A
AlpineSummit
Guest
I’m having more fun with her round that I did with my own…….
Again we pull into the Garden doubly early and snagged us a spot to park the rig: the parking lot gods are smiling on us again. Bueno! The weather gods were good to us also, somehow lending a break in the horrendous weather of late. It didn’t RAIN. Everything was drenched out there tho, especially the campers we ran into. Lean-tos had clotheslines strung up inside with hopelessly soaked laundry, yellow slugs were all around too – I grabbed a tree and accidentally squished one,,,,,,,yuck. The slick trails & rocks with mudgrease on ‘em made the going interesting most of the day. 2 miles into our hike the Mrs. went down hard, a near face-plant! Gawd, did I wanna laugh, but couldn’t because she ripped up the knee some. Blood galore, gushing from an angry, swollen red welt. But we rubbed some more mud on it and we couldn’t tell if it was still bleeding that way, so she was good to go - Hell, I didn’t get up at 4am for nothing. We got blue skies? We’re hiking. Besides, she’s on a mission and she’s tough.
Ouch!
Slant Rock came pretty darn fast today – 2 hrs from the Garden. Yea, we were kwik.
While we munched there, we met up with some folks we’d seen on our Haystack day, 3 weeks prior. They’re VFTT’ers – but ‘lurkers’ (boo, hiss) and they too were gonna climb Basin and left a few minutes before us. Anyway, I had verbally prepared her for Shorey’s. I talk to her a lot while hiking and it bugs her somewhat. This is revenge for all of the times I’m pre-occupied and she won’t quit yakking to me. Anyway she really liked ‘the shortcut’ – Not. So I told her a little more of what was in store for her, as Basin is a difficult mountain to climb. Anyway, she was in for the ride now and so I started conning her for the walk over to Saddleback too. Told her that ‘real’ 46’ers do it and reminded her that Saddleback is one of her favs………. By the time we were at the Range Trail jct she was hooked and I was just reeling her in.
Oh but Basin is a good climb tho, and it took some of the starch outta her legs to summit that big bad boy. But she got there - #45.
45'er
That was where proper summit basking came into play. Ya can’t teach this folks, it’s an ‘experience thing’. After a good dose of rejuvenation, she was ready for the trek. We bid adios to the lurkers and implored them to come out of the shadows and step forth into the light. BTW, Basin was very busy this day – at least 15 climbers in & around the summit. We set out for the east side for our descent into the col Basin shares with Saddleback – What a view that is, dominated so by Gothics! Deeeelicious….
Impressive geography
That’s not exactly a gentle ride down either, highlighted by that spectacular ledge that drops into oblivion.
Watch your step!
The col itself is very sweet as it’s filled with varied wildflowers and the softest/thickest moss this side of Herbie Brook or Couchee.
Thick moss
We took our time here with Saddleback and its’ challenging ledges towering over us.
Saddleback summit
The climb up is slow and strenuous and not to be hurried, even a little. This is one of the few places that hiking from points A to B can really get you badly hurt or worse – No missteps allowed here!
Looking danger square in the eye
Somewhere along the way disaster struck tho: she lost her dorky red North Face cap. Oh Nooooooo. We saw some guys headed in a reverse direction and offered them a reward to mail it to us. True to form, the guy is a 46’er who said “Nah, no reward. One 46’er to another is all – I’ll mail it to you” Cool. Anyway, the climb up took some more steam out of her but she’s game and soon bellowed a ‘Yea BABY’ from the top as I followed close behind.
Plenty of lingering time on top – of course – and dueling snoozes, and we were ready to bring it on home. Quickly descending to the Gothics-Saddleback col we reached the Orebed Brook trail. EGADS – what has happened to THAT? The top 1/3 is very ugly and in need of some major work. We were amazed & aghast at how bad that’s gotten in the last few years. Anyway, we soon reached John’s Brook where I made a little boo-boo. Thinking that the Southside trail would be such a joy to walk out on, we took it with me breaking trail for the Mrs. You ask, ‘how does one break trail in August?’ – By being the first in line and catching all of the thick cobwebs in your face, that’s how. Ever try to get cobwebs outta your teeth? But then ten minutes later we saw a sign proclaiming that the bridge at the Garden end is out too? Confusion reigned for a bit – Would we be able to ford down there? I was under pressure now! Mrs. Alpine tolerates no navigational screw-ups…….. So, arm in arm – ahhh, what a pretty picture that conjures up huh? - we forded the raging John’s Brook just downstream of the DEC outpost. That woke us up as we were mid-thigh in the drink. We took the Phelps trail out to the Garden where the truck (and cooler) awaited us. Mrs. Alpine licked her wounds while enjoying her traditional jar o’wine, with #45 safely in the bank!
The tradition
So, 45 peaks into her round now, she stands poised and on the brink of her final summit. Watch out Dix Mt. – the Mrs has a date with you now!
PS – Okay now, who was gullible enough to buy that ‘2 hours to Slant Rock’ BS? Gotcha!
Again we pull into the Garden doubly early and snagged us a spot to park the rig: the parking lot gods are smiling on us again. Bueno! The weather gods were good to us also, somehow lending a break in the horrendous weather of late. It didn’t RAIN. Everything was drenched out there tho, especially the campers we ran into. Lean-tos had clotheslines strung up inside with hopelessly soaked laundry, yellow slugs were all around too – I grabbed a tree and accidentally squished one,,,,,,,yuck. The slick trails & rocks with mudgrease on ‘em made the going interesting most of the day. 2 miles into our hike the Mrs. went down hard, a near face-plant! Gawd, did I wanna laugh, but couldn’t because she ripped up the knee some. Blood galore, gushing from an angry, swollen red welt. But we rubbed some more mud on it and we couldn’t tell if it was still bleeding that way, so she was good to go - Hell, I didn’t get up at 4am for nothing. We got blue skies? We’re hiking. Besides, she’s on a mission and she’s tough.
Ouch!
Slant Rock came pretty darn fast today – 2 hrs from the Garden. Yea, we were kwik.
While we munched there, we met up with some folks we’d seen on our Haystack day, 3 weeks prior. They’re VFTT’ers – but ‘lurkers’ (boo, hiss) and they too were gonna climb Basin and left a few minutes before us. Anyway, I had verbally prepared her for Shorey’s. I talk to her a lot while hiking and it bugs her somewhat. This is revenge for all of the times I’m pre-occupied and she won’t quit yakking to me. Anyway she really liked ‘the shortcut’ – Not. So I told her a little more of what was in store for her, as Basin is a difficult mountain to climb. Anyway, she was in for the ride now and so I started conning her for the walk over to Saddleback too. Told her that ‘real’ 46’ers do it and reminded her that Saddleback is one of her favs………. By the time we were at the Range Trail jct she was hooked and I was just reeling her in.
Oh but Basin is a good climb tho, and it took some of the starch outta her legs to summit that big bad boy. But she got there - #45.
45'er
That was where proper summit basking came into play. Ya can’t teach this folks, it’s an ‘experience thing’. After a good dose of rejuvenation, she was ready for the trek. We bid adios to the lurkers and implored them to come out of the shadows and step forth into the light. BTW, Basin was very busy this day – at least 15 climbers in & around the summit. We set out for the east side for our descent into the col Basin shares with Saddleback – What a view that is, dominated so by Gothics! Deeeelicious….
Impressive geography
That’s not exactly a gentle ride down either, highlighted by that spectacular ledge that drops into oblivion.
Watch your step!
The col itself is very sweet as it’s filled with varied wildflowers and the softest/thickest moss this side of Herbie Brook or Couchee.
Thick moss
We took our time here with Saddleback and its’ challenging ledges towering over us.
Saddleback summit
The climb up is slow and strenuous and not to be hurried, even a little. This is one of the few places that hiking from points A to B can really get you badly hurt or worse – No missteps allowed here!
Looking danger square in the eye
Somewhere along the way disaster struck tho: she lost her dorky red North Face cap. Oh Nooooooo. We saw some guys headed in a reverse direction and offered them a reward to mail it to us. True to form, the guy is a 46’er who said “Nah, no reward. One 46’er to another is all – I’ll mail it to you” Cool. Anyway, the climb up took some more steam out of her but she’s game and soon bellowed a ‘Yea BABY’ from the top as I followed close behind.
Plenty of lingering time on top – of course – and dueling snoozes, and we were ready to bring it on home. Quickly descending to the Gothics-Saddleback col we reached the Orebed Brook trail. EGADS – what has happened to THAT? The top 1/3 is very ugly and in need of some major work. We were amazed & aghast at how bad that’s gotten in the last few years. Anyway, we soon reached John’s Brook where I made a little boo-boo. Thinking that the Southside trail would be such a joy to walk out on, we took it with me breaking trail for the Mrs. You ask, ‘how does one break trail in August?’ – By being the first in line and catching all of the thick cobwebs in your face, that’s how. Ever try to get cobwebs outta your teeth? But then ten minutes later we saw a sign proclaiming that the bridge at the Garden end is out too? Confusion reigned for a bit – Would we be able to ford down there? I was under pressure now! Mrs. Alpine tolerates no navigational screw-ups…….. So, arm in arm – ahhh, what a pretty picture that conjures up huh? - we forded the raging John’s Brook just downstream of the DEC outpost. That woke us up as we were mid-thigh in the drink. We took the Phelps trail out to the Garden where the truck (and cooler) awaited us. Mrs. Alpine licked her wounds while enjoying her traditional jar o’wine, with #45 safely in the bank!
The tradition
So, 45 peaks into her round now, she stands poised and on the brink of her final summit. Watch out Dix Mt. – the Mrs has a date with you now!
PS – Okay now, who was gullible enough to buy that ‘2 hours to Slant Rock’ BS? Gotcha!
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