2011-10-15

Elevation gain: 900m
Round trip: 10km

The hardest part about this trip is getting to the trailhead. If you don't have a high clearance vehicle, you may have do add 6km to the round trip distance. Although I don't know if the Subaru Impreza we took would be considered high clearance, and we made it down the bouldery hill and through the dry river bed. The access road even for the lengthened trip is pretty bad in places, with deep ruts and erosion.

Once at the parking spot, simply cross the dry river bed and find a well used trail. A hiking sign can be seen from a distance. The trail is pretty obvious and it'd be pretty hard to get lost. Once out of the trees, there is a bit of loose rock, but if one sticks to the trail, it should be no more than a hike. There is what looks like an abandoned cabin near the start of the trail as well as some hunting structures.

The neatest part of this hike is actually just below the summit, where steep cliffs offer a nice view of Ghost River below. Here we also ran into some sheep and in the summer the field hosts some alpine flowers.

The fire look out is in pretty rough shape. In 2006 there was a giant register inside the fire lookout. This register is now gone and it seems many people have been breaking off wooden pieces of the fire lookout and nailing it to the walls with their names carved in. I certainly feel it's in much rougher shape than when I saw it five years ago. I wonder how much longer it'll survive up there.

Photos:

Awesome trip! I really like the shot of the inside of the fire lookout. What kind of lens did you use for that one?

ya..that pic is very neat. almost looks like there is actually a painting in each window of the surroundings.

Since they regraded the big hill and leveled out the valley bottom trails after the floods of 2005, I actually find it more difficult to do the section between the first gate and the top of the hill than the part beyond the hill. Last year in April we had quite the creek to cruise through just on the way in.
Is the creek frozen over the road yet?
My Subaru Impreza is definitely higher clearance than the average small car. It feels special when I take it to the Ghost.

Looks like good conditions!

Nice fisheye photo.

Nice pictures Marko.


Cheers,

Dan

Raff, I used the Nikon 10.5mm fisheye lens. It's overpriced and not very practical, but it can be a lot of fun.

Rachel, the biggest challenge for us (or rather the driver) was when we had to go through the riverbed. There were a few big rocks we had to navigate around. The creek wasn't an issue, it was fairly dry and parts of it were frozen. There was an uphill area that was severely eroded and we had to keep to one side in order to get up it.

Dan/exscape, Thanks!