Iron Mountain,
Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2010 4:19 pm
On Saturday (03/27/2010) I hiked Iron Mountain. Arriving at the East Fork at 6.30am i was amazed to find the parking lot full, mostly with people who were gold panning. This had me thinking, "Is there something I don't know - are these guys making bank or is it just a seasonal fad, I've never seen this many here before.
Anyway, getting back to Iron Mountain it was a perfect day for hiking fairly cool on the way up although the wind did kick up near the summit, which I reached in 5 hours 25 minutes, thats a reasonable time for me although the likes of Rick G and Alan K would knock an hour off of that. There was snow around the summit area especially on the North facing side but no crampons or ice axes are needed, the summit log is still under snow and while I know where it is did not bother trying to dig for it.
I headed back down at a comfortable pace and reached the trailhead for a round trip time of 9 hours. All in all this is a great time of year to be on Iron Mountain, before the heat and dust build up, I only saw two other hikers on the trail all day.
Pics: http://philbrown.smugmug.com/Other/Iron ... 7749_bdBxM
http://philbrown.smugmug.com/Other/Iron ... 7749_bdBxM
Anyway, getting back to Iron Mountain it was a perfect day for hiking fairly cool on the way up although the wind did kick up near the summit, which I reached in 5 hours 25 minutes, thats a reasonable time for me although the likes of Rick G and Alan K would knock an hour off of that. There was snow around the summit area especially on the North facing side but no crampons or ice axes are needed, the summit log is still under snow and while I know where it is did not bother trying to dig for it.
I headed back down at a comfortable pace and reached the trailhead for a round trip time of 9 hours. All in all this is a great time of year to be on Iron Mountain, before the heat and dust build up, I only saw two other hikers on the trail all day.
Pics: http://philbrown.smugmug.com/Other/Iron ... 7749_bdBxM
http://philbrown.smugmug.com/Other/Iron ... 7749_bdBxM