Wildcat Mountain
Monday, January 21, 2008
So my adventure buddy and I went and decided to go snowshoeing this weekend on Wildcat Mountain, which is about 15 miles east of Sandy, OR. He and I finally have accumulated decent gear - including packs, hydration bladders, a GPS (his), an altimeter (mine), decent gloves, boots, snow pants, jackets, and underclothing. Further, we're in pretty decent shape so we decided to get off the main trails (like Trillium Lake) and adventure around.
He'd done a bit of research and found a road that goes up to a trailhead, which we planned to drive up to, then climb the trail to the peak of the mountain. He'd laid out a bunch of waypoints on his GPS and we'd gone over the topographic map for the area, planning where we'd park, noting the elevations, etc.
What we didn't count on was the road having a nice, official BLM gate across it, just off Highway 26 and many miles short of where we wanted to park.
We therefore did what any two adventurous fellows did and we strapped our rented snowshoes onto our backs and decided to just hike up to the trailhead. We made it about 800 feet up the road and, after ducking under the fallen tree that would have stopped his truck anyway, my friend announced that hiking up this road wasn't much fun. Then he uttered those fateful words, "You know, we could just climb up that hill and meet up with the road again at the top. It's only about a mile as the crow flies..."
Now I couldn't very well disagree. I was game, of course, but looking up the hill I realized we'd have trouble even getting off the road, since it was so steep that the road had been cut into the side of the mountain, leaving an embankment we'd have to struggle over. We got lucky, however, and found a path that would lead us straight up (is lucky really the right word there?) - and up we went.
It took us over an hour just to go the one mile up to the the road. It was steep and exhausting, but fun. Once we made it up, there was enough snow on the ground to justify snowshoes so we strapped them on our feet and continued up. It was quite beautiful up there - and pleasant. With no wind, we both started getting warm enough to justify removing layers, and I ended up removing my jacket and gloves, leaving me in two feet of snow and a short-sleeve shirt.
What looked - on the map -like a road that branched off to the trailhead was in fact little more than a wide path. Merrily we hiked along, enjoying the beauty of the snow-covered landscape. Eventually we reached the trailhead - where we had planned to start from - and ate lunch. We agreed on two things: 1) There was no way the truck could have gone much further than the gate, and 2) we were quite happy with our progress (having been moving for almost two and a half hours) and were content to call this our destination.
The beauty of carrying a GPS was twofold. First, we couldn't get lost (especially since my friend had waypoints for the road already plugged into it), and second, we could examine our trip closely afterward. What I found interesting was the slope of our path as we went up the first part of the hill. While we came down along the road (easier on our knees!) and our trip was essentially about 6.5 miles long, we cut out at least half a mile - if not more - through our "shortcut" and we had a net altitude gain of almost 1700 feet on the way up.
Anyway, it was a fun adventure (especially going off-road) and I look forward to the next outing. Perhaps we'll go geocaching sometime!
He'd done a bit of research and found a road that goes up to a trailhead, which we planned to drive up to, then climb the trail to the peak of the mountain. He'd laid out a bunch of waypoints on his GPS and we'd gone over the topographic map for the area, planning where we'd park, noting the elevations, etc.
What we didn't count on was the road having a nice, official BLM gate across it, just off Highway 26 and many miles short of where we wanted to park.
We therefore did what any two adventurous fellows did and we strapped our rented snowshoes onto our backs and decided to just hike up to the trailhead. We made it about 800 feet up the road and, after ducking under the fallen tree that would have stopped his truck anyway, my friend announced that hiking up this road wasn't much fun. Then he uttered those fateful words, "You know, we could just climb up that hill and meet up with the road again at the top. It's only about a mile as the crow flies..."
Now I couldn't very well disagree. I was game, of course, but looking up the hill I realized we'd have trouble even getting off the road, since it was so steep that the road had been cut into the side of the mountain, leaving an embankment we'd have to struggle over. We got lucky, however, and found a path that would lead us straight up (is lucky really the right word there?) - and up we went.
It took us over an hour just to go the one mile up to the the road. It was steep and exhausting, but fun. Once we made it up, there was enough snow on the ground to justify snowshoes so we strapped them on our feet and continued up. It was quite beautiful up there - and pleasant. With no wind, we both started getting warm enough to justify removing layers, and I ended up removing my jacket and gloves, leaving me in two feet of snow and a short-sleeve shirt.
What looked - on the map -like a road that branched off to the trailhead was in fact little more than a wide path. Merrily we hiked along, enjoying the beauty of the snow-covered landscape. Eventually we reached the trailhead - where we had planned to start from - and ate lunch. We agreed on two things: 1) There was no way the truck could have gone much further than the gate, and 2) we were quite happy with our progress (having been moving for almost two and a half hours) and were content to call this our destination.
The beauty of carrying a GPS was twofold. First, we couldn't get lost (especially since my friend had waypoints for the road already plugged into it), and second, we could examine our trip closely afterward. What I found interesting was the slope of our path as we went up the first part of the hill. While we came down along the road (easier on our knees!) and our trip was essentially about 6.5 miles long, we cut out at least half a mile - if not more - through our "shortcut" and we had a net altitude gain of almost 1700 feet on the way up.
Anyway, it was a fun adventure (especially going off-road) and I look forward to the next outing. Perhaps we'll go geocaching sometime!
posted by Burton at 7:35 PM
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