After yesterday’s rains, we woke up to some beautiful skies. We kicked around a few ideas and settled on climbing Martain Mountian which is the snow capped peak mid image on the right. It was a peak John an I had done almost exactly 5 years ago. See that report here.
After 5 years, I had forgotten about the Cougar Creek crossing at the start of that climb (Not pictured…I forgot to take a shot). Five years ago John and I found a couple logs to scramble across, this year, with the warm temperatures and large amount of high country snow, there was no way Dan and I were crossing that creek. We called an audible and headed up towards Miner’s Peak.
Miner’s Peak is a much larger climb than Martin Mountain but Dan, Sadie, and I just decided to head up until we had enough then turn back.
This is large Ponderosa Country!
After a couple hours of hiking and climbing we hit the snow line at about 6300 feet.
After trudging in the snow a while we decided to turn back short of the peak….. something I generally don’t like to do!
More Pondos.
Down we go.
As we cross back over the South Fork on our way back to camp the snow showers start back up in the high country.
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