[ngie]

After doing a mini Tatoosh Traverse the day before, I set out for something a bit quieter/closer to home. Hoping for less bugs on the east side, I went to Merritt Lake Trailhead and set out for Mastiff/Howard. It was late in the day (11~12) and the sun was quite toasty, but there was ample shade so I took my time hopping from shady spot to shady spot. Unfortunately my hope for lack of bugs was dashed pretty quickly -- the closer I got to the Nason Ridge Trail intersection, the more mosquitoes and flies started making an appearance on trail. I was too committed to go back, so I pushed on through the "trail" up towards the Mastiff climber's trail. The toasty conditions made me slow down a ton, but also made the bugs disappear... and it was cruiser climber's trail through the woods, so I was happy for a short period of time. Sadly, they caught up to me on the traverse over to Mastiff via the left hand side (once I got out to the exposed ridge), so I played "whack the deerfly" (ughhhhh... they were so incessant). The heat of the day made the bugs disappear again for a short period of time while I went up the west side of the ridge to the summit, hopping from shady spot to shady spot (I think it was in the 70s/80s -- it was super warm!). Not the best day to be out gallivanting around on an exposed ridge. Fortunately there was a shaded spot at the summit where I could park my butt for a bit and look at the pretty mountains, while whapping at the deer flies that caught up to me again :/. Looking at the way down, it wasn't immediately clear which way to go (I wing stuff a lot on the fly on trail then refer back to guides/GPXes if need be). Poking around I saw a way down to Howard off to the right (north), so I tried to veer right, but the game trails and trees kept on tempting me to go left down to Lake Canaan. I got a bit too far left though and had to course correct by heading right. It was definitely a brushy pursuit in shorts parting the pines like Moses did with the Red Sea (why did I wear shorts again?!), but I occasionally hit boulder fields, which made for super fast travel. I was a bit winded from the heat of the day and tried to slow down/stay in the shade, but the d*mn deer flies and mosquitoes were horrible. I was bitten several times when I stopped for a few minutes; they were eating me alive through my sun hoodie, even though I doused it with DEET-based bug spray. So I pushed towards the shade and potential freedom, using the blocky steps on the north side of the ridge spine. I was beat enough that I sat down in the shade, sprayed my DEET in the air at the mosquitoes, and swatted off the deerflies and horsefly that landed and got a few licks in. Fortunately it was shady later on in the afternoon on the east side of the slopes, so pushing harder wasn't too bad. If it wasn't for the insects, I would have really enjoyed heading up to the summit. It was fun grippy granite, much like the stuff I ran into a few times before heading up Vesper. The rocks were a bit more difficult to deal with on the east side than the west side (standard route), but they were stable, so I was having a good time bouldering in the shade. I finally got up to the summit, peeked around, and HOLY SH*T -- SWEET MOTHER OF MOSQUITOES/GNATS. I was being bombarded by a few swarms of these suckers. I used up the remainder of my DEET spraying at them, but the assholes just kept on coming! I quickly signed the summit register, took the remaining register page (speaking of which -- new summit register and a better writing utensil or sharpener needed!), then ambled my way towards the upper tarn. Seeing as I'd come up from Mastiff, I had no idea which way to go down, so I was referring to my GPS a lot trying to find a way. The bloody goat trails made it exceptionally difficult though and I ended up zig zagging down the ridge looking for bare patches to hop to and fro. I got off course several times and ended up going down some gnarly class 3 gullies and big class 2 steps, then course corrected by heading over to boulder fields. I was pretty tired, so I pointed myself towards the lake and tried following a track that went across the south side. Ran into some marshes and had to hop some creeks. My trail runners got plenty went circumnav'ing the south side of the lake (moral of the story: use the north shore). The Nason Ridge "Trail" around the lake was pretty hard to follow... I went back and forth trying to spot the path while being followed by swarms of mosquitoes and gnats (there was a cloud of the suckers around my head). I finally found it, crossed the outflow from the lake, then speed hiked my way down the trail. When I got to the boulder field I stopped for a minute savoring the peace, eating some food, and drinking some water, then the mosquitoes found me again, and so I continued on down the "trail" until I got to the bottom of the basin, and had to snoot around looking for the trail through marshes, over creeks, underneath brush so thick I couldn't see my feet, and over blowdowns galore. It was quite a gauntlet getting out of the basin and back down to the Merritt Lake Trail. I finally got to Merritt Lake Trail right before sunset, then semi-quickly ambled my way down to the trailhead. I got far enough away from the water sources that the mosquitoes died off and I got a chance to enjoy walking to the sound of chirping crickets, with the trail partially illuminated by moonlight. I even saw a frog (toad?) which was a neat treat to see. It was late enough at night that most of the shops and restaurants had closed in Gold Bar and Index. I stopped at a gas station, grabbed some fizzy water and Gatorade, puzzled by the humans I saw around the gas station. 1 person seemed to be smoking from a pipe of some sort "discretely", while the other person was loitering off to the side of the gas station. Good ole Gold Bar...

- Peakbagger

[timberghost]

If you wait long enough at Goldbar those solicitors will go back to their homeless camps on the other side of the tracks.

[dixon]