Distance: 8.7 mi.
Elevation Gain: 4200 ft.
Rachael and I were hoping to go backpacking on the 1st and 2nd but the weather didn’t cooperate, so we decided to hang out in the rain shadow of the cascades in the Teanaway Range. There are multiple approaches to this mountain, but we came from the southwest on trail #1392. We reached the parking lot just after 11 AM, and there were no other cars there on a Monday. We got hiking at 11:30 AM.
The first couple miles of trail had a multitude of washouts along the steep scree slopes it traversed. They were all fairly easy to cross on foot, but it would be difficult on any other mode of transportation.
We should have gotten off trail before crossing Big Boulder Creek, but we were busy chatting away and made it a ways past Big Boulder Creek before we realized we had to turn around (the creek valley looked treacherous to try traversing). We used a previous GPS track to determine our turnoff point, which was very helpful because there was no boot track to follow.
When we first got off trail the slope was brushy, but soon we were into more open forest and then scree on the south side of Hawkins. We kept on a fairly direct northward approach, but frequently referenced the GPS track we had downloaded so we didn’t get too far afield. There was a chance of thunderstorms that afternoon and it seemed that the clouds started building around noon, so we dropped our backs on the final scree slope to help us move even faster. Although we hadn’t seen evidence of human activity since leaving the trail, we suddenly met up with a well-established boot track just below the summit. Rather than climbing all the way to the top of the false summit, we skirted around it on the left (south) side. We reached the true summit at 2:45 PM. There was one patch of snow that we passed between the false and true summits (on dry ground in its moat) but otherwise the route was snow-free.
We spent a few minutes taking in the 360 degree views of the Enchantments, Teanaways, and Cascades before quickly returning to our dropped packs. We tried our best to jog wherever the slope wasn’t too steep and made much quicker time on our descent. We also took a more direct route back to the trail on the way down, although it was a bit brushier than our ascent route had been. Once we connected with the trail we were able to jog most of the way back out and returned to the car at 4:45 PM. We didn’t encounter any people, exciting wildlife, or bugs all day.
(Download the free Gaia GPS app on your phone to view tracks and then get a Gaia GPS membership if you want offline access. Discount below!)
Gear Used:
- Day pack
- GPS
- Helmet
- Trail runners
- Trekking poles
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