Archer Mountain, Jan 29 2017, from the north

Discussions and Trip Reports for off-trail adventures and rediscovering lost trails
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Chip Down
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Archer Mountain, Jan 29 2017, from the north

Post by Chip Down » February 2nd, 2017, 8:13 pm

Scouring maps and GE images looking for new adventures, I spotted Archer Mountain. Why haven't I heard of this before?! Should I start from northeast (Duncan Creek) or southwest (Smith-Cripe Rd)? Duncan Creek seemed like a good first-time exploration, just to get acquainted. Doubted I could get up there, but a look at google images showed Duncan Creek Road is paved and striped, so I figured it would be plowed. It was, and I made it up to the utility road where Duncan Creek Road crosses Duncan Creek, and parked there.

I was worried about snow depth. I wasn't willing to spend all day in snowshoes, and it looked like I might need them. But I vowed to spend at least 5 minutes before giving up. Well, when I headed up the powerline road, I discovered the best snow I've seen this winter: hard, but not icy. It wasn't refrozen slush. It was like fine corduroy or coarse velvet. And it was consistent/predictable. Traction was great, so I bare-booted it up the road. The weather was sublime: cold, but not savagely cold, just invigorating. Dry, crisp, no wind. High overcast, steel grey, sun struggling through. The top of the road, way off in the distance to the west, seemed impossibly far and high, but with great weather and snow conditions and views of the gorge, it was bearable, so I made the best of the boring road walk.

Before long, a surprise: a cliff! Okay, hmm...there was a snow ramp that would provide access to the top, but up close it looked thin and spotty and untrustworthy, so I stayed on the road that curved around through the forest. North of the cliff but south of the road, I heard a waterfall and went to investigate. Crazy! Out of nowhere, there's this deep narrow slot, but the waterfall doesn't start at the head, it dumps into the slot from the side, and then tumbles down pools and cascades to the end of the slot. Of course, I had to go in there, from both ends, as far as possible without getting wet. Dropping in from the top was a little sketchy, as the snow was in horrible condition, very unstable. Tumbling down that slot would be pretty scary, so I roped up, and went down to the end of the snow, which corresponded with the end of my rope. After getting back out, I went around to the bottom where the creek leaves the slot and I found a way to get in there, going upstream as far as possible.

After the waterfall exploration, I headed back up the powerline road. At the high point, I sensed something was amiss. There was no clear ridge to the south, as expected. The forest was wide open and brush free, but I saw no point in striking out southbound, as it just didn't seem right. Checked my elevation. 2200 feet?! Dammit, I went too high. Decided the ridge I was seeking was back at the cliff/waterfall area, so hustled back down. Back at the cliff, I started off to the south, on a well-defined ridge, and I was confident I was now on-route. Unfortunately, the forest wasn't as clear as what I had seen up above. The route was brushy, almost to point of being infuriating. The ridgecrest undulated, which I actually like. It breaks up the monotony. As I approached a saddle, I noticed a roadbed to the right/west, and the road dropped to the ridgecrest at the saddle, so I actually walked the road for a few yards. At the other side of the saddle, I left the road and continued up.

Soon reached the first good viewpoint, and stopped for lunch. Continued up through the winding undulating ridgecrest, until the ridgecrest became less defined, dropping into steep brush on the east, but more gentle and open to the west. This is exactly what the map shows I should expect as I approach the summit, and indeed I soon found myself at a high point. My elevation was consistent with the Archer summit, and there was no more sign of an undulating ridge, so I saw no reason to continue. But still, I had to wonder if there was something more. This "trail" seemed about as pointless as the trail to the top of the viewless Devil's Rest. I was suspicious. I knew from prior research that there was rugged terrain to the south, so I poked around and found a clear path through the brush. It was getting late, maybe 2:00, and the January sun goes down early, so I was leery of continuing down this steep slope, but I was soon rewarded with an outrageously fun narrow rocky ridgecrest, and a promise of views to come. I continued along this spine and found what I was looking for: steep dropoffs, views, snow and moss and rock, minor routefinding challenges. I came to a step where I couldn't continue, backtracked and went down to the west, found the trail, continued on the ridgecrest, hit a dropoff, kept going, hit a point where further progress would be crazy. I was done, and I felt good about that. I had run out of time just as I ran out of easily-navigable terrain. The weather was sublime, mostly clear, warmish. I wanted to linger, but I know myself well enough to say I would have gotten restless in a few minutes, so I don't feel too bad that time pressure forced me back.

I vowed to hustle back quickly, but honestly, how fast do you move when you're in snow/ice, on an undulating wandering route, through brush, when you have to watch the route carefully, when you've been at it for several hours? Yeah, I wasn't super speedy. Was slightly nervous about finding the route back, but there were lots of recognizable reference points, and the occasional footprints (only mine), and I knew it was relatively easy terrain, and I was headed towards a straight powerline route, so there really wasn't a lot that could go wrong. I passed the lunch viewpoint, and soon hit the road/saddle combo. I think the northbound road would have been a easier way to reach the cliff/waterfall area, but as late as it was I couldn't justify any more exploration, so stuck to the more-difficult known route. When I was within sight of the powerlines, I relaxed a little. But on the way back to my car I got a little nervous. Things just didn't look familiar, and I wondered...did I overshoot Duncan Creek? But no, that wasn't possible...still, I felt much relieved when I realized I had been following an alternate road below the wires, and that was why things didn't look familiar. Arrived at my car probably around sunset...not dark, but getting dim. The Pontiac sedan was still there. Strange.

That was the best weather I've seen since November. As predicted, it did start drizzling on the drive home, but during daylight hours I'd rate it a 9 out of 10.

Pics will follow in a few minutes.
Attachments
Untitled.jpg
I didn't mark my route, but it's pretty obvious: From "start" at upper left, I followed the utility road up to "oops" point, then back down to the cliff, then south along the obvious ridgecrest.

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Chip Down
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Re: Archer Mountain, Jan 29 2017, from the north

Post by Chip Down » February 2nd, 2017, 8:24 pm

I'll start with a few pics of the waterfall:
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w1.jpg
Looking down into the slot. As is generally the case, this cell-phone pic doesn't really capture how steep/deep the descent is.
w2.jpg
As far as I was willing to go down into the slot from the high end. Notice the ice visible through the waterfall at the top far side. I bet this looked even better a week ago.
w3.jpg
a pile of concrete and rebar at the bottom of the slot
w4.jpg
The dry-boot way to get up the creek is to take the ramp (climb up to the upper left...see that ramp that starts at upper left and drops down to the creek?)
w5.jpg
To the left you can see the obvious ramp that takes you down to the creek.
w6.jpg
The symmetry of this pic is interesting. Descent route is to the left of the mossy ridge.
w7.jpg
As close as I was willing to get. A dedicated photographer would get that branch out of the way, but that's better for a summer hiker who has a better camera to justify the effort.

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Chip Down
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Re: Archer Mountain, Jan 29 2017, from the north

Post by Chip Down » February 2nd, 2017, 8:32 pm

The fun spine I encountered after dropping south from the viewless brushy summit:
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r1.jpg
This is where it finally got interesting. The reward for all my work.
r2.jpg
r3.jpg
r4.jpg
What fun! I could hike this for hours and not get bored.
r6.jpg
Uh oh, dead end, drops off at that tree. Had to back up and decide to go down and around to the left or right. Right seemed better.
r7.jpg
Looking back up at the step.
r8.jpg
About as far as I went. After this, it was just more of the same.

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Chip Down
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Re: Archer Mountain, Jan 29 2017, from the north

Post by Chip Down » February 2nd, 2017, 8:43 pm

A few misc pics:
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20170129_083044.jpg
The perfect virgin snow was constantly punctuated by these odd depressions. Any ideas?
20170129_083213.jpg
It's just a utility road, but on a day like this it wasn't a bad way to start a hike.
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The cliffs, a surprise, the first challenge of the day. Creek follows base of cliff. Waterfall is just upstream, to the right.
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At the cliffs, looking up at the point where I realized I had gone too far. Pickup remnants are at the obvious switchback.
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The first viewpoint of the day, off there to the right. Way back at extreme right, in the trees, is the continuation of the route.
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The road that briefly follows the ridgecrest route at a saddle.
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The boring summit.
m1.jpg
I've seen this in at least one other TR, but it's not in the same position now. From a distance, I didn't realize what it was.
m2.jpg
A fellow traveler out for a morning stroll.
m3.jpg
From the end, this unique property was a landmark (easy to spot on GE)

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Chip Down
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Re: Archer Mountain, Jan 29 2017, from the north

Post by Chip Down » February 2nd, 2017, 8:45 pm

And finally, the real reason I go hiking ;)
In a twist of tradition, I carried the Ten Commandments up the mountain.
Attachments
m9.jpg

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Don Nelsen
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Re: Archer Mountain, Jan 29 2017, from the north

Post by Don Nelsen » February 2nd, 2017, 8:52 pm

Nice report! I was thinking about going up there a few days ago but decided to do Hamilton instead. Thanks for the photos and info.

The "odd depressions" are probably from ice falling from power lines.

dn

Ps, the point on your map labeled "accessible" is indeed so and there is a trail to it that continues on down to the end of Smith-Cripe road and the entrance to High Valley.
"Everything works in the planning stage" - Kelly

"If you don't do it this year, you will be one year older when you do" - Warren Miller

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Chip Down
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Re: Archer Mountain, Jan 29 2017, from the north

Post by Chip Down » February 2nd, 2017, 9:06 pm

"Nice report!"
Thanks. Your info over at summitpost was helpful, as were some TRs here.

"I was thinking about going up there a few days ago but decided to do Hamilton instead."
Oh, I've been eyeing Hamilton for a while. Thinking about trying it from the east. Will you be posting a TR?

"The "odd depressions" are probably from ice falling from power lines."
Oh! Totally makes sense. Linear ice-bombs could impact into soft snow like that. But you'd expect some to land at different angles. These all looked like they must have belly-flopped flat into the snow. But your hypothesis is compelling. Maybe I should have dug into one. Maybe I would have found a bar of ice in each depression.

"The point on your map labeled "accessible" is indeed so and there is a trail to it that continues on down to the end of Smith-Cripe road and the entrance to High Valley."
Ah, so about half way down from the summit to my end point I could have veered south/west and followed a buried "trail". Interesting. I knew Archer wasn't going to be a one-day project. This will go on my to-do list.

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Don Nelsen
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Re: Archer Mountain, Jan 29 2017, from the north

Post by Don Nelsen » February 2nd, 2017, 10:00 pm

Chip Down wrote:"Nice report!"
Thanks. Your info over at summitpost was helpful, as were some TRs here.

"I was thinking about going up there a few days ago but decided to do Hamilton instead."
Oh, I've been eyeing Hamilton for a while. Thinking about trying it from the east. Will you be posting a TR?

"The "odd depressions" are probably from ice falling from power lines."
Oh! Totally makes sense. Linear ice-bombs could impact into soft snow like that. But you'd expect some to land at different angles. These all looked like they must have belly-flopped flat into the snow. But your hypothesis is compelling. Maybe I should have dug into one. Maybe I would have found a bar of ice in each depression.

"The point on your map labeled "accessible" is indeed so and there is a trail to it that continues on down to the end of Smith-Cripe road and the entrance to High Valley."
Ah, so about half way down from the summit to my end point I could have veered south/west and followed a buried "trail". Interesting. I knew Archer wasn't going to be a one-day project. This will go on my to-do list.

The trails up there are "user maintained" if at all and some are hard to spot if you haven't done them before. Also, there have been rock slides and small landslides on the south face of Archer in recent years that have made things even more difficult. The recent storm damage surely hasn't improved the situation. Anytime you want a tour, let me know - I have GPS tracks of everything.

dn
"Everything works in the planning stage" - Kelly

"If you don't do it this year, you will be one year older when you do" - Warren Miller

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bobcat
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Re: Archer Mountain, Jan 29 2017, from the north

Post by bobcat » February 3rd, 2017, 7:45 am

Great adventure!

This is where you were: http://www.dnr.wa.gov/columbia-falls-na ... a-preserve - It even has a name!

So . . . for a while the DNR website was saying that access to the public was forbidden. They have taken that message off the site. I saw some fairly heavy "volunteer" trail carving last time I was there. My personal advice would be: bushwhack wherever (but be very careful - lots of drop-offs!) but hikers should leave the pruners, saws, axes, and flagging at home. It is a preserve, after all.

Most of Archer Mountain itself is not in the preserve.

beag
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Re: Archer Mountain, Jan 29 2017, from the north

Post by beag » February 3rd, 2017, 10:40 am

You picked a bad time to explore Archer. There are numerous trails up there. I have been hiking up there for 20 years and I have a brochure about a group hike up there in 1936. They actually started and finished the hike at SR 14. I also have a two page newspaper article describing a hike up there in 1950 also around that time the Commune was established and they had many trails to get to the different areas. The Falls you describe is called Cynthia Falls. There is an old road that runs just West of the Ridge you followed which is in excellent shape. If you follow that road it will take you to Arrow, Archer Point, Scott Point and back down to Hi Valley. You can easily get to Prindle Mountain where there are a lot of hiking options. From where you parked there is a beautiful hike up Duncan Creek where at approx, the two mile mark you can link up with the old Russ Jolley trail which runs East to Hardy Ridge, and West back to Cynthia Falls, Archer Mountain, Prindle area.

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