Visiting Ruby Mountain with Ruby is a long-delayed goal.
- June 23, 2019
- Team: Dave
- Peaks
- Forest Mountain, 6980'
- Ruby Mountain, 7464'
- 9.3 mi, 2460' gain, 5:42 car-to-car, Class 2
Note: click images to see a larger version in a new window
We met earlier than usual and headed around the east side of the lake, finding ourselves richly rewarded for prying ourselves out of bed early. |
 |
It took about an hour to get to the Ruby Meadows trailhead. It wasn't long after that when we found ourselves wandering around blindly in the underbrush. 10 minutes later we were crossing Ruby Creek, with our direction figured out. |
 |
No trail. Much of the bushwacking was pretty tolerable and we made good time. I didn't take pictures of the bad spots, too busy swearing. |
 |
And here's the first ascencionist. |
 |
But when I looked at the GPS, it showed a spot on the ridge with one additional contour line. Aha! there it is. |
 |
Summit. You couldn't see much of Forest Mountain due to the trees. |
 |
After having a quick snack and plotting a course, we got a few glimpses of scenery from our descent ridge. There's Ruby Mountain, with the summit right behind... another tree. |
 |
And there's the Loons. |
 |
As we worked our way toward Ruby, we eventually ran into the old burn. As we crossed this terrain, we had to constantly check the map to stay on the ridgetop. The ridge undulated and wiggled, plus there were always just enough snags to make visibility fairly limited. |
 |
| Climbing near the top of the ridge, still in the burn. |  |
| And finally on top of Ruby Mountain. I had agonized over this climb, knowing there would be an old burn to deal with, deadfall, and lots of bushwacking. As it turned out, it wasn't too bad at all. Good company makes the time pass more quickly, I guess. |  |
| The Loons and Loon Lake. |  |
| We stayed on the summit for quite a while, eating and relaxing in the sun. But it wasn't really warm. |  |
| Then some more map work, and we went for the loop. Somewhere down there, in amongst the swamps of Ruby Meadows, there must be a way to shortcut across to the trail. |  |
| We managed to find a route through a couple swampy areas that could be done without removing our footwear. Then we crossed the ancient old singletrack, buried in downfall. And finally, the ATV trail that would lead back to the rig. This old cabin was next to that. |  |
This wasn't the most scenic group of peaks, but it was still a good time. Map |
 |
|
|
