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Bull Of The Woods December 10-11, 2011

Posted: December 12th, 2011, 9:58 pm
by shawjr
A friend and I headed off early Saturday morning to hike in to the Bull Of The Woods fire lookout. Prepared with chains for the truck and shovels (just in case), the plan was get as close to the 550 trailhead as possible. We started hitting snow drifts around 3500', nothing too scary. At about 4000' we threw in the towel on driving any farther, 1.5 miles short of the trailhead. We were in and out of the snow shoes on the hike up the road grade to the trailhead, it wasn't too bad. Once we hit the trail it was mostly snowshoes on all the way in. Been in here several times in the past we knew what our reward would be for our hard work...
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The last .5 miles the trail was rough going. The slushy snow had now started to freeze up, and we burned up some serious energy to get to the tower. Needless to say I did'nt stop for too many pictures, but managed to snap a few.
Dashing through the snow..
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The long road grade.
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The trailhead.
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The trail along the way.
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View of Hood from the ridge..
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And of course the tower the next morning..
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It was a cold night inside the tower, it does not have the best R-value insulation... We got rested up for the trip out the next morning. It took close to 6 hours to get there, and only 3.5 to get back out. We were lucky the snow was firm enough to ditch the snowshoes, and rely on the boot chains most of the way out.

A trip I will never forget...

Re: Bull Of The Woods December 10-11, 2011

Posted: December 13th, 2011, 12:22 am
by BrianEdwards
Nice trip Jamey. The pic of the tower looks cold. Your oldest son told me you guys were on a snowshoe trip Saturday, now I know where! Great sunset pic too

Re: Bull Of The Woods December 10-11, 2011

Posted: December 13th, 2011, 6:20 am
by Crusak
This trip looks like a lot of work to get there, but definitely worth it! :) Nice pics and TR.

Any idea how cold it got overnight when you were in the tower?

Re: Bull Of The Woods December 10-11, 2011

Posted: December 13th, 2011, 9:38 am
by Koda
with the snowpack still thin and lack of new winter storms it keeps these more winter remote locations accessible longer. The key is knowing where the snowpack starts vs how far you can drive in, good job getting in there. BOTW in winter, how cool is that. thanks for posting this, its showing up on my 'skidar' now... :)

Re: Bull Of The Woods December 10-11, 2011

Posted: December 13th, 2011, 10:31 am
by Charley
That's an awesome trip. I'm jealous of your big wheels- I'm pretty sure I'd have had to hike in from much further, given my Honda's short clearance. I'd never drive on anything remotely like that road.

Re: Bull Of The Woods December 10-11, 2011

Posted: December 13th, 2011, 10:47 am
by Thum
Wow, there are some awesome reports being put up right now! What a way to spend a december weekend, snowshoeing in bull of the woods to the old fire lookout. too cool:)

Re: Bull Of The Woods December 10-11, 2011

Posted: December 13th, 2011, 12:18 pm
by potato
Awesome... looks lovely. I like that area. Being on top of Battle Ax at 8am was one of the highlights of my year.

Re: Bull Of The Woods December 10-11, 2011

Posted: December 13th, 2011, 1:38 pm
by Tito goes hiking
Sounds like you had a great trip!
Does the lookout have no wood stove?

Re: Bull Of The Woods December 10-11, 2011

Posted: December 13th, 2011, 5:42 pm
by RobFromRedland
Last time I was up there the lookout was locked up. Did someone remove the lock? I'm sure it would be a cold, windy, drafty night in there, though. That place looks like swiss cheese! :)

Re: Bull Of The Woods December 10-11, 2011

Posted: December 13th, 2011, 7:31 pm
by geographics
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