The Next To Last Knob -No Trail For A Fat Old Man

DaBaba · Post by **DaBaba** » Sat Mar 21, 2015 8:01 pm

Rattlesnake Peak. I knew it was a bad idea when I thunk it. But if it wasn't for bad ideas I'd hardly have any at all.

I'm going to let you know up front, I did not summit. I got to the next to last knob and eyeballed the rocky knife edge saddle to the next steep slope and said "NFW!" You can call me a pansy or a quitter. I prefer to think of it as having an uncharacteristic outburst of good sense. I was alone up there and although the distance was not far it was steep on the right and wicked steep on the left. I didnt want to be this weekend's lost hiker story and Tuesday's hiker's body recovered story. So I turned back with the summit .5-.75 mile away. Up and away. With a scramble over rocks at the end of that saddle and a steep, steep climb to the summit. I feel bad about it, but I'll try it again and go with someone who can run down and fetch SAR if I expire up there.

I couldn't convince anyone to go with me. The ones that were interested couldn't, and the rest said that "that doesnt sound like fun." I researched it on line and asked about it here. Nobody sugar coated it. It was uniformly described as a difficult hike, but I still wanted to do it.

I set the alarm for O'Dark 30, and hit the snooze button when it went off. I got to the gate on Shoemaker about quarter of Getting Light and set some guys straight looking for the trailhead to he Bridge to Nowhere then took of down the road towards the tunnels. The description said look for a cairn once you catch a glimpse of the 1st tunnel. But I rounded a corner and caught my first glimpse of the tunnel a couple hundred yards away and knew I went too far. I went back and rounded the corner and saw the trail right away. They say look for a cairn, but I say look for mile marker 3.39.

I scrambled up the beginning of the trail and walked up a overgrown road and beared away to the right where it became a single track and went down to the wash. I crossed it and climbed back up to the road near a crushed rusty culvert. It looked like some tracks went up the wash, but I didn't follow that. For all I know that could be the way to the chair lift. The road was overgrown and the trail indistinct, but it was easy to make out the way.

After a little bit the trail left the road and went up steeply to the ridge. From their it climbed up the ridge and a series of knobs. It was relentlessly steep and loose. The wasn't any cover, the grass, plants and bushes were green, but none higher than ankle height. The hillsides had a kind of ravaged beauty with the remnants of the Williams Fire all around. There was absolutely no cover and has to be brutal when it's hot. Thankfully there was a cooling breeze and it wasn't too hot.

I thought that there might be a couple of level parts, but they were few and short. It was up and up and up. I came up to the next to last knob, and it was much steeper and loose, but the end was in sight.

I made it up there in just over 3 hours. I know most of y'all could run up to the summit with a 75lb pack full of rocks and just a Dixie cup full of water in an hour, but I'm a fat old man and felt good about my time.

But up top I walked across the knob to the saddle joining the last knob before the ridge turned right and up to the summit. That saddle was a rocky knife edge. Steep to the left and wicked steep to the right. And the trail went left. The saddle wasn't any kind of distance and led to a scramble at the base of that last steep knob. I eyeballed it and looked up at the summit, probably less than .75 -.5 miles away. I might have been able to do it once, but I'd have to do it twice. It wasn't the steepness that did it for me it was that damn 20 yard traverse. I feel bad, but all I could think of was my wife giving me shit if she ever saw the pictures, or worse fell up there.

I rested up on that next to last knob, soaking in the views and taking pictures. The views were awesome and worth the hike.

The descent was almost as difficult as the ascent. Did I mention that it was steep and loose? Because it was. And an old guy like me with fragile knees has to be careful. It's almost easier climbing than descending. I slipped twice and since one of my poles broke it was slow going. In one section it was worse down low than higher up which was a surprise because I didn't remember that part as being particularly steep.

A couple of times I lost the trail and thought I might have gotten onto the wrong ridge, but I'd run into a cairn and set myself straight. You can see the road all the way and once down lower the wash leading to the gully that marks the trailhead.

To complete my ignominity, I fell again about 20' above the road, but since I hadn't seen another human being no one saw it.

It's a difficult trek to be sure, but not all that bad. I hope to go back when it's cooler with other people and complete the hike, but even without summiting I felt pretty good about it. There's something about being up there away from the crowds you run into on popular trails.

Thus completes my trip report. To all those who advised me not to do it, feel free to tell me "I told you so."

Post by **HikeUp** » Sat Mar 21, 2015 11:31 pm

Excellent attempt. I remember sitting on that knob drinking a gatorade and thinking hmmm. Tim strolled by and I knew Taco and crew were coming up fast behind me. I said to myself...plenty of people around to point out to SAR where my body was. So I continued on and made it. You'll do the same next time, just bring a partner to ease the anxiety.

oldcoot · Post by **oldcoot** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 5:47 am

Yes, very nice try and report...sounds exactly like my last attempt (on my 62nd birthday in 2008)...we even turned around at the same spot!

So where are those pix? (We want to see what it looks like now..)

Here's a shot of the FANG benchmark from 2004 (forgot to get a shot of it in 2003...)

Thanks for the report!

oldcoot

Post by **Uncle Rico** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 6:45 am

Excellent attempt and even a better report.

DaBaba · Post by **DaBaba** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 5:49 pm

I tried to post a couple of pictures, but for some reason was not successful. I'll try later with another device. It was really picturesque up there and well worth the trip.

Mike P · Post by **Mike P** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 8:05 pm

Thanks for the TR! Those kinds of hikes go into my "Unfinished Business" file. Another day ... you'll make it right!

Post by **Taco** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 11:33 pm

I dig it. 8)

DaBaba · Post by **DaBaba** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 9:27 am

I tried to upload a bunch of pictures through a couple of devices, but apparently it is beyond my capabilities.

Two took. How and why I don't know. The rest I kept getting error messages until I lost patience with it. Maybe I need a tutorial on uploading pictures here.

Click to see full size image

RichardK · Post by **RichardK** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 1:48 pm

Here are the steps that I use to put pictures in my posts:

1. The picture must exist somewhere on the internet usually in one of the picture sharing services. I like Smugmug, but there are several others.

2. In the picturing sharing website, right click the picture and select properties. Copy the entire URL of the picture. It will look something like this:

http://richardk.smugmug.com/Nature/Deat ... 38-1-L.jpg

3. In your message on this board, sandwich the picture URL in between the double quote marks in this command:

This Spinx moth caterpillar is the result:

oldcoot · Post by **oldcoot** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 7:19 pm

Nice pix! (And Richard's caterpillar, too!)

It didn't look much different back in 2004:

...and from a little higher up (in 2003):

oldcoot

DaBaba · Post by **DaBaba** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 10:25 pm

Thank you RichardK. I'll try that. I tried to attach files directly and that didn't work well.[/b]

Post by **tekewin** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 5:21 pm

Great effort on a tough mountain. It will be easier next time now that you have the lay of the land. You got some of the best views of Big Iron from there. Thanks for the report.

DaBaba · Post by **DaBaba** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 9:50 pm

Sorry dudes. I've had enough. One day I'll figure out how to post pictures here, but not today.

I really am not usually this incompetent, but this is confounding me.

It was a great hike, notwithstanding the fact that I didn't summit. Next time.

RichardK · Post by **RichardK** » Sat Mar 28, 2015 2:19 pm

Flickr appears to work differently from Smugmug when it comes to posting pictures to a discussion forum. Here is how I got it to work. View your picture on Flickr. Click the right pointing arrow that means Share. Select HTML in the dialogue box that opens. The size of the picture can be selected from the drop down box. I picked "Medium 374 X 500". You can play with different sizes to make the picture the size that suits you. Copy that whole string that starts with

This is the result:

DaBaba · Post by **DaBaba** » Tue Mar 31, 2015 10:21 pm

My friend, you are assuming that I have way more patience than I possess. And my inability to follow directions has been pointed out to me more times than I care to mention.

Suffice to say that it was a good hike, albeit a failed attempt, and the views were great even if the trail was not particularly scenic.

RichardK · Post by **RichardK** » Wed Apr 01, 2015 8:36 pm

DaBaba wrote: ↑My friend, you are assuming that I have way more patience than I possess. And my inability to follow directions has been pointed out to me more times than I care to mention.

Suffice to say that it was a good hike, albeit a failed attempt, and the views were great even if the trail was not particularly scenic.

Well, OK, but us old guys have to stick together. Otherwise, the young stud rock climbers will run over us roughshod.

Phil B · Post by **Phil B** » Fri Apr 03, 2015 1:31 pm

Nice report Dababa, and written with a great sense of humor as well,
see you on the trail'

Phil