EISPIRATEN

So last week I hiked towards West Mermaid. Did the approach, but ran out of time to finish it. Yesterday I showed up early with a new plan, to complete the job. Instead of walking up Bear Creek, I started at the Valley of the Moon trailhead. I'd go over Smith Mountain saddle, then down to the river then DOWN Bear Creek. This is longer, but

1. I could bike the first 3 miles from the trailhead to the saddle
2. Doing it this way, the section in Bear Creek is only 1 mile long instead of 3 miles coming from below. The unending river crossings are slow.

headsizeburrito did a similar thing but without a bike, and bagging Smith Mountain in the process.

At 6:30 I started riding. Met some hikers near the bottom who warned me about the brush encroaching the trail on the other side of the saddle. If they only knew. Didn't see anybody else all day. Got to the saddle, stashed the bike, walked down to Bear Creek. The approach to West Fork Bear Creek is similar as the last time. Saw some huge mushrooms near the river



With some more traditional ones nearby



West Fork Bear Creek is as I left it the last time. Saw a Great Blue Heron (maybe?) and an unhappy rattler. Saw one extra bit of human activity: just below the creek junction at 2900ft there're some pots/pans in a tree. Look like they've been there for a LONG time.

Alright, so at 2900ft the main branch of West Fork Bear Creek turns N. West Mermaid is still to the W, so I took that branch of the creek. This is much drier, but still has water. Pretty soon there's a waterfall:



There's a bypass on the left on a good deer trail. Lots of deer trails above, and it's clear-ish of brush. I took a trail back to the creekbed past the waterfall. Here the canyon was narrow and filled with debris. Fighting this didn't seem worth it, so I left the drainage, and started the climb here. Headsizeburrito: you stayed down in the drainage all the way to the saddle N of the peak, right? How was that?

I tried to link up the deer trails on a SW line, aiming for the E ridge of the peak. It isn't bad for the most part. The upper part below the ridge is very brushy, however, and I was doing a lot of crawling. Eventually you can see the peak



I topped on on the ridge at ~ 4000ft. Here the terrain improves. The brush thins out a bit, there're clear spots, and rocks. The N side of the ridge is almost friendly.



And you can look back on Middle Mermaid, and whatever snow is left on Baldy. You can also see Smith Mountain saddle, where I came from.



Then there's a bump



There's a bypass of that wall on the left. Once on top, you can see a long ridge from the South connecting to more bumps:



(note: this is tilted; the ridge in the background should be straight-ish). Everything about this feels like the Triplets.



The left one is taller. And I want to say that the right one is a part of the North ridge that headsizeburrito climbed. Yes? I walked to the saddle, then walked around looking for a weak spot. It's prety cliffy, but there're some class 3 chutes on the left. Finished those, topped out, and felt the same disappointment that headsizeburrito felt when he saw that the high point wasn't here, but on an uninteresting, slightly higher and VERY brushy bump to the West. You can actually see it in the photo: it's the thing on the left. Probably the worst bushwhacking of the whole day was here. Normally I'd find a bypass, but this was the high point. Eventually I broke through, 6 hours 20 minutes from the start. I spooked a roadrunner, found headsizeburrito's VERY nice Pelican case register, and signed the book. I'm taking bets: how many signatures there other than the two of us? Cool views:











I returned the box



And started the return trip. Pop quiz: which of these two chutes doesn't cliff-out at the bottom?



Answer: neither! I felt very pleased with myself that I marked my chute as I was climbing up, but I didn't do that ENOUGH, so there was some guessing happening, still. Worked out. Since the top of Mermaid ridge was friendlier than the slopes beneath, I had a thought to take this all the way to the saddle at ~ 3820ft. But it turned out that it gets bad past where I popped out, so I mostly ended up following the same lines back. The rest was a long slog, and I got back to the car with just enough daylight remaining to not take out the lights.

This was hard. I definitely lost some fitness. And it was a warm day AND I forgot to bring my hat. So I overheated or underhydrated, or something. Felt parched constantly, and was chugging water constantly, and it never felt like enough. Had so much water in me that the thought of eating food was really unappealing, and I forced down one clif bar all day. In the end, I made it, and the fast-food drive-thru milkshake I had was incredible.

Nice work and nice report!

Biking partway was a good idea, still happy with that new bike? Is the trail just before you drop down to the creek still super eroded?

Yeah, I took the drainage all the way to the saddle north of the peak. Can't speak to what it might be like now, but I took that route both times I went there and it worked pretty well. It was a little brushy at times and I did a little crawling here and there, but overall it worked out pretty well and made for an easy navigation landmark. After my miserable bushwhack on Middle Mermaid I was eager to try and find a route that didn't risk that type of vegetation again. Sounds like taking the ridge rather than going directly up from the saddle like I did worked out pretty well for you!

I am very curious about other signatures on the register! When I placed it I left it at the base of the rock, not on top, so if you didn't move it somebody did and if it had zero others you probably wouldn't be asking! I'm going to guess two. Assuming there are some, I hope you took a picture of the log. I'm very interested to see if others have done it and if I can find them online since before I went there I found no trip reports. If others saw mine and were motivated to get out there that would be pretty cool. The case does look a little faded and scratched in the photo, what kind of condition was it in?

Yo! The mtb is great; very monster-truck-like. No erosion on the trail; I didn't even know this was a problem recently. Signage IS a problem, but that's just a part of the character of that place, I guess.

The approach drainage was FULL of dead branches when I was there. How waterfally was it? I just saw the one. And was the right bump in this photo on your approach ridge?



You went around?

The box was on the ground when I found it. It's in fine shape, although the top side is somewhat faded from the sun. I would be really cool if somebody saw your report, and signed your book, right? Alas, we're the only cool dudes to have gone up there. This whole thing really reminded me of the Bear Creek approach to the Triplets. So people who go to THAT place for some reason should consider this one too.

Oh, and by the way there were cut down trees on top of the ridge. So at some point there were firefighters up there. Is your box fire-proof?

Aww, the way you asked the question got me excited that others had signed it, but otherwise I wouldn't have expected any.

Full of dead branches sounds like a good reason to find an alternate route! It wasn't bad when I was there. There is only one significant waterfall further up the drainage that is about 30' high, there is a picture of it in my first West Mermaid trip report. I got around it by traversing the north slope, but it was quite steep and loose. Not terrible, but definitely a place you wouldn't want to slip. I think there were a couple other minor falls, but nothing that should be an obstacle, unless things have changed with debris washed down since.

Here is the close GPS track of my two visits to the summit:



So from the GPS track you can see I did go to the bump on the right in your pic, but approached it from the saddle, it sounds like you were on the ridge much sooner than that. I don't remember if I wasn't sure which was the true summit or just exploring at the time, but the second time (blue track) I went more directly to the true summit. Parts of that climb from the saddle to the summit are not too bad, but parts are very dense brush, which resulted in some very time consuming bushwhacking. You may have found a better way!

I don't recall seeing cut trees, but it doesn't surprise me, those firefighters seem to get around! But they probably cheated and flew in, haha. Box is definitely not fireproof, not something I considered at the time, but perhaps should have! Maybe that small clearing will provide a little safety, but in a big fire I suppose the box would become an orange puddle...

Cool report.

Great report.
Unique pictures...that 4th view is pk 5014.

Yeah. Peak 5014. Have you been there yet? How about peak 6649?

dima wrote: ↑Yeah. Peak 5014. Have you been there yet? How about peak 6649?

Ive been to both separately via ACH/devils canyon. I think all of the ones on the west ridgeish.

Great trip. Looking back at Smith saddle gives a great perspective on how far out and gnarly it is. Looks like really tough terrain, but pretty. Rugged Gabes at their best. So, your round trip time was over 12 hours?

I've read the spoiler, but I was going to guess zero other people besides you two.

Awesome. Looks like you two have established a new challenge.

More like 13-14 hours. 6.5 hours there, and it took a bit longer to get back, I think. More fitness and less water in the rivers would speed that up significantly.