a little Hamilton loop-de-loop 03-02-13

[payslee]

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[kepPNW]

That really is a nice park, isn't it? So many options. Those waterfalls were really bringing down the snowpack!

Did you end up finding the route up? (Wasn't clear.)

I must be irony-impaired... I thought that was kind of a cool marker for a memorial grove? (I've always wondered, though, whether it had to be brought in or was found somewhere near there.)

Spring's comin'!

[payslee]

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[Eric Peterson]

Nice TR Payslee

Silly me for never visiting Little Beacon Rock myself, something to check out the next time in the area.

[kepPNW]

I must be irony-impaired... I thought that was kind of a cool marker for a memorial grove? (I've always wondered, though, whether it had to be brought in or was found somewhere near there.)

Oh, the content of the plaque and the idea for a memorial are both lovely! I found ithe irony in that it was mounted on what is clearly an old-growth stump.

Heh, using my very best Carl Sagan voice, "Yeah, millions and millions of years old!"

Rap that one with your knuckles next time you pass by.

Just FYI, if the bears, tweakers, or my own folly finally do me in one of these days, and I get to have a memorial grove, I want all alive trees in it )

Seems reasonable enough.

Did you end up finding the route up? (Wasn't clear.)

Preface: sometimes I'm a dumbass.

We'd get along fine!

Couple years back, I was scouting a way to close the Hamilton-Hardy loop (and looking for a least-offtrail-possible option because I am annoyingly allergic to poision oak). From the end of the power line road (west approach) we could see what looked like a water tank. I assumed it was for the campground, but was wary of thrashing through the super-brush without knowing for sure that the tank connected to the campground or at least some kind of way out, since it wasn't shown on the maps I had with me. So we backtracked and never did end up closing the loop - later we just did the loop with a car shuttle.

So it's been sort of on my when-I-get-around-to-it list, to verify from the bottom where that short schwack came out...

Thing is, your question made me just now realize I was looking up at the wrong spot last weekend. Now that I've actually pulled up a map (I just had the feature-less park map with me Saturday), from the campground I now see I was looking at the southern set of power lines, and the hillside at that point is really huge, ugly, and brushy, and you can't see the campground water tank from there. I now realize I would have been standing at the northern set of lines when I was looking down from the top.

Which I didn't bother to check out last weekend.

So, more scouting on Hamilton backtrails for me yet... Saturday I had been thinking of taking that northeastern spur out of the saddle, but the wet cold wind up there made it really hard to stay warm, so I've saved that for a nicer day too.

Ah well, all great excuses to get even more of your "money's worth!" out of that Discovery Pass.

[Get Out Backpacking]

I miss that trail too, it's been a while since that discovery pass kicked in. If you go left instead of right on that summit ridge it get really nine in about a half mile. The slopes gets a lot more open as the ridge gets skinnier and the views are great to your east and west! I think it's well worth the side trip.

[gorgehiker]

I think that the "stump" is a large petrified log.

[payslee]

I think that the "stump" is a large petrified log.

So I (eventually) gathered

What happens when you don't read the fine print...

-payslee