6/19, Sunday, cloudy. Baldy-B loop (the purple lollipop on the map).
O picked me up in Tacoma ~9:20am. We drove to Upper Dungeness TH. Only ~half dozen cars on this misty Sunday.
Ate and loaded food in my bear can. I wasn't able to attach it to this backpack, so carried it in my arm.
It's only ~1 mile walk to our camp, at the junction of Royal Creek and Dungeness River.
Pitched our tents south of the bridge. Elevation ~2650'.
With a much lighter pack, we started towards Baldy (6806'). Follow the regular Royal Creek trail for a little bit, and then go up steadily through trees, until suddenly, ~400' later (~1:20pm), we popped out onto this decommissioned road. Looks quite nice now that grass has taken over.
Turn left and follow the road (Upper Maynard Burn Trail) for another easy 400' elevation. Now the trail goes up, quite steeply for ~1200'. Saw many fairly slippers along this section. All along, no water. At ~4800', the grade eases, snow on trail. Need to be careful at times, as the trail sometimes traverses steepish slopes and it's under snow.
Finally (at ~5600', a little before 3pm) we broke out of the trees onto a meadowy gentle slope with creeks running (easy crossing), and glacier lilies popping out. Would be ideal to come here in 2 weeks (more lilies, less snow). Our view was obscured by thick clouds.
Before we reached the next trail junction (still in snow), we took to left, and started going up to West Baldy in snow. Then go down on its west side, along the ridge, and then up another bump, and finally about 3 "peaks" more of less the same height. I don't know which one is the Baldy. No geo marker, no summit registry. On the ridge, we saw some Douglasia blooming.
Back to the buried junction. We decided to continue east on the ridge, loosing elevation. Even though lower, it was covered with snow for awhile.
Once the grade goes up, we saw the trail. Followed it all the way to the base of Peak B. Scrambled up to Peak B (6119'). Fairly easy from the west. The peak is consisted of many rugged rocky teeth.
I like this peak more than Baldy. We scrambled over a couple of these rock points, and headed down southeast, which is a little loose.
We hit the trail, which goes to Tyler Peak. We caught the Tyler Peak Way trail going down.
Clouds cleared a little bit on our way down, so we had a little bit of view beforing going into the woods again. The trail is well made, all the way to the road. No car at this TH (bad road?). Take another decommissioned road (Lower Maynard Burn Trail). Immediately, crossed Mueller Creek (the biggest crossing of the day, not hard). Connect to our original trail, and back to camp. 7:40pm. All day, except at Dungenous Trail, we didn't see a soul.
I didn't bother to bring a stove. Instead, I brought real cooked food. Soaked quick oats for breakfast tomorrow.
6/20, Monday. Mostly sunny. Mount Deception attempt.
We started out shortly after 6am, because Decelption is far. The climb starts at Royal Basin, which is ~7 miles away.
As soon as we crossed the bridge, I got misled into a trail along the creek side, wasted a few minutes.
Reached Lower Royal Meadown ~8:30am. A lot more water this time of the year. There is a land slide before this (with multiple down trees piled together), which took some time to get over. See this log, from water to water. Quite a few muddy sections.
But all along, the trail is snow free and easy to follow all the way to Royal Lake.
Arrived at the lake at ~9am. Met a couple hiking out. I took a break up some camping spot. O continued.
We took to the right of the lake. Soon, more and more snow, and I lost the trail quickly. Using GPS map to guide me, and finally broke out on to the meadow (now snow covered) below the Upper Royal Basin.
I reached Imperial Pond at ~10:20. Quite pretty now with a blue ring.
Continue! I could see O ahead.
I didn't follow her. She's in the pink circle on this photo to the left.
I was planning to go up more to the right (see the right pink line), because it looked easy from afar.
The climb was getting steeper and steeper.
By the time I reached my pink line, it was on a very steep slope, and was still far below the ridge. I traversed towards O's track, one slow step at a time, because all on very steep slope, with rocks here and there. Thankfully, the snow was sticky, not too soft that you sink completely. That traverse took me maybe a full hour.
I got on to the rocky ridge at 2pm. Too late to continue.
Saw a track on the other side (see the pink line), towards Mt. Deception.
I thought it was O, and decided to wait for her here.
(Later, O told me that she got on the ridge at ~12:30, but couldn't find a safe way to descend the rocks onto the snow towards that track.)
I took off my wet socks and boots, set them on the rocks to dry, taking pictures of both sides. After an hour, I decided to return.
Going down is scary. Nothing is stable. So I packed up crampons, and tried to glissade, punching ice axe deep into the snow to slow down my slide. I stopped very often so the speed couldn't pick up. After an agonizing hour, thanks to the soft snow, I was safely back on the basin floor, with bleeding hand and red snow. I didn't feel the pain because of the cold snow. As I was typing this blog 10 days later, the scratch is still not healed).
Nothing interesting to report on my way out, except that I met a couple camping at the lake. Saw no one else all day. A few minutes before I reached the camp (8pm), O was heading in to look for me. We couldn't figure out how is it possible that we didn't see each other. Packed up, walked to the car. By then, it was 9pm. We decided to sleep in her car and drove out the next morning. She has a Suburu Forester. The back seats fold down, and all is completely flat. For short people, this works very well.
O didn't want to drive to Tacoma again (a small detour for her + a toll), so we agreed to drive to Olympia. There's a bus running once an hour, and I may make the 8:09 bus, if I hurry. I drove very fast, but got a speeding ticket:( As we pulled into the bus stop, O went to the bus and planted herself at the door, while I retrieved my pack and wet boots from her trunk. The bus ride was smooth. At Tacoma, I was able to stop the Seattle-bound bus as it was pulling out of the station. Got back at home ~10:40am. O arrived home at more or less the same time. She sent me a txt: my gaitors fell out of my bag and was still in her car. What a day!
