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| View Southeast from Windy Peak |
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| Grapevine Springs |
On Tuesday, our advanced hikers climbed Windy Peak from the Cottonwood Valley side. This group is really good at writing their own blogs and taking their own photos. In fact, today we had two narratives with photos offered by hikers Larry D. and Jerry T. Coordinator, Mike OC also gave us one photo from the descent. So, without further ado, here are both renditions of this advanced hike. Take it away Larry and Jerry!
Narrative I: Today, on a strenuous Tuesday hike, fourteen
avid Friends completed
an out-and-back trip from a high-clearance road trailhead in the
Cottonwood
Valley to the summit of Windy Peak in the Rainbow Mountain
Wilderness. The weather
was sunny, cool, clear, and
breezy from time to time – a perfect day for a fall hike!
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| Climbing the Dirt & Rock Trail to the "Football Field" |
The hike – about 3.7 miles round trip, but
with about 2,500
feet of gross elevation gain – was an alternate to the Club’s
regular route to
Windy from Highway 160 across the limestone ridge to the
sandstone escarpment.
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| Checking the GPS at the "Football Field" |
From
the Cottonwood Valley, the route gains the
summit via a route that approaches the sandstone escarpment from
a trailhead at
about 4,100 feet on the Cottonwood Valley floor, rising
generally northwest directly
up the major canyon that lies southwest of Windy Peak.
The first segment crossed a large wash and
typical Red Rock desert. It then
climbed a loose, Class II gravel-and-rock
“trail” to an interim saddle at about 5,000 feet.
From the saddle, the route
dropped about a
hundred feet, then became a mostly Class III scramble -- first,
up through
boulders and a little brush in the canyon bottom; then, on
sandstone slabs and
ledges, west up the right-hand side of the canyon wall; and,
finally, after a switchback,
a climbing traverse east across more ledges and steep slab to
the summit at about
6,250 feet.
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| Approaching the Ramp |
By the time
the hikers
reached the summit, there was sweat on most brows in spite of
the cool morning,
but smiles on the hikers’ faces!
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| Contemplating Different Routes |
Returning to the cars, we essentially retraced our route
up, walking
gingerly down the steep slabs and, later, loose gravel and rock. Coordinator Michael
O’Connor made a special detour
so that we’d pass right by a fenced-in spring! ~ Larry
Narrative II:
Fifteen very fit hikers met at Dunkin Donuts for our "crazy" Tuesday
hike. Today we would try going up the east face of the escarpment
instead of the easier albeit longer route from Mountain Springs to Windy
Peak. We managed to find the correct dirt road off of state route 160
and started driving towards our parking area. We started off down a very
visible and cairned trail which wound its way near Grapevine Springs.
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| Are we there yet? |
We reached the ridge where the path switchbacked steeply up through
loose rocks and dirt noting it would be hard coming down. Next came
the large flat area near the steep cliff faces which has been named the
Football Field.
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| Yep! We're there! |
Instead of following the track from two years ago we
followed a well marked route which went up close to the cliffs. This
route avoided a lot of bushwhacking and also has a section of steep
sandstone slabs which were easy and fun to scramble up. At this point
we spied two sets of rock climbers climbing in a well known area. We
continued up the route and were surprised at how well marked the route
was with cairns.
We reached a wash and at this point the group decided to break up into
three smaller groups each one wanting to do something different. Our
small group followed the path of least resistance (and the most cairns)
as we reached the summit. The
weather and views were beautiful at the top, a stark contrast to last
Thursday at the same summit when it was cold windy and so foggy you
couldn't see anything.
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| Descent |
On the way down the conversation turned towards
bears and the story of the bear encounter in Glacier National Park was
once again told. The bears seem to get bigger and scarier as time goes
by. ~ Jerry
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| Reaching the Floor |
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