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Clark
Mountain - Walrus Glacier  Highpoint Elevation: 8602
Feet (Not Reached) Region/Location: Dakobed Range Trip Length:
13 Hours RT Route: Boulder Basin / Walrus Glacier Difficulty:
Long & Strenuous Elevation Gain: 6302 Feet Roundtrip Distance:
25 Miles Trailhead Elevation: White River @ 2300' Date: June
28, 2003 Media: "Out of Time" Photos by : Scott Harder / Sergio Verdina |
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Clark Mountain was an idea that Sergio had bounced around here and there,
and since John had done it the week before with another group (The Mountaineers), we got
some beta that made us help make our decision to "give it a go". There
were several other cars, but no one else around at the trailhead upon our late arrival. We assumed we were
the only ones attempting a one-day trip. We pulled our bikes
and all the gear out of the Subaru, and piled our sleeping material
inside. We got to sleep around midnight, ready for a 4am start. We settled
into our comfy bivouac just west of Lake Wenatchee at the wonderfully
dusty Boulder Pass trailhead. Before I knew it we were up and hopping
on our bikes and riding on a trail by headlamp. Sergio has a cool bike
and I have a shitty one, not making excuses, but it was hard to keep
up with him with no shocks, and pitiful skills with a mountain bike kept
me lagging behind. We reached the 4-mile junction within 45 minutes
and stashed our bikes. On our way up we noticed some bear scat here
and there, but thought nothing of it. From our research, we learned
there was a river crossing in the vicinity. Tired and in a zombie state,
we thought we had to cross the White River. Sergio tried the fjord at
first, but the river was forcing him downstream, and he was already
thigh high and had only gone out 5 feet. We tried to find another way
across the river, and then Sergio noticed a large log crossing the river
upstream. Sergio tried first and did not like it, but I thought it was
better than the fjord. I began to scoot across gingerly, lifting myself
over the short branch stubs that protruded in all the wrong places.
It took me about 10 minutes to do this masochistic task, and once over
I was very happy. Sergio followed and was able to follow the same route. We then set out to find the trail. We went north, south, east,
west, and could not find much other than an animal trail or simialr.
We finally decided to head uphill and figured that we would run into
the trail somewhere. After almost 1.5 hours of disgustingly mosquito ridden bushwhacking,
we made the realization that we crossed the wrong river and were on
the wrong side of the valley. I was upset, and knew that we had to go
back down through all this crap again. We were about halfway down when
Sergio noticed a black bear in the trees about 150 feet below us. We
were in a small clearing and were looking down on her. I then noticed
that her baby cub was to our right, placing us almost in-between the
two. I did not know much about bears, but I did know this was not a
good scenario. The mother started to make some real scary noises, like
grunting and jaw popping, and would lunge forward and then plow through
the brush making trails like T Rex in Jurassic Park. At this point I
almost started to think I might pee my pants, but the mother went away
since her cub was headed in the opposite direction of us. We decided
to circumnavigate around the area of the bear and get to the tree crossing
ASAP. Of course the only thought that was going through my mind was
"What do I do if we get chased?" We finally found the log crossing, and I got on that log so fast and
scurried across that I might have set a record! Once across I noticed
the sign that pointed us up a maintained trail to "Boulder Pass". We
decided we had to hoof it real fast to make up for the 2 hours of lost
time in the brush. We ascended up the White River Valley and over into
the Boulder Creek Valley and made our way to Boulder Pass. We found
the main creek fjord, and it was quite minor compared to what we thought
we had to do. From there on it was just a slog on some snow patches
here and there to Boulder Pass. To this point it was 12.5 miles, and
I felt it since we had to hoof it pretty quickly, and I had truly "bonked". We traversed around the backside on some somewhat steep slopes above
some cliffs towards the saddle near the Walrus Glacier (Clark Glacier).
Once we hit the saddle we could see what our objective was, and it looked
real far away. Sergio was like the energizer bunny, and I was feeling
like the tortoise, unable to move quickly I was, "so suck". Sergio got way ahead of me and then backtracked towards me. We made
a decision to abort from here, since he had to be back in Seattle by
9pm; it meant we had to turn around at 2pm. We found a small satellite
peak near the SE ridgeline that came in just under 7k, and we laid around
lazily for about 1 hour. The Walrus Glacier was very impressive to gape
at, and the funniest thing was that we thought the SE highpoint was
the summit, when indeed it was the peak just to it's right. The hike down was uneventful, but became painful near the last ½ mile
before the boulder pass/white river trail junction. It was at that point
I was very happy to have the bike. We road down the trail pretty darn
quick, but me and my poor bike and my poor skills kept us going pretty
slow, yet faster and less effort than slogging. I plan on coming back
soon to nail this sucker in a day, and will know the approach much better
next time……………. Directions: Go to Lake Wenatchee and go past it for a long ways and go up a Forest Road to the end. Then you'll be there. Have fun. Book References: Cascade Alpine Guide, Volume 2, Second Edition; Fred Beckey; Pages 149-150 Web References: www.ericsbasecamp.net www.sverdina.com www.mountainwerks.org
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