Mt. Wilson ... From the Back - 11/9/11

Entry sent in by John S.

We were to do Wilson on Sunday Nov. 6; but this day the dark clouds decided to bathe the mtns with a slightly white storm. So today, Wed. Nov 9 was the perfect sun-shiny day to recapture our lost trek.

Since we had already done Wilson from the front via First Creek, the intention now was to re-attain the summit from the back- via Lovell Canyon Rd. The one person (Paul) who had done this gave us the GPS approach coordinates and warned us it was going to be tough.

' Let-it-Be'!
(at least it was doable :-)

Of the initial tough party of four, two just decided to brave this trek- Steve & j*S. After finding the dirt road that led to the possible trek-head (note - no established or semi trails here), we followed washed out drainages, heading in the general direction for the ridge that hid Wilson.

At the ridge, we saw Wilson beckoning far away beyond a steep cliff drop-off.

There was but one way to get to this charm- drop steeply down for hundred(s) feet and then traverse the steep hillside and then steeply climb up another hundred(s) feet to another ridge which would then easily lead us to the summit.

But--- steep cliffs on all-sides could possibly dead-end our way! Did we hesitate? Nah - what is untried is always none-doable.

So down we steeply plunged looking for non-cliff traverses to the other high ridge. Somewhat tricky at some tricky places. At last we arrived at the highest Queen of the RedRocks in less than 3 hours.

A brief snack and then on back. But now being experienced (not wiser)!, our way out was- follow ridge, steep down, a nicer higher traverse, steep up and finally follow a better gully to the car, ----> quite tough but do-ably easier.

We will repeat this 7 mile hike for those 'toughies' who missed our adventure in the next earth's flower-time awakening. To me, it's easier than going up the boulder hopping strewn First Creek approach.