The Sikes
Member
The weather was perfect...cool breeze, temps lower than the normal hot, skies were blue. We decided to do these instead of the Sewards/Seymour because of the rain both of the previous evenings.
The trails were fine...no real mud to speak of (can't believe I said that about NY
). We went from Ausible up the road to the end and hit Sawteeth first. The trail was less washed out than I remember but still had those huge rocks you need to climb that I didn't care for the first time I did them.
The walk up Panther is just up, up, up...lots of slabs but very pretty when we hit the summit. I laughed at one point because there is a big slab you climb and if you look to the right, there is a dead tree ...it looks like it's there to catch you if you start sliding down the slab. haha. The breeze was chilly at the summit. We actually had to put our jackets on to sit up there. We stayed a bit, had a little bit to eat and then headed to Gothics.
You think you climbed a lot when you get to Panther until you start to climb down and up Gothics and look back. It makes Panther look tiny. The views from Gothics were still beautiful. There were a bunch of white sacks of rocks up there waiting to be put around. Matthew asked who brought them up. I asked if he was volunteering. haha. While we ate, there was a friendly mouse that was almost to my boot before I saw him that was scrounging around. He was quite large...very well fed from the look of him. After just relaxing and eating some more, we headed to Armstrong.
Another drop and climb....more slabs and we were there. We just tagged this one and kept going.
Going over to Upper Wolf Jaw was messy. It looks like it had a rough time since I was last there. Lots of down trees...most were freshly cut and cleared. The ladder was rotting at the top and missing a rung but we still were glad we had it to get down that section. We made it to Upper Wolf Jaw and just enjoyed a ranger telling us the peaks and just chatting. It was very nice. We could see the "bump" we had to go over before we reached our final peak of the day, Lower Wolf Jaw. After relaxing for a nice long while it was time to head out again.
Down, up, down, up...haha. We could make a song. The last 1/2 mile up Lower Wolf Jaw seemed to take me longer than you would expect but we got there and had the summit all to ourselves. We enjoyed the views that were peaking out from the trees and listened to a bird that was flying around. It was quite peaceful and relaxing. As I sat there, I was thinking of all we had done that day and how much fun we had and all we saw. I felt blessed and thankful that my son enjoys hiking with me and that I could share this with him.
All we had left was down hill from here.....We still had plenty of daylight left and were taking our time just enjoying the day out in this beautiful range.
Down we went. We stopped at Rainbow Falls and put our feet in. That felt so good. The falls were pretty but there wasn't as much water as you would usually see. Still beautiful though. I saw a mink on the way down. I was so shocked thinking, "What is a cat doing out here?" Then it stopped to look at me and I thought, mink!!!! I tried to grab my camera as quickly as I could but my son made a noise and the mink took off. Felt so privileged to see that little guy.
We made it back to the road and the last walk out. Saw a deer there. Met a couple of nice people and chatted on our way out which took our mind off the long flat walk. We were ready to take off our boots for the day. We had a great day with beautiful views.
The trails were fine...no real mud to speak of (can't believe I said that about NY
). We went from Ausible up the road to the end and hit Sawteeth first. The trail was less washed out than I remember but still had those huge rocks you need to climb that I didn't care for the first time I did them.The walk up Panther is just up, up, up...lots of slabs but very pretty when we hit the summit. I laughed at one point because there is a big slab you climb and if you look to the right, there is a dead tree ...it looks like it's there to catch you if you start sliding down the slab. haha. The breeze was chilly at the summit. We actually had to put our jackets on to sit up there. We stayed a bit, had a little bit to eat and then headed to Gothics.
You think you climbed a lot when you get to Panther until you start to climb down and up Gothics and look back. It makes Panther look tiny. The views from Gothics were still beautiful. There were a bunch of white sacks of rocks up there waiting to be put around. Matthew asked who brought them up. I asked if he was volunteering. haha. While we ate, there was a friendly mouse that was almost to my boot before I saw him that was scrounging around. He was quite large...very well fed from the look of him. After just relaxing and eating some more, we headed to Armstrong.
Another drop and climb....more slabs and we were there. We just tagged this one and kept going.
Going over to Upper Wolf Jaw was messy. It looks like it had a rough time since I was last there. Lots of down trees...most were freshly cut and cleared. The ladder was rotting at the top and missing a rung but we still were glad we had it to get down that section. We made it to Upper Wolf Jaw and just enjoyed a ranger telling us the peaks and just chatting. It was very nice. We could see the "bump" we had to go over before we reached our final peak of the day, Lower Wolf Jaw. After relaxing for a nice long while it was time to head out again.
Down, up, down, up...haha. We could make a song. The last 1/2 mile up Lower Wolf Jaw seemed to take me longer than you would expect but we got there and had the summit all to ourselves. We enjoyed the views that were peaking out from the trees and listened to a bird that was flying around. It was quite peaceful and relaxing. As I sat there, I was thinking of all we had done that day and how much fun we had and all we saw. I felt blessed and thankful that my son enjoys hiking with me and that I could share this with him.
All we had left was down hill from here.....We still had plenty of daylight left and were taking our time just enjoying the day out in this beautiful range.
Down we went. We stopped at Rainbow Falls and put our feet in. That felt so good. The falls were pretty but there wasn't as much water as you would usually see. Still beautiful though. I saw a mink on the way down. I was so shocked thinking, "What is a cat doing out here?" Then it stopped to look at me and I thought, mink!!!! I tried to grab my camera as quickly as I could but my son made a noise and the mink took off. Felt so privileged to see that little guy.
We made it back to the road and the last walk out. Saw a deer there. Met a couple of nice people and chatted on our way out which took our mind off the long flat walk. We were ready to take off our boots for the day. We had a great day with beautiful views.
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