Basin and Saddleback

September 8, 2012

Wendy needed these two peaks to catch up to me on her 46er journey so we can finish together this fall. I offered to help her because these two were so much fun when I did them last winter that I wanted to do them again. The weather forecast was fairly grim. A storm front was predicted to move in during the afternoon so we decided to get an early start, move fast, and try to beat it. We got on the trail at the Garden just after 06:00. After signing in at the register, I switched off my headlamp. There was just enough light to make out the trail, but not the tree root just 5 meters from the parking lot. I fell flat on my face and cut my hand up. We hiked under headlamp until I found a stream where I could wash up and bandage the wounds. We then motored. The wind was howling in the trees so we kept a fast pace, eating on the go. The plan was to push hard over Basin and onwards to the summit of Saddleback where we could relax during the descent. We saw very few others on the trail, and at about 10:00 found ourselves in the fog on the summit of Basin. The wind was strong but manageable so we pushed on. As we descended down to the col, a break in the cloud gave us a glimpse of the cliffs and we could see another party slowly picking their way down. We reached the base of the climb just as the others were coming off. We scrambled quickly to the tree line, and then had a hoot climbing the cliffs. This was easier then it was last winter, and in short order (almost dissapointingly short) we found ourselves on the summit in the howling wind with three other guys who were snoozing up here. After a quick picture with the foggy back drop, we sped off down the Ore bed trail to the Gothics junction where we sat down for a few minutes and had some lunch. A couple guys showed up and also sat down for a break and we chatted as we ate. We booted it down the trail, breaking out onto the Irene slide which was a nice grippy slab walk on moderately steep terrain. Almost half way down, a very impressive staircase had been built, and after the initial difficulty of getting over and onto it, took us down to the bottom of the slide. We stopped at a lean-to for a second lunch, and then sped off the rest of the trail which was just a long walk. Arrived back at the Garden just under 9 hours on the go with some sunshine. We drove into Keene and had coffee and freshly baked apple pie with too much cinnamon. As we drove up to the farm, the predicted storm hit with crazy winds, torrential rain and lots of lightning. I say we timed our hike perfectly.

Snack break at Bushnell falls.