Operation: Mountain Goat. Smoky Mountains Three Peak Link Up. July 5th 2014.

Partners: Deez.

Stats: Lots of miles, lots of gain/loss.

Peaks Climbed: Backdrop Peak 10,099. Baker Peak 10,174. Peak 10,137.

Gear Notes: Standard Overnight kit and food for 4 days, 3 nights.

Operation: Mountain Goat.  Objective: Base camp at Ocalkens Lake in the WCP's.  Potentially climb a total of 7 peaks over 4 days.  Operation aborted - New mission improvised.

Heading up the trail past the Hoodoo mine and hot spring.

We had originally planned to hike into Ocalkens Lake in the White Clouds, stay 3 nights and climb as many peaks in the vicinity as we could.  Sounds like a grand idea, right?  My research reviled that the trail to Ocalkens Lake was no longer maintained and possibly difficult to follow, but I knew that others had successfully made the trek, so I figured we could too.  Arriving at the trail head at the end of Slate Creek Road on Friday was easy enough and that would conclude the only easy part of the day.  We set out about noon with packs loaded up for a three night stay at the lake, only to find what apparently qualifies as a trail to be, for lack of a better term, non-existent.  Well, okay, the trail very well could be there, but we lost it after a few hundred yards. There was a large amount of dead trees and downfall laying over the steep canyon side where the trail was supposed to be.  That, in conjunction with large washout's and lateral cutting ravine's told us that we were not going to Ocalkens Lake today.

It reminded me of an old Lou Whittaker saying: Just because you love the mountains doesn't mean the mountains love you.

We changed the play and went for Hoodoo lake which sits about 2 miles up another trail.  Getting to Hoodoo lake was a two hour effort in itself and in the heat of the day, it was hard work up the steep trail. Plenty of downfall and washouts made for difficult hiking with heavy sacks.  We made it up to the lake and were greeted by an Entomologist's wet dream.  More bugs than you could shake a trekking pole at, and plenty of them with wings.  Large black ants that could have carried us away, had we been foolish enough to turn our backs to them long enough to let that happen.

WCP 3 above Hoodoo Lake. 

I was eyeing WCP's 1 and 3 that sit just above the lake.  Maybe we would stay at Hoodoo Lake for two nights.  After dinner and some discussion, we chose to pack out early the next morning, before the day heated up.  We decided on heading to Baker Lake and getting on some Peaks in the Smoky Mountains that seemed reasonable to navigate without a map.  Note: the only maps I had were of the peaks near Ocalkens lake; secondary options seemed to be slim.  The next morning was already really warm by 8 o'clock and there were enough bugs out that we skipped breakfast and coffee.

Just a few obstacles along the way. 

This was my first trip into this area, so I have no basis for comparison, but I'd say nature is doing a find job of reclaiming it.

The Hoodoo mine has several abandoned buildings.  WCP 1 in the background.  

We got through the steep 2.2 mile hike with our packs that were loaded for two more nights and were back at the car with the goal of getting though Stanley early in the day, before it got super crowded.

Stanley + 4th of July = lots and lots of super important people that are in one heck of hurry for some reason.

I promised Deez a lake.  We go to Baker Lake.  

Okay, Operation Mountain Goat: 2nd Edition.  Baker Lake for two nights and attend to some unfinished business from last year; Backdrop peak, Baker Peak and what I thought to be Big Peak at the time that turned out to be Peak 10,137.  A nice and long ridge traverse to link up three 10ers was on my mind.

The wine is fine and just in time.

We thought we were set up for a two night stay at Baker lake, but more on that later.  We were just glad to be chillaxing and got our sip on. Baker lake was significantly less buggy and we were happy about that. Hey, we don't have to eat dinner in the tent!  Happy happy, joy joy.

The night was very warm, as was the night before.  I spent most of those nights on top of my sleeping bag.  The observed overnight low was 63F.

The next morning was overcast, breezy and cool.  Quite a stark change from the last few days.  With peaks on my mind, I left our camp about 11am.  I didn't have a map but I felt fairly comfortable with my plan. Gain the ridge; climb peaks.

East ridge from Baker Lake. 

Just south of Baker Lake, I hopped on the ridge that leads up to Backdrop Peak.  Class 3 and very fun.  I was happy just to be climbing.

Pillars over Baker Lake. 

Backdrop Peak has a rocky outcrop that is what you see from Baker Lake, but that isn't the actual summit.

Peak 10,137 on the left.  Baker Peak on the right, 

From the lower east ridge, I could already see a reasonable route shaping up.

This ridge to that peak, that ridge to the next peak, that ridge to that peak. How the heck am I going to get back without climbing every peak twice?

Baker lake.

Rock pillars. 

Looking east from the first pillar.

I was only brave enough to scramble out onto the first of the two pillars over the lake.  Class 3 because you should use hands; exposed like a mo-fo.

Summit of Backdrop peak.

The ridge bends west and the summit of Backdrop came into view.

Backdrop Peak. 

I hit the top in an hour and a half from camp.

Ridge to Baker Peak. 

Surveying the ridge to Baker Peak looked a little tricky but it stayed class 2.  I bypassed most of the rocky outcrops on the west side (climbers right) of the ridge.

I have yet to use my Google machine to figure out what these are. Granolas' hand for scale.

Baker Peak. 

I still hadn't decided on going for a third peak, but Baker looked to be within my sphere of acceptable risk.

Baker Peak. 

Fun ridge, class 2, but I suppose one could argue a point to rate it class 3.  Hands optional.

Weather station on Baker peak. 

Baker Peak has an interesting summit.  Several pile of talus, one is the obvious high point, another has some type of weather station on it.

Close up of the weather station.

High point of Baker Peak. 

Naturally, I had to get on top of the tallest pile of rocks.

Baker Peak.

The highest talus pile on Baker. 

K-Spar.

Beautiful granite talus made salmon-pink by the potassium feldspar, or K-Spar for short, adds to the unique character of the area.

WCP's. 

Overcast skies made for flat lighting in most distant pictures.  Still, Castle Peak is obvious.

Wild flowers were in full ka-bloom.

I was in radio contact with Deez at the lake, and after topping out on Baker, I had decided to go for peak 3 of the day.  At the time, I thought it was Big Peak.

Not a bad idea, just very committing.  This meant I would have to re-climb Baker Peak at the least and possibly Backdrop as well to reverse my route and return to Baker Lake.  I had my eye on an alternate escape, but I chose to decide which route I would take until the decent.

The ridge between Baker and 10,137 is class 3 in places while sticking to the spine of the ridge.  One can avoid the fun stuff by staying on the west (climbers right) side of the ridge, but the spine is more direct and way more fun.

USGS marker. 

Summit of 10,137.

I figured the key to pulling this whole trick off would be to move quickly and efficiently.  That's a nice way of saying I had only taken a total of 30 minutes of rest.  I made the summit of 10,137 at my turn around time of 3pm.  Summit time was short lived.

More talus. 

Peak 3 and windy.

Short video from the summit of Peak 10,137,

The wind was a steady 20mph, gusting more with a slight drizzle, but that's why Snoop Dogg brings an umbrella.
Deez had told me camp was rainy and windy.  Hmm...

Shooting for the notch on the escape.

I had planned to return to camp by 5pm, so clearly, I had my work cut out for me.  I was able to bypass some up-and-down on the ridge and shooting through this notch gave a nice shortcut.

Looking up through the notch. I would rate it class 4. Steep and loose.  

I still had to pretty much go up Baker again, to gain the saddle on the north side.

Escape route led across the left hand side, Above the trees, below the talus. 

From there, I was able to cut across the upper part of the valley and over the ridge that sits to the south of Baker Lake.

Cairns made by someone marked a good route. 

There was some steep side-hilling and more talus hopping but it was way better than having to go over Backdrop Peak again.

A beautiful spring provides new life.

I got back to camp about 5:15 and that's when the real weather started; rain and 40mph wind.  We didn't feel like sticking around to see if the weather was going to get better, worse, or stay the same. It is only 1.7 miles from the lake to the car.  Had we been 7 miles from the car, we would have been riders on the storm.

One night at Baker Lake meant we carried out another days worth of food.

After the fire that burned here, the nutrients released have provided a magnificent wild flower bloom. We are just happy that despite the WCP's epic fail, we were able to salvage the weekend.

One night, three nights, however many peaks; it does not matter. Being out is being out.  Be flexible, be resourceful, be resilient and keep your game face on. 

Happy trails!

- Granola, out.

Annual Father's Day Hike. Possible First Ascent of Peak 9863 aka Bronco Peak. June 20-21, 2015.

Partners: Deez and Ian (has yet to adopt a trail name).

Stats: 5 miles one way to the lake. Approx 2 miles round trip from the lake to the peak. 1,100 feet of elevation gain from the lake.

Route: South ridge, steep class 2.

Gear notes: Good food and a new 4 person tent.

Lists of John: Peak 9863 on Lists of John

Idaho: A Climbing Guide by Tom Lopez. Peak 9863 (Bronco Peak)

Ian "I don't like my picture taken" Cox standing tall in front of Peak 9863, aka Bronco Peak.  Note his choice of shirt.

Around here, Father's Day means two things.  First, it means absolutely nothing.  I still work, cook, clean, mow the yard, etc, like any old day and I'm fine with that.  Second, it means that I get to choose a hike and those who are present can't give no for an answer.  I'm okay with that too.  Last Father's Day was a bit of an epic.  For this Father's Day, I decided to step up the game just a tad and do an overnight hike with a peak.  Mountain climbing is only limited by two things; imagination and physical ability.  Since my imagination is over active and my physical ability is, well, able, I needed to choose a hike that would be within reach of the whole gang.  I was looking for a short hike to a lake for a camp and a short class 2 peak around 10,000ft.

Prairie Creek Peak caught my eye and seemed to fit the criteria, however, upon further research, I found a peak that had no ascents logged on Lists of John.  I figured that a shorter peak and a possible first ascent seemed like a logical goal.  And off we go!

Of course I was plagued by the vacation curse at work prior to this trip, just like always.  After getting home on Saturday morning, I would have rather slept for about 6 hours, but there was adventure to be had. Working in EMS teaches you a few things; one of those is that functioning on 2 hours of sleep is normal, 10 hours of sleep over 3 days is fine and when you have a trip planned, don't waste time sleeping; there is time for that later.  We had done a partial pack over the few days before, but still had a few loose ends to tie up.  With the car packed and the check list complete, we headed out of town for our trip.

Trailhead #Selfie.

We arrived at Prairie Creek Trailhead about 3:30.  I did a less than stellar job of loading my pack and we just wanted to get going.  Warm temps with the occasional breeze felt more like late summer.

I figured 5 miles to Prairie Lake, the sign indicated less.  Another version of this story may or may not say it was longer.  They can remember it how they want to; I'll remember how it really happened.

It was a 5 mile hike to the lake; yes it was up hill, that's all I will say.  There was also some hum-bub about how long it would take.  Geologic time includes now.

Ian leading the way.

I remembered the trail to not be too steep as far as we went up it last year, from a climb here last August.

Looking west, up the canyon.

Yes, the trail does go up hill and as usual, the hardest part is just before the lake.  Deez would say I'm overly optimistic and she is probably right.  But when I say "It's close" I mean it and I'm usually right.  The effort required to reach the lake ended up being a bit more than I had wanted for Deez and Ian, but it really wasn't that bad.  We were happy to reach the lake and found a really nice camp site at the south end.

Deez enjoying the views from near the outlet of Prairie Lake.

The Smoky Mountains are short but rugged, comprised of highly fractured metamorphic rock.

Prairie Lake.

We hit camp in 2 and a half hours, pumped water from the inlet, set up the tent and got to work on dinner.

We are somewhat fanatical about eating well outside.  For this trip, we did chicken quesadilla's.  No dehydrated meal's.  We prepped, planned and had super delicious food.

Deez approves of my concoction.

If there had been other people at the lake, they would have been drooling.

Chicken Quesadilla's.

Melting cheese on a tortilla is fairly self explanatory.  I won't give up my recipe or method for the Mexican Chicken Rice, but I will say this; I used a freezer bag and the instant kind.  Wink-wink.

The deer were quite comfortable with us chilling in there habitat.

After dinner, we had a nice established fire pit at our camp site.  Since we didn't bring dog, we had visitor's that we normally wouldn't have. They came in quite close.  We laughed as they circled our camp several times.  After a nice camp fire session, we called it a night.  It was very warm throughout the night and into the next morning.

We didn't get up too early since we had a relatively short climb.  Deez had made Banana Bread the day before we left and that's what we had for breakfast.

Our new 4 person tent was very roomy for 3.

Prairie Creek Peak.  10,138ft.

Working our way up to the saddle wasn't too hard and we soon got a good look at our peak.

Castle Peak.

Shadow Peak on the left.

I finally got a decent view of Shadow Peak and Prairie Lake.

The west ridge of Peak 9863 didn't look too bad and our excitement grew more and more with each step we took.

From the saddle, the hiking was fairly pleasant and the obstacles were few.

The north point of 9863.

There are two high points on the ridge and from the view below, the more prominent of the two appears to be the point to the north, but the north and south points are equal in elevation per my altimeter and GPS data.  The USGS map also identifies the south point as the peak.

Prairie Creek Peak.

I really wanted to hit Prairie Creek Peak, but I was not going to take Ian up it, and I was not about to leave him alone.  It would have to wait for another day.

Looking up the West Ridge.

There are goat trails that criss-cross the ridge.  The steepest part is at the top where the occasional use of hands was needed to aid in balance through the fractured rock.

Ian getting his rest step on.  Decent form, I'd say.

I taught Ian all about rest stepping and pressure breathing.  Slow and steady!

Nearing the top of the West Ridge.

Nearing the summit, looking north.

After the climb up the west ridge from the saddle, the route turns north to the summit.

The summit is in view in the trees. 

We saw goat poop and no signs of previous human occupation.  The views off the ridge were awesome in every direction.

Pioneer Mountains.  DBE is on the left.

Summit view, looking south.

Looking back on our route, it was easy to appreciate this beautiful area. I had told Ian that there is usually cell service up here and if there was, we would call Grandma to tell her where we were.

Ian: Hey, I have service!

Me: Haha, I told you.  Put Grandma on speaker phone!

So that's what we did.

Summit view, looking west.

We did plenty of looking around to make sure there was no trash, etc. There was nothing except the rocks, goat poop and Pika's.  No goat's though, so that was kind of a bummer.

Summit view, looking north.

A short journey to the north point revealed no signs of previous human occupation and an equal elevation to the south point.  So we christened it Bronco Peak, and Gator Point.

The West Ridge from the summit.

The North Point.

Prairie Creek Peak looks steep and mean from this angle.

Norton Peak.

Looking north.

Prairie Lake.  Looking northeast toward the Boulder and White Cloud Peaks.

We Woo-hooed from the top and Deez later told us she could hear it. That's pretty cool!

Summit View, looking southwest.

Looking north.

Bronco Peak came from Ian's unwavering love of the Boise State Bronco's.  Gator Point is from Denise's love of her home town team, the Florida Gator's.  Keepin' the Blue and Orange alive!

I took a short video at the top.

Summit Selfie.  

Ian standing in front of the summit on descent.

The summit of Peak 9863, aka Bronco Peak.

We did not leave a cairn, register or summit marker of any kind.  All we took was pictures; all we left was footprints.

Looking down the West Ridge to the saddle.  The trail goes to the left.

Reversing our route down the ridge took a little time because it was steep and loose.  Ian did well and I offered pointers and advice when needed.

Ian actively trying not to smile. 

We joked and laughed our way down the ridge and back to camp.

Goat territory.

This is about as steep as it gets.  Kind of loose, kind of steep, really not that bad.

Prairie Lake from camp. 

 After some snacks and breaking camp, we settled on two things; The Wicked Spud for burgers and The Wrangler for milk shakes.  Heck yes!

Looking down the trail.

It was warm and monotonous work back down the trail to the car.  We had had the lake to ourselves, but we pasted several day hikers going in and out.

Water break about a mile from the trailhead.

It only took a couple of short breaks to keep the spirits and pace up.

My beer stash was just cold enough to drink while we changed clothes and re-sorted our gear.
The work was behind us and we were glad to be in the air conditioned car and heading for some grub. Peak 9863, aka Bronco Peak was a fun little peak and since we didn't see anything to suggest otherwise, I think we humbly made the first ascent.

Google Earth overview of the region.

There was often discussion about sore feet, sore legs, this sucks, etc and I just answered with an old Ed Veisters quote.  Pain is temporary; glory is forever. 

Happy Trails!

- Granola, out.