Old Baldy, Clark Peak, Mt McCay, Spur Peak

Old Baldy (7,844ft), Clark Peak (7,890ft), Mt McCay (7,440ft), Spur Peak (6,880ft)

Sunrise over the cascades from near Tiffany Mtn

Oct 10-11, 2020, Eric

I drove out Saturday morning intending to start out from Harts Pass after the morning rain ended. But shortly after rounding deadhorse point my tire pressure sensor went off. Luckily I was near a pullout on the narrow road and within 30 seconds my rear tire was completely flat. It must have been a sharp rock in the road. Unfortunately I only had a donut spare tire, so I put the spare on and slowly drove back down. I spent the rest of the day hanging out at the Twip Les Schwab getting four new tires and a full size spare to prevent incidents like this in the future.

The route

There was no longer time for my original objective, but I had enough time in the Les Schwab to figure out some peaks northeast of Twisp appeared to be in a big blue hole for the weekend, unlike most of the rest of the cascades. So I decided to drive up to freezeout ridge and still bag some peaks.

I arrived around 3:30pm Saturday and parked next to two other cars in the small pullout. I quickly packed up and bushwhacked west along the ridge to Spur Peak. It was sunny where I was, but obviously rainy and snowy in the mountains to the west.

I got back to the car by sunset and spent the night there. The next morning I left at sunrise planning for a 20-mile loop hike. I had hiked Tiffany and surrounding peaks last November with Katie, so decided this time to hit some peaks south along the ridge. I hiked to Whistler Pass, then south, making a short side trip up Clark Peak. I think the farther point with the carvings in the rock is the true summit. I continued south along the ridge, briefly connecting with a very seldom-used trail to Pt 7598, then down the south ridge. I was walking through an old burn zone but it was mostly pleasant travel. Interestingly I scared a few cows off the ridge just south of that point.

The route viewed from Spur Peak

Driving through snow on the way back

I took a break on the top of Mt McCay, then descended to Baldy Pass. From there I hiked steeply up to Old Baldy by noon. There was an old stone structure on the top, and excellent views all around. It looked very dark to the west, and I checked the forecast that a big snowstorm was coming in that afternoon. I made it back down to the pass by 12:20pm and then started the long road walk back. I wished I’d brought my mountain bike to plant there, but this hadn’t been my original hiking plan so I’d left it at home.

After about 9 miles I made it back to the car just as the first snowflakes were falling around 3pm. It was a fun 20-mile loop hike, even with all the road walking. The snow soon intensified as I drove down, then changed to heavy rain, then back to heavy snow again at Washington Pass, then finally back to heavy rain the rest of the drive home.