Now how about F. Face was the objective reached?
Well, I finally found the time to do it - TODAY. And, what a day it was.
7:20: on the trail, gale river trail. camped out the night before on gale river road so i could get an early start.
9:00 at jct with garfield ridge, 4.0 miles in.
9:30 at galehead hut. 29F. socked in above 3700'. 4.8 miles.
10:05 at S.Twin summit. Sky was getting bright, so I hung out, and man it was worth it: undercast! watched all the Whites slowly come out from the morning fog/clouds, it was incredible. Rime ice 4500' + , so some of the higher summits had white. I had S.Twin to my lonesome. 5.6 mile marker or so.
10:30 exit S.Twin after getting totally amped up over the undercast, etc.
10:50 picked my spot on the twinway to exit and plunge into the woods. spent 10 mins or so battening down the hatches, getting my compass/map out, orient to true north based on 16 degrees W declination, then computed the heading to SW Twin. decided at heading SW 235 degrees. I do not use a GPS, don't own one, old school map + compass. about 6.3 mile marker.
11:00 plunge-ho!!
12:10 on SW twin summit. Now, anyone who thinks "that was hard" needs to go hit some of the Bitchcocks. I tell you, this was a cake walk when compared. Easy 'whacking the whole way. A few thick areas, but easily avoided by rolling mostly to the north side. generally, stay on the crest of the ridge or on the north side of it . I could not locate a canister, but i am positive i was on SW twin. The trees are not thick at the top, so you can get a 360 degree view through them, and there was no higher place to go westward on that ridge. I took a good break, had lunch, etc. finally started out of there around 12:30. Destination was the rocky little knob along that ridge you can see plain as day from the hut or from S.Twin. what i did to get there was set a bearing from SW Twin to the high point on the ridge, about 45 degrees NE. again, i stayed on the N side of the ridge, the going was easy, easy, easy. Couple of crappy areas, but NOTHING compared to what you have to deal with on the Bitchcocks. Once on top of the high point, i could site the rocky knob - you can't see rocks from where i was, but can see the bulge. I set a compass bearing for that, and it took about 10 mins to get there. guessing about 1.5 miles from the twinway to here, so mile marker 7.8.
13:10 arrival on rocky knob. I agree with the previous poster, the view is very, very nice from there. You get a 360. I chilled for a good 20-30 mins drinking in the sunshine and the view, it was clear as a bell. From the top of it, I headed off the back towards the flat part on the ridge to get past the nasty scrub towards the top, then set a bearing 90 degrees due east for the Twinway.
14:00 on the twinway. Mission accomplished. Mile marker 9.3 or so.
14:30 S.Twin Summit, took in the view again, now 100% clear. mile marker 10.0 or so.
15:15 galehead hut. nice and sunny, no one around. I laid down on the bench "just for 5 minutes" I told myself, and at 16:15 woke up. Ooops, 1 hour nap! but oh did it feel damn good. mile marker 10.8 or so.
16:15 exit galehead hut.
17:57 at car. mile marker 15.6....
the best part of it was the undercast and clearing of the morning fog and the 'whack.
lots of fun!
oh, the woods swallowed one of my visors - it is a black visor with a nike swoosh, if ya find it, lemme know. stole it right off my head and i had no clue!
