| Labor day weekend was promising to be a great chance to get out and bag some peaks.
Our new dog (wolf-dog) was to be joining us for the first time in the great outdoors. We didn't
set any expectations about her making any mountaineering progress, and weren't surprised when things
went awry. The plan was Missouri on Saturday morning followed by a nice hike-in to climb North Apostle
later that day and Ice Mountain Sunday Morning. This is the story of how things went solo for me
Saturday morning on Missouri. Waking up late (6:40 am) due to the dog keeping me up all night, I set out
to Clohesy Lake, as we set up camp at the trailhead for Huron. After passing the lake (and unmarked
Missouri Trail), I realized I had to start moving up, and climbed up the steep grass to intersect one
of several trails I would later find that eventually disintegrate. On the right is a view of a trail
leading up to the Missouri/Iowa Basin. |  |
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For a while, I thought I had found "the trail" that would lead up to the West Ridge. Topping out into the basin,
Missouri's long ridge was clearly visible to the North. This wasn't the first time I had routefinding difficulties
in this Rockdale Area with Gerry Roach's Beta. (see report for Huron Peak). It is nice that this was converted from
private property not too long ago, and I'll gladly take more access regardless of routefinding ease. As it would later turn out, this was
the correct route, but had some inconsistencies with Roach's guide. In any case, it wasn't too hard to climb up the South side of the West
ridge, and not too much different from a normal trail. As a sidebar, this is the third peak in a row I have had sections with no trail - it
is actually quite stimulating. |
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After 40 minutes of arriving in the basin, I reached the crest of the ridge, at 13,100'. On the upper left is a view
of some of the remaining route up the ridge to the east. Once reaching the ridge, the rest is very straight-forward.
There is a well defined trail beginning at about 13,500', and switchbacks up the first talus outcropping. This was highly reminiscent of the final
stretch on Mt. Belford. After completing the switchbacks and reaching the apex of the first point on the ridge, the rest of the route was clearly visible,
although it is longer than it looks. As to be expected on long ridges, there were several false summits, though it was easy to tell that some points just didn't
resemble what would look like a fourteener summit (plus, the altimeter helps a little). After reaching one sandy point, the trail begins to decompose into talus
and sand scrambling (still Class 2 though). On the right is a view of the remaining section of ridge after the last false summit.
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 | To this point, I hadn't seen a soul so far into the morning, but I spotted someone on the summit crest who had approached from the North.
There were some interesting sections of sand and talus leading up to the highpoint, but were easily manageable. The summit had great views of Mount Harvard, Emerald Peak,
Huron, and Mount Yale. A very clear morning had me excited about North Apostle 13,860' for the afternoon. To update the rest of the trip upon my return, it seems that Leah was
unable to let Lucille (the wolf-dog) self-manage. Rather than mandate a babysitting session for the next day to Leah, we decided it would be best to return home with the youngster
and have me solo the Apostles on Monday. Round-trip on Missouri was 3:20; 1:50
on the ascent. |