Cook Hill - Augspurger Mtn (Mar-29-2015)

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CraigG
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Cook Hill - Augspurger Mtn (Mar-29-2015)

Post by CraigG » March 31st, 2015, 9:55 pm

Greetings All -

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On a most wonderful Sunday, Rigby and the group headed up Cook Hill on the way to Augspurger Mtn. Our start, after setting up the car shuttle:
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Some beginning photos on our way up:
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and more up, on our way to Cook Hill meadow:
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almost there:
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Views from the meadow - no flowers yet, but great views nonetheless:

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Looking back at the group from Cook Hill meadow:

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We continued up to the top of Cook Hill, following the west side of the tree line:

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and then onto the ridge and briefly into the trees:

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Following the old road...

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...past something left from the last rough ride on this road(?):
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...to the towers for a lunch break (with Rigby on his way):

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This interesting "artifact" was discovered while at the tower site:
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Great views during lunch:
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We continued up, once again, onto the "lid" trail:
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Reaching Augspurger Mtn summit, then taking a brief rest at the meadow just below the Augspurger Mtn summit. Rigby and Lou discuss the merits of Lou's sandwich:
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Then down Augspurger trail:
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and a return to our car at Dog Mtn trailhead, to retrieve the other cars from the previously setup car shuttle. A wonderful day!

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Estimated mileage: 13.6 miles
Estimated ascent: 4900+ ft
Estimated fun: a lot!

Limey
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Re: Cook Hill - Augspurger Mtn (Mar-29-2015)

Post by Limey » April 1st, 2015, 7:07 am

Looks like a great day out and Rigby sure looks chic in his summer haircut. I love the Puff the Magic Dragon toilet seat.

klossner
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Re: Cook Hill - Augspurger Mtn (Mar-29-2015)

Post by klossner » April 1st, 2015, 9:48 am

How was the "Americorp" trail -- the uphill portion on the way down from Augspurger? When I visited last year, it was completely overgrown by plants as tall as me and I had to feel my way along the trail. I feared it would become unusable.

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CraigG
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Re: Cook Hill - Augspurger Mtn (Mar-29-2015)

Post by CraigG » April 1st, 2015, 10:04 am

klossner wrote:How was the "Americorp" trail -- the uphill portion on the way down from Augspurger? When I visited last year, it was completely overgrown by plants as tall as me and I had to feel my way along the trail. I feared it would become unusable.
Greetings -

Thanks for the reply.

The trail seemed in quite excellent shape in that area for two reasons: 1) the plants hadn't yet leafed out and 2) there was quite a bit of trail maintenance going on the day we hiked by at least 15 folks.

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drm
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Re: Cook Hill - Augspurger Mtn (Mar-29-2015)

Post by drm » April 1st, 2015, 11:41 am

CraigG wrote:2) there was quite a bit of trail maintenance going on the day we hiked by at least 15 folks.
I was on that WTA trail maintenance team. The Forest Service went through last year with weed whackers and trimmed many of those bushes to near ground level for as much as 3 feet back from the trail. This weekend we were trying to dig those roots out so that they would not grow back very quickly. This was going very slowly in some areas, faster in others, depending on the roots and rocks around them. On day two, we worked on the trail below the ridge, redoing the tread in many areas that had tread creep. It was a well-attended trip, with 20 people on the first day, and maybe a few less on Sunday. Rigby was the star when you folks went through.

We also had a very nice campout at the 4-way road intersection down below that night.

beag
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Re: Cook Hill - Augspurger Mtn (Mar-29-2015)

Post by beag » April 1st, 2015, 5:28 pm

Is there much brush downfall on road up to and across to the lower Russ Jolley meadow. We cleared it last year but it looks like ye hiked through some downed trees.

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CraigG
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Re: Cook Hill - Augspurger Mtn (Mar-29-2015)

Post by CraigG » April 1st, 2015, 6:23 pm

beag wrote:Is there much brush downfall on road up to and across to the lower Russ Jolley meadow. We cleared it last year but it looks like ye hiked through some downed trees.
I believe there were 2 downed trees. Thank you for the prior work in clearing it! :)

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CraigG
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Re: Cook Hill - Augspurger Mtn (Mar-29-2015)

Post by CraigG » April 1st, 2015, 6:26 pm

drm wrote:
CraigG wrote:2) there was quite a bit of trail maintenance going on the day we hiked by at least 15 folks.
I was on that WTA trail maintenance team. The Forest Service went through last year with weed whackers and trimmed many of those bushes to near ground level for as much as 3 feet back from the trail. This weekend we were trying to dig those roots out so that they would not grow back very quickly. This was going very slowly in some areas, faster in others, depending on the roots and rocks around them. On day two, we worked on the trail below the ridge, redoing the tread in many areas that had tread creep. It was a well-attended trip, with 20 people on the first day, and maybe a few less on Sunday. Rigby was the star when you folks went through.

We also had a very nice campout at the 4-way road intersection down below that night.
Thanks to your team for working on the trail! We could tell further up that trail work had very very (very?) recently been done. Rigby loves meeting folks!

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K.Wagner
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Re: Cook Hill - Augspurger Mtn (Mar-29-2015)

Post by K.Wagner » April 3rd, 2015, 5:24 pm

Craig,

How difficult was the lid (I think they are "Pringles" lids??) trail to follow? When we did Augspurger from the north a couple of years ago, there were some sections that were slide alder thickets, and pretty brutal. It looks as though this section was pretty clean. Thinking about doing this one in the next few weeks.
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Guy
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Re: Cook Hill - Augspurger Mtn (Mar-29-2015)

Post by Guy » April 3rd, 2015, 5:37 pm

K.Wagner wrote:Craig,

How difficult was the lid (I think they are "Pringles" lids??) trail to follow? When we did Augspurger from the north a couple of years ago, there were some sections that were slide alder thickets, and pretty brutal. It looks as though this section was pretty clean. Thinking about doing this one in the next few weeks.
Beag knows all the history on this trail, I believe they were cat food tin lids and it was built by a local couple. If I remember correctly the man has since died but the lady is still alive & is happy to know that the trail is still being hiked.
hiking log & photos.
Ad monte summa aut mors

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