Armstrong and Upper Wolf Jaw

September 9, 2012

Katharina, Wendy, Rosi, and I set out at the golf course road to do a loop of Armstrong and Upper Wolf Jaw. The day was cool but clear. We quickly arrived at the gate and signed in. We took the East River trail which is always a treat, walking through the woods along the Ausable river. We arrived at Beaver Meadow falls which were very pretty and took a short break to look at them. Here the climb began, not too steep but very steady. As we got up around 4000' some neat scrambly bits provided some entertainment. Finally we reached the ridge and got some really nice views of the south slides of Gothics. Lots of ladders aided some exposed sections. Rosi was feeling a little unsteady on her feet at this point so we took things slow. Finally after about 5 hours, we reached the summit of Armstrong and were rewarded with a spectacular view. We had the summit to ourselves as we ate a long lunch. It began to get cold after a while so we packed up and started heading down the trail towards Upper Wolf Jaw. Some more scrambly bits were encountered, and here Rosi was having some difficulties so we slowly coached her down the exposed sections. At one point where she was hesitating, a group of super fast guys showed up. One of them, wearing a cape, leapt past her and then very gentle-manly offered his arm to get her down the ledge. As soon as she was down, Batman and his henchmen disappeared quickly down the trail. Finally we reached Upper Wolf Jaw and stopped for another short break on the summit. Again we had the place to ourselves. A long descent followed, with quite a few down scrambles which took some time to negotiate. Finally we got down to the notch and the trail from here on was fairly easy, just long. Rosi was having some knee trouble, so the descent took a long time. We reached the West River trail and followed it to the canyon bridge which is quite a marvel of engineering. Once on the road, Wendy and I sped ahead and quickly covered the last few kilometers. We picked up the car and then met the others on the road, saving them the last 800m of walking. A ten hour day made this one a little more tiring than it should have been, but the spectacular views, fantastic weather, and fun scrambling made it all worthwhile.

Crossing one of the well constructed bridges along the East River trail.