Third time's a charm for Blacktip
- September 3, 2012
- Team: Art & Carol, Carl
- Summit: Blacktip, 8295'
- Car to car: 10.5 miles, 3200'total gain, 7 hours
Note: click images to see a larger version in a new window
I had attempted Blacktip on two previous occasions, but instead climb Blacktip Peak: On both of those occasions, we started from Fisher Saddle. This time we started from Upper Payette Lake so that we could explore the beautiful Cougar Creek basin. Carol is rolling up her sleeves; she's ready to get to work bushwacking. |
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We started up the trail from the main campground at Little Payette Lake. Soon, we found an well-marked trail intersection. On the left, that's a trail. On the right, that's a trail. Clear? Part of our federal program to save money, we no longer spend the money to put a name to things. Our new friend Carl had a word for this sort of outing: stupenture.
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| We went right and dropped down into Cougar Creek. This is another old burn, so the trail is obscured by deadfall in places. |  |
It took a while, but we finally got a good eyeful of our objective. Gulp. |
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The Dear Tom Lopez Book says there is a Class 3 scramble, so we kept after it despite the intimidating appearance. |
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| Looking the other way, this is the lovely Cougar Creek drainage. It was meeting all my expectations. |  |
| When we got around to the west side, things were looking more possible. But there are lots of towers with questionable routes (that doesn't LOOK like Class 3, but maybe I just need to have a go at it?) |  |
But then we spotted a cairn (click for a bigger version, then scan the highpoints). |
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| And Yes, it's really Class 3. Or maybe easy Class 4 for a short bit. Either way, doable and fun. |  |
| But when you pull over that last rock, it gets to goin' down pretty quick. We took turns on the summit. |  |
And here's a close-up of the previously-mentioned cairn with Blacktip Peak in the background. |
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We scrambled down descender's left, then down a loose and steep gully to get down into this park-like meadow. We opted for the loop for the scenery. We eventually regained our previous trail, then tried to follow the more northerly descent back to the road. That didn't go so well, but after about 45 minutes of only mildly heinous bushwhacking (a stupiventure!) we found our original trail. |
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| Here Art celebrates something or other. You'll have to ask him, because he gets mad when I put sarcastic captions on the pictures. |  |
| Map |  |
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