A very rainy start makes a merely damp Berg Mountain seem pleasant.
- May 21, 2019
- Team: Dave
- Peak
- Berg Mountain, 6020'
- 6.6 mi, 1788' gain, 2:57 car-to-car, Class 1 and a little 2
- Lists of John
Note: click images to see a larger version in a new window
Last year I had driven this road to access Chair Point Lookout, so sort of knew where I was going. In fact, I had stopped on this flat spot to take a break from the exhilaratingly steep hillside and very narrow road. Try it and you'll know what I am talking about. Although note: as we were returning home from this trip, the Forest Strangers were clearing off all the downed trees that were partially blocking the road and pushing us ever closer to the edge. Note the road sign in the distance. |
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Here's a closer view of that road sign. I was planning on going to "End of Road" so was a bit confused by the "Berg Mountain" arrow. But from my map work before departing I knew that if this is the right road, it should be shorter than 4 miles to the top. Is this the right road? Oh what the heck, looks like a good explore and the GPS seems to be pointing this way. Let's go! Besides, it was raining buckets as we were donning our full rain suits. Already completely wet, we didn't want to get back in the car like that. |
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So off we went squishing our way up the gated road. Wet underfoot, wet overhead. |
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Despite the moisture and low clouds, we were enjoying the day. Nice (partial) views. |
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There's the Salmon River down there, something like 3500' below us. At the far left, you can see part of Kelly Mountain, which Art and I climbed a couple weeks ago. |
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Ruby was looking at the scenery too. And choosing not to run up and down the super-steep hillsides too much. Well, some. |
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After climbing through a bunch of switchbacks, we finally gained the top of the ridge. Now what? We started off along the west side of the ridge on a road, but then backtracked and just went up the ridge. Easy walking. And that led us to a road not on the map. |
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When our "new" road quit, it was a short Bushwack to near the summit. Are we in for a short rock climb? |
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| But the rock wasn't the summit. There it is. |  |
| Dave snapped this of a boy and his dog. |  |
| Ruby was quickly out sniffing rocks, so missed the summit shot. Note that the rain had sort of stopped, so we had doffed the rain coats. |  |
This guy was from Riggins according to his obit. I appreciate the sentiment, but this is still summit trash. But interesting. Okay, time to head down. A different way, of course. |
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| Speaking of interesting, what the heck is THAT?! |  |
After some trepidation, Dave popped the door of this ancient refrigerator. Inside... nothing, really. Sort of a makeshift summit register with dates back to the 1990s. My wild guess was this was a prank-like follow-up to a radio conversation with a fire crew: Thus came the beer, refrigerator and all. |
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If you can find it, it now contains a can of Starbucks and a Kind bar. Useful trash. |
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| A little lower down the ridge we came on this large outcropping of quartz. |  |
| Cool stuff, but apparently not worth much (because it's still there). |  |
| Looking back up our path, you can see road cuts we had followed. |  |
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