We left the trailhead around 7:00, following the Herman Creek trail to the Nick Eaton Way turn off, then up, up, up, up, up, up, and up some more, until we were finally in the clouds. We did have some warning. There's a clearing around 2400', that generally offers some views up the Herman Creek valley, across the valley to Bensen Plateau, and west through the Gorge. Well, the view to our south, up the valley, was rather foreboding.
Yes, that's a really nasty wave of clouds spilling down over Nick Eaton Ridge and Green Point Mountain.
It was a monster wave!
Looking across the Table Mountain landslide, about 8:30, west into the Gorge. Shaping up to be a nice day back there.
I had told Jim that the way up was mostly about the exercise.
This (above) was one of two views we had before climbing right into that wave. Otherwise, it was just a really nice forest, and a pretty nice trail, we were climbing up through and along.
The kind of sight that makes you wonder if mcds got bored. We counted no fewer than 17 cuts!
We veered off at about 3100' to a little point that I'd read offered some nice views. I really need to revisit those TRs to determine what the heck gave me that idea! What we did see, was the rest of our climb into the clouds, stretching out ahead of and above us.
Jim surveying the sky from Pt 3159.
The last 1000' up Nick Eaton Ridge, with a little saddle to lend false hope about 2/3 of the way up. Note cloud wave hasn't moved.
Cloud wave still spilling over Green Point, into the Herman Creek valley, about 9:00.
This next stretch was a good, fun test, though. I didn't think so, until I downloaded my track later that night, but after dropping back down off Pt 3159, the trail climbs 1000' in just about 0.8 miles. It then levels off for some ways all along Nick Eaton Ridge, until reconnecting with Gorton Creek Trail farther south.
Up, up, up...
... into the clouds!
Pausing at the Casey Creek junction, as it was one of the few visible landmarks we could calibrate to.
For all of 15 or 20 seconds, the sun poked tentatively through the clouds. SNAP!
We paused in the forest, for me to don my windbreaker. No need to wait for this viewpoint at which we did not even linger!
The forest floor was full of fungus, though, which livened things up a bit.
Continuing on to Green Point Mountain, we ran into virtually no snow at all compared to Craig's recent report of just two days prior. The thing that was just incredibly striking about this trail, however, was that it was almost impossibly straight for nearly 2.5 miles. Very weird! Like driving across corn fields in the midwest, when we did come to a bend in the trail it was almost startling.
Largest patches of snow we encountered all day. These at about 4400'. (Watch that curve ahead!)
We knew we were getting close to the summit as the wind picked up and the sky thickened. Yeah, that's what I meant to say. The water content of the sky all around was got very dense. We hit two, what I can only assume on a clear day might be called, viewpoints. Each was entirely shrouded in wicked-fast moving clouds. Our thermometers registered 32-34°F. We were guessing the wind, not the gusts, but the steady wind to be blowing at around 50mph. The water in the air was mostly frozen, but what the weather people might call a "wintery mix" -- sort of like a Slurpee, but a little more dispersed and without the artificial coloring.
Gotta be a view there, right?
At the actual summit plateau, there's a nice little flat gravel viewing platform. Looked like a cliff over the edge, but really couldn't tell.
It was more than a little hard to stand up against the wind coming over the cliff face.
http://youtu.be/xggneOLvNUw
I think this captures it a bit better than the stills above.
Here, Jim is about 30' away from me. The air is pretty thick!
We didn't dally at the summit, either, of course. At this point, we were both marveling that neither of us had even begun to expect this sort of situation. However, we were both prepared with hats, gloves, pretty good wind/water protection. But still, the cold was pernicious. We high-tailed it for the Herman Creek Cut-off, still over a mile away, hoping that when we dropped down on the leeward side of the ridge the situation would improve considerably. The wind hadn't let up a bit, when we saw...
O.M.G...! Shelter from the storm! (About 12:15.)
I was really moving at this point, shooting a couple photos of our refuge on the run. (photo: Jim)
My fingers couldn't even undo the snaps on my pack. But finally, we were able to relax and eat a little lunch.
Refreshed and rarin' to go again, maybe 15 minutes later, we took the plunge off the ridge down into the valley.
Needless to say(?), the situation changed immensely as we traveled downhill into the Herman Creek drainage. We entered a virgin old growth forest of magnificent grandeur! The lush greenness of it all was awe-inspiring. And it started warming almost immediately. Which was much welcome. Within a couple miles, we were above 40°F again. The sky no longer leaked down upon us.
Long, long ago, someone worked awfully hard engineering great stretches of this trail to keep it high and dry.
Although there were still numerous minor creek crossings, all were of the dry boot variety.
The trees were ginormous! (photo: Jim)
Opportunities to pose beside them were countless. But there was no need. One just stood in awe.
The forest was dark, so I hardly took any photos. And yet. Wow...
Just doin' my part, trying to keep up with Sean! Trail maintenance never ends. (photo: Jim)
It was a glorious descent. Easiest vertical mile ever. (photo: Jim)
Some pretty nice scenery along the way, too.
We got back to the trailhead just shortly before sunset. Probably 4:30 or so. The final GPS tally put the day at just over 20 miles, and about 5700' of EG. The more generalized, recorded track computed to a bit less than that.
. . . 
http://gpsfly.org/gps_map.php?gps_id=2874&w=645&h=440
I know it sounds cliché-ish, but... It was another really great day to be in the woods!
