EISPIRATEN

AW has been interested in this area for a long time, and we both wanted to tackle these few peaks in the SGW to see what's up.

We left around 5 something I think (I was already very tired at this point, from being sick and taking medicine). Parked at West Fork, and headed up Lower Bear Creek. I'll let the photos tell the story with captions.


Low cloud cover this morning lead us to believe it might be like this all day.


Millipede


Pk 3702 from Bear Creek


Bear Creek from the side of Pk 3702.

We hiked up a mossy scree slope on 3702, which is the best way up. All other ways are guarded by tons of brush, or require reverse-canyoneering if you approach from the south.


Large Hoverfly taking refuge on a rock



Gaining the ridge


Small class 4 section on the way up. It can be bypassed, but it's a fun, blocky section with good holds.


Down more


More to go!


The summit!

The summit is rather long, and is almost entirely covered in VERY thick brush, including Manzanita, which surprised me. not much Manzanita, but it's there.


An Arete, the way I'd like to attempt the next peak over is by this arete.


Big(ger) Mermaid

And one of the things we came here for... the great views of Twin Peaks.













(I've got more, plus high res, if anyone wants asome)

Geared up and left after some food.


Our summit marker


South over the Mermaid 'Basin', if you will.


Myself on the way down


Islip, 5495 and friends.



Underwater pics of a knife a buddy sent me to test out (custom made).


Related to Pine Drops?


Not a big fan of these.


Some Mermaid Canyon action

ALSO, I figure the peak should have a name, official or not. 3702 sounds like a prisooner's name...

IDEAS?

SP Page
http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock ... -3702.html

TacoDelRio wrote:ALSO, I figure the peak should have a name, official or not. 3702 sounds like a prisooner's name...

IDEAS?

SP Page
http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock ... -3702.html

ACME map

4654 = West Mermaid
4065 = Middle Mermaid
3702 = East Mermaid

Mermaid à trois

Cool peak, btw. Nice pics.

TacoDelRio wrote:ALSO, I figure the peak should have a name, official or not. 3702 sounds like a prisooner's name...

IDEAS?

Mt Simonov seems to roll right off the tongue.

Started out predawn driving on the freeway and hit a piece of some carpet…ekks that was scary for a low clearance car. But after getting the stuck carpet under my car free, the only damage was minor. Then I heaved the small roll of carpet back onto the freeway…OK that didnt happen.

The orginial plan was to make it a 2 day trip and climn pk 6151, but a one day trip to the mermaid ridge was in order.
We arrived at the early bird parking spot at the West Fork SG river after dawn and started up the slog of the Bear Creek trail.
The marine layer was obscuring any chance of mountain views but kept everything nice and cool. The trail was as overgrown as Ive seen it, probably more so.

Finally we got the Mermaid Draw and started up the use trail. TDR was hardly breathing extra while I was stopping every so and so distance for a min or so. We made it to the top of the ridge and had already skirted the beginning of the final phase. TDR encouraged me on as I commented on on steep this thing looks…and he was right it wasn’t as steep.
We almost made it to the summit, but it was overgrown with brush, so we had to be comfotable missing it by about 5-10ft.

We waited for the marine layer to clear out, and it finally did open up some good views. There was disappointment, as in so much for pk 6151 and any hope of tackling that from the bottom(not sure how that Bailey team tackled it many years ago in a day, it looked liked the kiss of death and way harder than I previously thought)...but I did get to see part of West Fork Bear Creek falls...it was more obvious than I expected and is hard to spot from the Redbox-Rincon road without highpowered lenses. Pk 4065 was blocking our view to the direct west and was our next objective but it was on us to get there.Seeing the bushwacking on the way there and that we would have to return the same way, we called it a day. Its only 300ft higher, but a roundtrip to there would be about extra 1200 steep ft.

The way back down all we had to do is make sure we stayed on route. Finally we ended up back at the creek to take a break.
Heading back we ran into 4 of the SGVCC(aka stimulus paid for trail maintenance). They had split into 2 with one side leaving from Smith and one side from the West Fork to meet up halfway.
I informed them they were at the end of the 'trail' and stay put until the other part of their group makes their way to them.
Later we noted that they didn’t have backpacks, but did have one water bottle each. On the way back to West Fork, I got offroute and grabbed a handful of plants to drop into the shallow creek, except I ended up grabbing strongly on that stinging nettle stuff with no gloves on.Tingling sensation didnt last too long though.

After we reached the West Fork, I commandered Taco to go to Big Mermaid canyon. Even though it was a little more than 1 mile away it felt like 3 miles.Finally, Big Mermaid cyn was a Big Disappointment, me thinks a flood having coming through and leaving a lot of debris(jncludding snapped alder trees) in its wake.

Taco, did a picture of West Fork Bear creek falls turn out? Also, a picture of the arete but not in zoomed in mode...plus one of pk6151 not zoomed in? But good pics....

sweet pics and trip report

nice work.

6151 no zoom:


Falls, some zoom:

Taco, I read about your busted black diamond pole. Call them up. I broke one, called them and they sent me a brand new lower shaft for no charge. I was amazed.

What did you tell them? Sounds like good customer service!

HikeUp wrote:

TacoDelRio wrote:ALSO, I figure the peak should have a name, official or not. 3702 sounds like a prisooner's name...

IDEAS?

SP Page
http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock ... -3702.html

ACME map

4654 = West Mermaid
4065 = Middle Mermaid
3702 = East Mermaid

Mermaid à trois

Cool peak, btw. Nice pics.

Mermaid à trois I like that one.
Well, of course since 3702 is the smallest of the three peaks, it should be called ... "the Little Mermaid."

NO MORE DISNEY.

TacoDelRio wrote:What did you tell them? Sounds like good customer service!

I just told them what broke and how do I replace it. It had been more than a year since I bought them.

Oh? I thought "I've been on top of the Little Mermaid" might appeal to you.

Harumph. I'd tell 'em what broke, but I found the thing on Ski Hut trail a year or so ago with about a billion miles on it. Held together by hopes and dreams. I threw it away at the trailhead. Figure I might pick up a single pole when money happens by... something sturdy as hell and super simple.

And Jim, you're on the right track.

the mermaid's fins look like dried kelp

yoskolo don't you eat stuff like that?

There's nothing like a little "Mammary" on the half shell?

And that little red crab on the sand has his hands up like he "Surrenders" - which most of us do eventually.