At the far northern end of the Lick Creek range, Patrick Butte is the king.
- August 25, 2019
- Team: Dave
- Peaks
- Patrick Butte, 8840', Class 2
- Point 8300
- 14.1 mi (11.0 on bikes), 3829' gain, 6:26 car-to-car
Note: click images to see a larger version in a new window
Today's photos are all provided by Dave Beck, because I was going light and didn't include my apparently much-needed spare camera battery. On a beautiful, cool August morning, we started out with a plan to do three highpoints. But the main objective was Patrick Butte, on the right of center. |
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From the trailhead on bikes, the initial couple miles follows an extremely dusty (poofer mixed with cow poo) atv track. |
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As you ride north, you get wonderful views of Hard Butte. |
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As the climbing got tougher, we stopped for a breather. That's when we realized that those weren't cows- they were bison, about 30 or 40 of them. |
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As you continue out the ridge, the trail gets tougher and tougher. But mostly still ridable. Mostly. Well, some, anyway. |
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We finally got to the point where bikes were more of a hindrance. From there, this is looking across the basin with our proposed third highpoint on the left. Later. |
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As we progressed up Patrick, we followed the descent route that Art, Carol, and I had taken. It's steep and loose, but fairly direct. Once on top, we enjoyed a relaxed and amazing hour of staring. |
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| Well-earned Doubleshot. |  |
Au cheval on the summit. Yee haw! Along the return ridge, we visited Point 8300. And then we were back to the bikes. We were able to ride much of the trail on the way back, but I found that to be fairly exhausting: rock slamming and dodging in low gear. So more than satisfied with our efforts, we skipped the 4 miles of hiking needed to visit that third peak. |
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Also see Dave's wonderful photos |
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Map
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