A Failure on Whaleback

[dr_wu002]

Sunday concluded Dr. Wu's "weekend with friends" with a trip or, err an attempt up Whaleback of all things with Eric (Barbarossa). It was wet, it was rainy, we eventually found the "Captain Obvious" trail, eventually, but there was no summit today. Just some laughs and a nice good soaking.

In a nutshell, we parked a car at Lincoln Woods and brought the other to a gravel section that looked like a TH on the Kanc (North Side). My map showed the trail starting around here but a description I read online said the parking area was on the "left" side of the Kanc (WTF!?). To confuse it even more, the same description described what to look for to find the trail but remained vague if it was referring to Clearbrook Condos or the Kanc.

Mistake #1: Not bothering to drive around Clearbrook Condos looking for a trailhead. Instead, Eric and I went right into the woods from the Kanc. We popped up into Clearbrook Condos but instead of looking for the trail (Mistake #2) we went back into the woods and headed west figuring we'd bump into the trail.

Here's where things got tricky: I miscalculated how far west we should travel so, (Mistake #3) when we did not hit the trail, I turned us North in search of the feeder stream that I knew ran into Clearbrook, figuring the trail would be near that (Clearbrook). It wasn't and to the best of my knowledge, we may have even hooked up with a stream that wasn't on the map.

We made our way up the ridge (NW) but when things started getting steep and thick (and late) we called it a day. This was supposed to be a half-day hike as both of us had things to do. At this point we dropped down West and in about 15 minutes hit the very well maintained abandoned Osseo Trail which we took out to Clearbrook Condos.

The biggest mistake I made was following pink flagging (probably some kind of property boundary?) that ended up getting us to the trail but not before frustrating us enough to blow the hike off. No matter -- now we know exactly where the trail starts and we'll simply do it again sometime soon.

I guess I learned a few things -- it was the first abandoned trail turned bushwhack that I've led and you're bound to make errors, right? It was still a lot of fun, especially chilling with Eric in the woods. It would have been nice to have summitted Whaleback, but you know the mountain is going to be there tomorrow so learning something in the process was probably fairly worthwhile.

It rained and then it poured but even before that we were soaked from stream crossing and wet brush. Not much picture taking today so I'll leave you with one of friend Eric. Yes, he bushwhacks in sandals. That's hardcore.

-Dr. Wu

 

[arghman]

thanks for the post, better luck next time. If you do end up traveling the section between Whaleback and Flume, PM me... I have a vague interest in doing that but not until I know more about what the terrain is like.

 

[MEB]

Is Whaleback going to be on the Wu-List??? Sounds like you guys a fun time and that's all that matters!

-MEB

 

[Waumbek]

Oh well, as Scarlett said, there's always another day, and it does sound like you had fun anyway. I hiked Whaleback when there was still a trail to it, back in the Ice Age before condos.

 

[sapblatt]

Is Whaleback going to be on the Wu-List??? Sounds like you guys a fun time and that's all that matters!

-MEB

And did you know if it was on the Wu list?
A day in the woods hiking with a friend...sounds quite far from a failure to me!

 

[dr_wu002]

And did you know if it was on the Wu list?
A day in the woods hiking with a friend...sounds quite far from a failure to me!

It wasn't really a failure. "A Failure on Whaleback" just sounded like "A Night in Tunisia" which is one of my favorite songs. Go figure.

It is indeed on the Wu-List, probably Wu-666 but I'm not sure about Wu-1729. The Wu-1729 is going to be the more eccentric of the 3 lists. I have no idea if Whaleback is on Wu-1 list though. I kind of doubt it though as it's just a shoulder peak and pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Just a fun destination.

-Dr. Wu

 

[Double Bow]

If you plan to try it again sometime PM me as well. I'm interested in it too!

 

[MarkJ]

whaleback

Yeah,you gotta go from the condos.Gotta give you credit tho ,goin the long way.From the condos it ends up goin straight up,no switchbacks,then it reaches the col.There,you can bag S Whaleback,sign the cannister,go up to the cliffs of Whaleback for an awesome view.we continued on the old Osseo to Osseo,up to Flume then down to wilderness trailhead.No one would pick us up hitchin,so we walked back to condos...Don't give up on that one,that's a great hike.I might have seen you when I cruised thru Hancock sat nite,you waved,had a good fire goin......MJ

 

[Barbarossa]

One slide on Hancock and the world's your oyster
The summit's a temples but the pearls ain't free...

Sorry, it was too easy.

It wasn't a failure, we just weren't expecting the traihead to be lost in suburbia. Everyone got home in one piece, so all is well. Travelling cross country is fun, even if every branch is dripping.

Dr Wu, do you have any triliium pictures?

 

[dr_wu002]

Dr Wu, do you have any triliium pictures?

Yeah, a crappy one from Friday. I haven't gotten a chance to put the one from Sunday up yet. I think it was worse though:

-Dr. Wu

 

[audrey]

Did you know that South Whaleback is a 3000 footer? just turn right into the woods instead of left when you come to the big overhanging boulder.

A good route to near the top of Whaleback is the slide that you cross before you get to that point.
As a rookie bushwhacker many years ago, I ended up looking for South Whaleback at the high point of Whaleback. Duh! I never even thought that the altimeter reading close to 3800 or 3900 feet would have made it a hundred highest.
The path to the new Osseo appears to be occasionally maintained. We've had clear sailing sometimes and found many large blowdowns at other times.
Bushwhackers will also like going into the cirque between Big Coolidge and Whaleback. We descended Big Coolidge that way once. We also bushwhacked from Lincoln Woods around Potash Knob to Clear Brook once. The woods in there are really pretty.

 

[Double Bow]

How dense is it there?

 

[audrey]

Double Bow,

All the places we bushwhacked weren't too thick. Once you get past the big boulder and the path steepens, there are lots of balsams and also cliffy ledges along the way. Also, when we climbed the slide, to exit to the path (go right at the wall) was pretty messy, but fun. The plateau between Whaleback and the new Osseo is also a tangle of balsams.