Elain on the summit
We were looking for a hike with a short driving
time
and settled on Mount Defiance. This hike is accessed from exit 45 off
I-90 (follow road 9030 to 9031 to the Ira Springs Trailhead). We
started hiking the well-maintained trail
at 11 AM and followed it for about 90 minutes to Mason Lake. We
continued past the lake and headed, now on snow, towards Mount
Defiance. We lost the summer trail so just continued traversing through
the forest at about 4200' towards the south side of the mountain. We
encounted quite a bit of blow-down so were making slow progress. Steve
finally got fed up and just started going up the steep dirt slopes. The
forest thinned out a bit, making the going more pleasant. We continued
upward and eventually emerged into meadows on the south side. After
some unpleasant traversing on dry brush, we managed to intersect the
trail. Yah! We took the trail to the summit, reaching it at about 3 PM.
It was a beautiful sunny day and we enjoyed the views of the
surrounding I-90 peaks and the lakes down below. We then had a late
lunch in a bit of shade below the summit (we hadn't encountered
anyone since down near Mason Lake) and started down the trail at about
3:30 PM. Eventually, the trail followed a forested ridge partway and
then dropped down to the snow-covered north side. Since I only had my
trailshoes, we decided to stay on the mostly snow-free ridge. As we
descended, we encounted more dense brush and more talus, but it never
got too terrible (better than the route we had taken up). We finally
reached the basin near Mason Lake and rejoined the hiking trail. It
felt good to be on the established trail again, but we were both tired,
so it was a slow hike out and we reached the trailhead at 7 PM. The
round trip distance was 12 miles with
3400'
elevation gain. The great news from this hike was that the
removal of Steve's femur handware in April 2007 seems to have
eliminated the hip pain he'd been feeling when hiking uphill after
recovery from his femur fracture (the doctors had only
given a 30% chance of improvement).
Elain on the summit
Steve on the summit
View of one of the lakes from the summit
View of some of the surrounding peaks from the summit