Looking for the historic lookout on Krassel Knob.
- May 1, 2018
- Team: Art
- Krassel Knob, 5839'
- 5.4 miles, 2802' gain, 3:50 car-to-car
- Lists of John
Note: click images to see a larger version in a new window
As we were headed down the South Fork road, a guy coming the other way stopped us to tell us the road was closed by a big tree, like 24" (not, but it was plenty big). When we got to it, there was a guy on his way to Stibnite parked, waiting for help. Out came the Silky Katana Boy, and that tree was gone in about 15 minutes. Feeling mighty proud of ourselves, we parked across the road from the Krassel guard station, packed up, and headed across the bridge. This slid in the spring of 2017, but a small amount of shovel work was done, enough to allow an easy hop across the debris and be on the trail. |
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But the trail also slid in a couple places in the first half mile. And it's still sliding: muddy, cracked hillside. |
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This was the worst section. It reminded us of the Loowit Trail, our circumnavigation of Mt.St. Helens. Four-wheel drive required. |
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After that, the trail was really quite nice. Somewhat steep in places, but really good walking- other than the piles of pine cones covering parts of the trail. Note the wildlife. |
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| Due to the open nature of the ponderosa hillsides,the views abound. This one shows the airfield down at Krassel. |  |
Once you gain the ridge, there is a brief reprieve before the last steep section to the summit. |
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| Summit. |  |
Benchmark. According to Points of Prominence, there was once a treetop lookout here, but we couldn't locate the tree. |
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But we could see familiar territory. That's Teapot Mountain. |
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The treed ridge is called Sixmile Ridge, and includes two highpoints. |
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When Art and I climbed Sixmile Ridge, we considered chasing the ridge over to here, then descending to the South Fork for a loop. At issue was the low traffic on the South Fork Road this time of year. We could have waited days for someone to give us a ride back to Buckhorn Creek. |
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I think this is Pete's Peak. Jim and I climbed it from the other side of the range. We could see some of the other big Lick Creek peaks, but there were clouds messing up the photos. |
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After a leisurely lunch and some time looking for the old lookout, it was time to head back down. This is looking across the South Fork at Indian Ridge. New territory to explore. |
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And then back to the river. Note: Back at the truck, we found the usual host of ticks. It's a bumper crop this year! |
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Map Note: The trail we used is different from what is shown on the old topo. We did not see that old trail at all, even though we briefly looked.
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