Surveyor's Ridge - Shellrock Mountain 10/15/21

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ChrisA
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Joined: June 11th, 2021, 12:14 pm
Location: Vancouver, WA

Surveyor's Ridge - Shellrock Mountain 10/15/21

Post by ChrisA » October 17th, 2021, 1:15 pm

On Friday we had some errands to do and also stopped to get some apples and pears in Parkdale. Then we drove up FR 44 to FR 17. And we saw a cougar cross Highway 35 on the way south of Parkdale. That was cool!

We knew we weren't going for a lot of miles, but I wanted to get to the top of Shellrock Mountain. We headed south on Surveyor's Ridge trail, to the south side of Shellrock Mountain. Then if was off trail, where there was some light bushwhacking, then a steep climb on open slopes. We followed the ridge to the west,
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On the west side past the USGS equipment.
and then came back and went to the NE. The view of Hood was amazing,
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Mount Hood
but the Washington Mountains decided to stay in the clouds. We came down from the NE ridge of Shellrock and generally traversed to the SE.
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On Shellrock's NE side, looking to Surveyor's Ridge.
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The eroded formations below Surveyor's Ridge.
We found some flagging but ended up doing about 150 feet of heavier bushwhack and came out just about due east of the peak. We then went north to the end of the open areas of the Surveyor's ridge trail, came back, descended to a rock outcrop and had lunch. Then back up and to the car. The Surveyor's Ridge trail was in excellent shape. We saw a mountain biker zoom by just as we were getting started, and another couple with a dog who were headed north. A great day. About 3.8 miles, 1500 feet of elevation gain, left the car about 11:30 am, and back about 2:30 pm.

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Splintercat
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Re: Surveyor's Ridge - Shellrock Mountain 10/15/21

Post by Splintercat » October 17th, 2021, 3:58 pm

Nice report, Chris! I love that area -- great views and reasonably lonely. I posted a report on this way back in the early days of the forum:

viewtopic.php?t=440

I've called the formations to the north "Badlands Basin" ever since -- super cool area.

Thanks for posting!

-Tom :)

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