We visit the Deer Lakes and climb two peaks at the border of the White Cloud and Boulder range
- September 28, 2008
- Team: Super Dave, JJ
- Summits:
- Peak 10378
- Peak 10488
- 12 miles, 3600' gain, 7 3/4 hours car-to-car
It wasn't until later that I found out that this was JJ's idea, and that fishing was a major factor in choosing Deer Lakes. I thought it was a Super Dave hike, and peaks were the order of the day. But JJ was driving.
We hit the road at 6am, and parked in Germania Creek at about 9:45, hiking up the nice Galena Gulch trail at 10:15.
This is Dave looking up at our major objective for the day, Peak 10488.
The Galena Gulch trail is quite nice initially, with a good tread and mellow grade. It was easy to follow, although it crosses some meadowy areas that might be harder to follow when the plants are tall and green.
As the trail nears the pass, it starts to go straight up. There is one last meadowy area, and here it WAS still a little hard to follow. Then the tread becomes obvious again, more straight up, and you are on the pass. This is Peak 9988, looking sort of back to where we came from.
Dave and I were together at the pass, but JJ was somewhere behind us, having stopped for a nature break and to switch to shorts.
It was about 11:30, so Dave and I sat down and had lunch. That's Gladiator Peak behind him. After a bit, we became worried about JJ- where the heck was he?
We started yelling and whistling, and eventually heard a very faint, very distant reply. Oh well, he'll get here.
This is Galena Peak, which I climbed in 2004 with Julie and Jazz.
After about 45 minutes, still no JJ. Again with the whistling and yelling. Well, we'd better go find him. He had lost the trail and wisely sat down, then had lunch waiting for us to return (while we waited for him to reach us). Well, we were all together again as we hiked back up to the saddle an hour and a half after we originally got there.
Did I mention that the views were nice?
We were once again under way and heading across a bench toward Peak 10378, the highpoint near the center of the picture. This dried-up pond was right next to a lake where JJ and Dave pumped fresh water while I started up.
But the climb was fast and easy, so they were still at the lake when I had already gained the ridge.
A short while later, Dave joined me on the summit of Peak 10378. JJ had instead dropped through the saddle and descended some dicey terrain to try his luck whipping water at the lake.
That's Peak 10488 on the left, above the lakes.
Dave and I replaced the rodent-chewed and empty film canister by using stuff we had in our packs: a map and a plastic container.
Once we were sure JJ was at the lake, Dave and I took a different descent route. JJ was having great luck- I could actually see a fish on his line from about 500' above him. He was reeling in some really feisty Arctic Char, and the water was so clear that Dave and I could see the fish before they bit the lure.
This one is a trout, but still pretty good size....but a little camera shy.
We lounged and snacked while JJ continued to strike fear into the fish.
Then it was time to head for Peak 10488. We followed a goat trail up the very steep scree to the ridgetop.
The red peak in the center background is Glassford Peak.
Then we followed a broad ridge that gradually climbed toward our peak. This is quite near the top.
That's Castle Peak in the background.
We gained our second summit at about 4:30.
We descended to the north, then dropped off the ridge in soft scree all the way back to the Galena Gulch trail. We got back to the car just before 6 for a great September day in the White Clouds.
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