We slip in a warm-up climb before the IdahoSummits climb.
- April 16, 2010
- Team: Super Dave, and Steve
- Summit:
- Taylor Mountain, 8644'
- 2 miles, 1600' gain: 4 miles RT
- Taylor Mountain, 8644'
Note: click images to see a larger version in a new window
This was the weekend of the IdahoSummits spring climb. Dave had a hall pass that included Friday, so we opted to run over to the east side of the state a day early. After our usual multiple rounds of discussion, Dave and I were planning on trying something extraordinary on Saturday, so we ratcheted back our ambitions for Friday and left our actual objective open. After checking out the access and camping accommodations at Mud Spring, we decided on Taylor Mountain, just across the valley. |
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This is a picture of it from near the Wet Creek/Dry Creek intersection. |
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It was only a few more miles up the Dry Creek road and we found a suitable place to park. Here Dave does one of his dance moves, a simple lock and turn. |
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This is sort of a north-east aspect, so there were still patches of snow in the sagebrush. We danced through, trying to avoid the softer spots. As we got higher, the views got better and better. This peak is ideally situated for viewing the west side of the Lemhis, with a nice display of Bell, Diamond, and our objective for tomorrow, Little Sister. |
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| After traversing south of the steep hillside, we gained the SE ridge, which had some limestone (and fossils!). |  |
Again with the views. By this time we could also see the east side of the Lost Rivers. Because Dave and I weren't familiar with that eastern view, we had to revise our ideas of what was what. Several times. Actually, I found it sort of humorous as we constantly re-shuffled the deck of peak names as each new highpoint poked its heads up over the horizon. |
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| Dave and I got to the summit just ahead of Steve, which allowed us time to "get our stories straight" as to which peak was which. We certainly didn't want to lose Steve's confidence and look like we didn't know where we were! |  |
This is the view back toward the rig, parked at the bottom of the draw, taken on the descent. The other topic of conversation was the origin of the spots. There were lots of spots everywhere. Some of them looked like they were organized in geometric patterns. Space aliens? Government plot? Biblical plague? Our small brains could not determine... Then it was back to Mud Springs to get ready for the IdahoSummits spring outing tomorrow. Follow-up note on the
mystery spots: |
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