Joker, Jester, Iron Bear
Distance: 7.5 mi.
Elevation Gain: 2600 ft.
Roughhouse Mt.
Distance: 1.7
Elevation Gain: 400′
With rainy weather on the west side of the mountains, we thought that the Teanaway would be a good option for drier skies and minimal crowds. We drove to Old Blewett Pass and followed NF-200 west until we reached the small connector road to NF-113, which didn’t seem navigable by the Fit. We parked at this road split and started hiking at 9:30 AM. We followed roads to the trailhead at the end of NF-113. It seemed it would be difficult for most vehicles to get this far. We followed the trail past a few switchbacks and then around to the north side of a small point where it met up with another logging road.
This road was in a recently cut area and had several expansive views. After leaving the road we traversed on well-consolidated snow. We were able to manage in our boots without microspikes but they would have been useful for the slippery sidehilling. We continued on and off snow as we made our way through the forest to the top of Joker, which was essentially just a bush on a hill.
Then we continued our northwest traverse toward Jester Mountain, following some faint older bootprints. We reached the top of Jester at 11:50 AM and decided to continue on to Iron Bear for lunch. Getting to the top of Iron Bear was pretty simple following the trail, but it was mostly buried under snow. We made it to the top at 12:15 and although it was a cloudy day, there were beautiful views of the surrounding Teanaway Peaks.
After a relaxing lunch on top of Iron Bear we headed back, seeing a couple other parties as we were descending off Iron Bear, the only ones we saw all day. For the most part we retraced our steps back out aside from following the trail around Jester and back to Joker. We were able to easily follow our own boot tracks back over Joker and to the road.
Although it was drizzling on and off all day and our boots had soaked through from the slushy snow, we wanted to give Roughhouse a try since it is a short little hike and we were so close. We made our way through the confusing road system until stopping one switchback below the gate on the road to the top. We could have driven to the gate but the road was rough for our little car and the walk was easy. It was a quick hike up an old dirt road until we reached the summit, which had a radio tower and a bunch of propane tanks. The views were less than stellar and it was getting chilly so we quickly headed back down to the car. This was a great option for a scenic, low key and uncrowded trip as we all try our best to recreate responsibly during a pandemic!
(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:
- Aluminum ice axe (brought but not used)
- Day pack
- Gaiters
- GPS
- Hiking boots
- Trekking poles
- Not brought but could have used: Microspikes
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