Granite Mountain

This was a busy week that ended on a high note with a great Cascade hike, Granite Mountain.  On Wednesday I went to climb the tooth with Joe and I noticed a fire lookout to the south and asked Joe if he knew which one it was.  He was right and it was Granite Mountain.  The hike up to the fire lookout is used as a local training hike and the trail is about 4 miles and 4000 feet of elevation gain.  We choose to attempt the scrambling route on the Southeast ridge.

The ridge route is a bit more challenging class 2 climb off the beaten path, we ended up going up a bit too high on the normal trail and had to do an "awesome" traverse bushwhack back to the avalanche gully we were supposed to head up to gain the ridge.  We left the normal trail around 2.5 miles then it was pretty much straight up.  The weather was interesting, as the clouds came in and out one minute obscuring our views and our route and then next giving us fantastic views down the I-90 Corridor. 

Once on the Southeast ridge it was a classic rocky scramble to the fire lookout.  It was cold up there and the wind cut through our jackets.  We had a few shots of Scotch ate our sandwiches and headed back down.  We decided to take the trail down and I am really glad that we did.  The upper section of the hike winds through high rocky meadows with flowers and trees and just a beautiful area.

Ended the day by grabbing some beers and a new t shirt from Holy Mountain. Dropped Kris at his house and went to say goodbye to Joe and Kelsey who were leaving Monday for their three month adventure to Europe.