Scrambling towards the summit
We wanted to scramble 8464' Hoodoo Peak in the
Chelan Sawtooth Wilderness. It would be a long drive from Seattle, so
we decided to make a weekend trip out of it and visit the town of
Winthrop on the way. We left Seattle around noon on Sat., taking the
northern route via the North Cascades Highway. We arrived in Winthrop
around 5 pm and checked into our room at the Cascade Inn (we
managed to get the last one during the busy holiday weekend). We then
walked around downtown Winthrop and had a very relaxed dinner. We'd
been to Winthrop only once before, 5 years ago in the winter, so it
was interesting to experience the town in the summer bustling with
activity (relatively speaking that is).
The next day we got up at 5:30 AM and quickly dressed and packed up. We
drove south on US 20 to the town of Twisp and had a hearty breakfast
that included French toast and yummy sausages. We then drove
south on SR 153 about 11 miles to Libby Creek Road, continued to FS
Road 43, to FS Road 4340, to FS Road 700, to the trailhead. The roads
were in very good condition (just don't get suckered onto one of the
spur roads-we did and the poor little Saturn got her underbelly
scraped), but we were limited in speed by the occassional deer and the
many cows grazing along the roadside (one calf was very
interested in the car and wanted to run along with it). We started
hiking the trail at just after 8 AM. We followed the trail for about 5
miles to an abandoned cabin at 7100'. We then left the trail and hiked
west past a little pond and bog, heading towards the base of the
boulder fields on the southeast side of Hoodoo. We stopped for a quick
snack and changed into boots and then started up Hoodoo. We traversed
first to the climbers left until we skirted some slabs and
then angled back to the climbers right and made our way slowly towards
the summit. The last 500' involved a lot of manuvering around very
large boulders and a tiny bit of nonexposed class 3 terrain. We reached
the summit at just after 2 PM. We spent some time on the summit signing
the register, taking photos, and just enjoying the beautiful summer
day. We knew the descent would take us just as long as the ascent, so
we
soon started down, at around 2:30 PM. We found a more direct way down
than up that
involved just a little bit of downclimbing class 3 slabs and were at
the base of the peak soon enough. We had just run out of water so
we quickly made our way to a water source to filter and fill up (we
recently bought a filter since my OB's office did not recommend
drinking iodinated water). We then found the trail again and stopped to
change back into trailshoes. The hike out was long and we were attacked
throughout by mosquitos (lots of inchworms on the lower part of
the trail also). They especially liked Steve this time (he had over 20
bites on his head alone). We arrived back at the trailhead at 6:45 PM.
The total distance was 11 miles
and the elevation gain was 4500'. It was a fun scramble (mosquitos
aside)
in a quiet area (there was only one car at the trailhead and we didn't
see anyone else all day) and nice for us to visit a region new to us
on the east side.
We took the southern route, stopping for dinner in
Wenachee, over Blewett and Snoqualmie passes, and arrived home at
12:30 AM.
Scrambling towards the summit
Elain scrambling on the southeast side of Hoodoo
Steve scrambling on the southeast side of Hoodoo
Elain on the summit of Hoodoo
Steve on the summit of Hoodoo
View from the summit
View from the summit
View from the summit
Cabin at 7100'