Date:
Hike:
Route
Attendees: Matt, Gretchen, Mark, Don, Suji, Angela, Dan
Comments: Nice mellow
hike up to the lake along a wide open trail, a short bushwhack up to the base
of the talus field then ~1,000+ feet straight up (groan!)
GeoCache: No cache this week.
Who are
the Thursday Night Afterburners?
Photos from previous hikes: 2001,
2000
Note: These photos have been reduced in size for Web publication, I have a
complete archive of the full-size high resolution pictures shown on these web
pages. Please contact Me if you would
like one.
Matt's Trip Summary:
Silver Peak was quite a hike last night!
we started from the Anette Lake trailhead (exit 47) and after some brief
confusion with the short scenic-loop tail we headed up the valley on the
main trail. It's about 3.5 miles of very nice trail to the lake, and the
route up to the peak takes off to the left about 300m before reaching
the lake. Don again printed out some great maps for the group - thanks
Don! We looked hard but failed to see anything trail-like before
arriving at the lake so we turned back around, poked around for a bit
and eventually decided that the bushwack didn't look too bad. Suji
displayed her usual wisdom and stayed at the lake for a swim while rest
of us headed off for the summit. 500 ft higher we broke out onto the
talus field. Anyone who's been there understands that this is not just a
talus field; this is a talus field which climbs over 1000 ft at almost
constant gradient, with no interruptions, although with varying rock
sizes. My first thought on breaking out was "WOW! I have GOT to come
back here with Tele-Skis!!"
The I checked the watch; it was already 7:45 and we had 1500 ft to the summit. The afterburner turn-around policy is to stop by 8, rest, and head down by 8:15. Right. heck with the resting, that left 30 minutes for 1500 ft. _Serious_ afterburner time, woohooo! Talus sizes changed from medium boulder (ok) to small rocks (much harder going) and back again several times in the next 1000 ft to the ridge and the first false summit. Great views but I had almost 14 minutes left to clock the real summit, so on up the ridge I went. I didn't find the trail at first and was diving through the trees on the ridge but soon noticed a little foot path on the west side of the ridge and decided that looked like a good plan. 10 minutes and two more false summits later I was on top at 8:10, 5 minutes to rest even! The views were fantastic; clouds were rolling in the valleys accenting the peaks, the sun was getting low so the sky was turning brilliant shades of blue, colors were standing out, and I'd forgotton my camera again. Then the clouds came over to visit, running straight at the peak and then dodging up and over just out of reach. I snatched a handful of cloud for a snack and headed down, collecting the rest of the gang on the summit ridge on the way (except Mark who kept heading up). We just barely cleared the bushwack by dark, and then it was a long hike with final stumble-out time at 10:45 pm.
another friday productivity hit brought to you by the Afterburners :)
All images on these pages are Copyright © 2001 by Dan Scherer. Reproduce without expressed written permission prohibited.