ol' pal and how I miss her.
Hola, chica!
We lounged around for a long time, checking Peak ID and poking around for old lookout artifacts.
Then we headed back down to camp. We barely had enough water to pump and clean off a bit. No bugs, and complete solitude. No views in camp, but quite pleasant.
The next day, the hubski wanted to hit a few of the peaks we passed enroute, namely Graham Mountain and Crow Hill. The weather was heating up, so we packed up early. When we got to spots on the trail that were closest to the summits, we just scrambled up. The terrain was open and easy. Graham Mountain's summit was really wonderful and scenic. Great views of Chelan.
pretty snag happy hubski hiker
Crow Hill had some nice views too - though ladybugs were quite active, swarming around. Lots of evidence of camping up there.
veiw from Crow Hill
My guess is that this area gets a lot of hunters visiting during deer season. As it was, we had complete solitude our whole trip. Perfect for our 10th Anniversary!
It amazed me that I have lived here for 20 years and never visited this area. I always thought of it as a dry ashtray bc of fires. I'm glad I was wrong. It was quite lovely and for solitude it was great. Not sure I'd want to be up there during "high hunt" - whenever that is.
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