Up & Over Cook Hill 05/12/13
Posted: May 13th, 2013, 5:03 pm
So about a year ago, Beag sent me map showing a route that went to a South facing Meadow on Cook Hill then continued on to the Summit. Yesterday Chiyoko & I finally got around to checking this out!
The hike begins just off highway 14 at the junction of Cook-Underwood & Jackson Roads. There is a convenient parking area just up from the junction. Jackson is very short, providing access to 4 or 5 houses. Just after the blacktop ends there is a path (old road) heading off into the trees on the right, this is the way you want to go.
About half a mile up the trail we came across this well positioned viewing chair
The old road makes its way up the South side of the lower slopes of Cook through Oaks & mixed woodland in much the same way as the Dog Mt. trail does. There is quite lot of Poison Oak along the lower portion of the trail but it's easy to avoid so long as you are aware of it!
The road winds it's way though a mix of woodland for about 2.5 miles before reaching the junction with the Meadow Trail. It's been reported here before that this area suffered badly during the Ice / Wind Storm of Jan 2012 but the Cook Hill Trail Elves have cleared a way through at least as far as the junction.
The route from the road over to the top of the Meadow is flagged but there is also a faint boot path that you can follow. The path breaks out onto the West side of the Meadow giving you the first real view of the hike.
From here we made our way to the top of the Meadow where a piece of flagging indicated the point where to re enter the trees. The Garmin said that from the top of the Meadow to the Summit of Cook Hill was 0.7 of a mile in a straight line. The first section was easy walking through big trees with no undergrowth, there is no booth path to follow here.
After a quarter mile or so a vine maple jungle springs up, it was here that the flagging was most useful as someone else had already taken the time to plot an open course through this maze! A boot path also reappeared here.
The final third of a mile or so up to the Summit was through open Meadow & I'm sure that on a clear day the views are great ..
Poor Cook Hill, breaking 3000' it's taller than it neighbor Dog Mountain but only called a 'Hill' ..
We continued on, descending the North side of the Summit to meet up with an old road that leads out to the Powerlines and the radio facility.
This was a short section of trail cut through the trees down to the end of the old road.
From here we walked along the old road to the Powerlines & Radio Towers. We could have continued on along the ridgeline to Augspurger Mt. but that would have to wait for another day.
The old logging road that we had left earlier also makes its way up to this point & so we chose that for our return trip. The top half of this road is a little harder to travel than the lower half as there is still quite a lot of debris on it from the Ice Storm. But other parts of it were quite lovely!
Just before we reached the junction where we had left the road on the way up we passed though this open rock field area with some great old & gnarled Doug Firs..
From here it was just a march back down to the car, though Chiyoko did stop to enjoy the viewing seat on the way out
The Garmin said we hiked 8.75 miles & had 3000' of EG & didn't see another soul! There are a few more pics of the day here & a map below.
The hike begins just off highway 14 at the junction of Cook-Underwood & Jackson Roads. There is a convenient parking area just up from the junction. Jackson is very short, providing access to 4 or 5 houses. Just after the blacktop ends there is a path (old road) heading off into the trees on the right, this is the way you want to go.
About half a mile up the trail we came across this well positioned viewing chair
The old road makes its way up the South side of the lower slopes of Cook through Oaks & mixed woodland in much the same way as the Dog Mt. trail does. There is quite lot of Poison Oak along the lower portion of the trail but it's easy to avoid so long as you are aware of it!
The road winds it's way though a mix of woodland for about 2.5 miles before reaching the junction with the Meadow Trail. It's been reported here before that this area suffered badly during the Ice / Wind Storm of Jan 2012 but the Cook Hill Trail Elves have cleared a way through at least as far as the junction.
The route from the road over to the top of the Meadow is flagged but there is also a faint boot path that you can follow. The path breaks out onto the West side of the Meadow giving you the first real view of the hike.
From here we made our way to the top of the Meadow where a piece of flagging indicated the point where to re enter the trees. The Garmin said that from the top of the Meadow to the Summit of Cook Hill was 0.7 of a mile in a straight line. The first section was easy walking through big trees with no undergrowth, there is no booth path to follow here.
After a quarter mile or so a vine maple jungle springs up, it was here that the flagging was most useful as someone else had already taken the time to plot an open course through this maze! A boot path also reappeared here.
The final third of a mile or so up to the Summit was through open Meadow & I'm sure that on a clear day the views are great ..
Poor Cook Hill, breaking 3000' it's taller than it neighbor Dog Mountain but only called a 'Hill' ..
We continued on, descending the North side of the Summit to meet up with an old road that leads out to the Powerlines and the radio facility.
This was a short section of trail cut through the trees down to the end of the old road.
From here we walked along the old road to the Powerlines & Radio Towers. We could have continued on along the ridgeline to Augspurger Mt. but that would have to wait for another day.
The old logging road that we had left earlier also makes its way up to this point & so we chose that for our return trip. The top half of this road is a little harder to travel than the lower half as there is still quite a lot of debris on it from the Ice Storm. But other parts of it were quite lovely!
Just before we reached the junction where we had left the road on the way up we passed though this open rock field area with some great old & gnarled Doug Firs..
From here it was just a march back down to the car, though Chiyoko did stop to enjoy the viewing seat on the way out
The Garmin said we hiked 8.75 miles & had 3000' of EG & didn't see another soul! There are a few more pics of the day here & a map below.