Two Tales on Navaho

Trip Stats:
Time: 9 Hours
Date: May 23, 2010
Distance: 13.2 Miles
Who Came: Eastking, Curtissimo, Mtn. Climber, ONELUV1, Jimbopo, and I
Destinations: Navaho Peak and Little Navaho
Elevation gain: 4,100 Feet
Max Hieght: 7,200 Feet on Navaho


The trip started out us all meeting together at the Issaquah Parking Ride, although we met Mtn. Climber at the trailhead. When we got to the East side the weather was much better than the west. Unfortunately we all knew that this clear weather would not last long, so we hit the trail around 9 a.m. Curtissimo was working up quiet a pace, I had to jog to keep up with him which was hard on my shins, and some how the start for me was the hardest part of the trip.

The Crux for me

Curtissimo soon slowed down, and the pace was decent by this point. As we went further and further through the valley the weather took a turn, it started to snow, which was no suprise to me, infact the conditions were much better than I had anticipated.

The trail by this point was nowhere to be found, so we had to navigate a little to get up to the ridge, and figure out which peak was Navaho. I’ll admit most of us did not believe Eastking when he said it was the tree covered one, but eventually we all realized he was right that it was.

Break Time		Navaho

Looking South of Us

Then we traversed east to get onto the ridge of Navaho. Views of the Enchanments opened up, but soon got foggy. After a few moments things cleared up, which I was amazed at how long views cleared up for.

Crevasse

Navaho Again		Ice Break up		Ok, there were not acual crevasses, just snow cracks

		Michael Behind me		Looking Towards the Enchanments

				The Ridge Behind Us

The Enchanment Range

Foggy Enchanments

The Summit Ridge was nice, when Mount Stuart came out of the clouds it kept stealing my attention. As I near The group, I ask "Is this the summit?" Eastking replied "no its four more miles". I thought "oh man!", but fortunately he was kidding. Soon I too was on the summit.

Mount Stuart in Clouds

Looking East		Beautiful Mount Stuart		Looking West

Our Crew (excluding me)		Me with Mount Stuart		Feeling cold with Stuart

Taking a nice Look		Us together on the Summit (Taken by Michael)

Summit Panorama

We took some quick photos, had some food, and of course put on more clothes because it was freezing up there. It was now time for part two of the trip, Little Navaho. We decended the ridge in very good time, avoiding the cornice to our left. Towards the bottom there was a bit of class 2 loose rock we had to be careful of. As we went down we got caught in a storm I knew was unavoidable, it was now snowing with some winds. When we got to the bottom I must of had 100 pebbles in my boots so I had to get them out. 

		Ingalls Peaks		Heading Down

Eastking Heading out		Looking towards Little Navaho

Looking Down		Looking back at the Scramble		Getting ready

By this point I became quite cold, but felt better once I had my jacket on (my armor). The place became enchanting quite fast, you really felt like you were mountaineering by this point. The snow got inside my pack fast too when grabbing my jacket. Heading up to Little Navaho for most of us was the funnest part of the trip.    After heading up a ways through the storm things calmed down, and soon we got to our next summit.

Getting Snowed		Eastking Leading the Way

		Michael heading up to the Summit

Although we got a sunclearing, there was no view from the top, atleast earlier’s views were enough to satisfy us. On the way down there were some nice glassades.  We went down a snowed over creek to get towards the bottom, followed a rocky ridge, and to my amazement found the trail!

Mtn. Climber		Looking East		Curtis Glassading

Curt Heading Down

From here on out we got to do some trail jogging to get down, although after a while it began to feel longer than what I had remembered, but don’t most peaks do that?  We arrived around the trailhead at 6 p.m.
This proved to be an awesome choice for a hike, hope next weekends will be atleast as good if not better!

Taking a last look		Trail Running