Earl Peak and Iron Peak

General Stats

Earl and Iron Peak
Distance: 15 miles
Elevation Gain: 5000 feet
YDS Class 2

Trip Report

With the calls of iffy weather on the western side I had a strong desire to head east to the Teanaway Region. Jason and Fran were head off to Malcolm Mountain so I luckily talked them into dropping me off a little up the road so that I could do Iron Peak. So how did Earl Peak involved here. Well after looking at the map I felt this strange confidence to do both. I knew I was going to have to be quick and not mess around on any summit, because both of these mountains are larger and tougher than Malcolm Mountain.



So we all met the La Quinta where I worked and headed off to the Teanaway Region. Jason dropped me off at the Beverly Creek Trailhead at 10:15 and I was off and running. It was nice to see all of the fall foliage out on the drive to the trailhead. Kind of reminded me a little of back east.



Now when I said I was off and running I [b]was[/b]. Earl Peak went down in 1 hour and 30 minutes with me not even slowing up until the final bootpath to the summit. For some of you this is slow but to me I was very happy. Earl Peak was beautiful to look at with it's fresh mere dusting of snow and the beautiful larch fully charged below. I did though have to catch my breath though, because as most of you know I am not normally that quick. After some time on the summit, I decided to bushwhack down the ridge toward Mt. Beans and then hit the trail on the north side. Due to not having an beta on Mt. Beans I decided not to go for it because it looked like at least Class 3 and I was alone.



Earl Panorama



The bushwhack did take a little while but I followed the map and with some careful follow I pickup the trail in the saddle and took it back to the Beverly Turnpike Trail. I moved at a decent clip here, knowing in the back of my mind that Jason and Fran were doing a much easier mountain and then were coming back to pick me up.

I was maneuvered quickly past a group of Mountaineers and then briskly head to the summit of Iron Peak. This was all at a moderate grade but I was on a role, and was getting considered about the fact that MM and BC were going to be waiting for me at the parking lot. I was also tired but somehow I erased that along with many of the typical pain and cruised to the summit of Iron Peak.

Iron Peak Panorama


After taking a couple of good pictures and a video it was time to book down. The problem was that my knee was tender so I couldn't run down the mountain. Getting down only took an hour and a half despite the pain but was worried that Jason and Fran were going to be mad when I got back to the trailhead. I had already made up the excuse about why I was late. I closer I got down the more my brisk walk became a run. After I hit the first intersection I was pretty much running most of the way. I now could only how angry they were going to be at me.



I got to the bottom and to my surprise Jason and Fran were not back. It was basically around 5:20 and I had plenty of thoughts swirling my head at this point. I thought at first that they got tired of waiting and decided to get food. Then other thoughts started to hit my head. I tried to lay my head against the rock and tried to rest a little. But my paranoia was getting the best. After thirty minutes I decided to get up and decided to walk to the main road. Just at that time Jason and Fran picked me up and we were on our way back. They had just got back from Malcolm Mountain.


After the hikes we decided to enjoy a nice meal at a Mexican place and headed on back. We saw a number of deer on the side way back head to Cle Elum. Boy was I tired but I thoroughly enjoyed my first solo adventure in a long time.

Images

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