Fri, Aug 5, 2016
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Hunewill Peak lies in the heart of the Hoover Wilderness, at the far west end of the high ridgeline north of Robinson Creek and Twin Lakes, just north of Yosemite NP. It would be the northernmost summit ever for the Sierra Challenge, chosen because it was one of the highest named summits in the area I had yet to visit and it sported more than 750ft of prominence. The route we planned to use goes up the Robinson Creek Trail nearly to Barney Lake before turning right. An old trail goes up to Little Lake and over a saddle southwest of Hunewill. Whether we'd be able to find this trail, depicted on the older 15' topo map, was a matter of conjecture, but one way or another it seemed this would be the best route. A few of the participants started from the north at Buckeye Creek in order to add a handful of bonus peaks that included Eagle, Victoria and Robinson Peaks.
We had 22 folks at the parking lot at Twin Lakes for our 6a start, all but
Robert Wu heading up the Robinson Creek Trail (Robert headed south up the Horse
Creek drainage to do Whorl and Matterhorn). Not all of those that gathered for
our group shot
at the start of the trail were heading to the peak. Evan, Don
and Jim had plans to do their own challenge within the Challenge, seeking out
backcountry lakes to catch fish. Evan had done this on previous Challenges, but
this was the first time he'd had other like-minded folks who found more
interest in fish over summits. Our group did not stay cohesive long. As is
usual, Sean, Rob and others sped off in front, others cruised at a more
leisurely pace, myself
somewhere in the middle.
I spent time chatting with the
various participants, new and old, as we hiked up the trail under a blue sky
for an hour. As one approaches Barney Lake the trail passes through a wild,
jungle-ish section of heavy alder, willow, aspens and other brushy plants.
Somewhere in here was our turnoff for Hunewill, but if there was a junction
with the old trail somewhere, we all missed it (others reported finding this
junction on the way back: see Patrick O'Neill's
GPS track
on peakbagger.com if interested).
I paused at the only clearing I found, where I hoped some pine trees would
offer some respite from the more jungle-like stuff.
Eight of the group
stopped with me as we paused to get out gloves or otherwise get ready for some
old-fashioned bushwhacking. Others ahead of us had continued further towards
Barney Lake. We would be into the brush and out of sight before those behind
us had caught up.
Normally I would find this sort of terrain tedious, but I knew from the start
that it would be so much more fun with a group. There is something
sadistically fun about hearing your mate shout out in pain when thwacked in
head by a branch or stumbling over a fallen log. And there was plenty of that
today - this stuff was thick, way over head level and by far the most
difficult bushwhacking ever encountered during the Challenge (Ok, I
have to take that back, because Rick Kent and I once descended
Division Creek on our
way back from Colosseum, and that took the cake, but there were only
two of us and it wasn't nearly this much fun). The others were content to let
me take the lead, weaving through the stuff in a very meandering manner, the
ensuing banter keeping things entertaining. In a much smaller group, I would
feel a compunction to ensure everyone got through it safely and together, but
with nine of us and in the spirit of the Challenge, I felt no such duty
whatsoever. I simply kept plowing through the brush until whoever was behind
me lost sight and soon sound of me. There was some surprising rocks to scramble
over in the midst of this, a combination of class 3 scrambling and heavy brush.
I heard Matt way in the back ask if someone had dropped a [trekking] pole.
Iris's voice came drifting up, "Oh, that's mine." A few minutes later, Matt's
exasperated voice could be heard, "So, are you going to wait for it?" Iris may
have been more concerned about being left in the brush than retrieving an
expensive pole, and hadn't at first considered that Matt might not want to
carry it through the brush with his own set of poles and other gear. Sheepishly,
"Oh, Sorry!"
Though it seemed longer, the trip through the brush lasted but 20min, at least
for those of us that got through it
first. I found myself alone and out of
earshot from the others when I finally got onto steeper, but far
less brushy terrain.
I found remnants of the old trail, unmistakable as it showed signs of
meticulous stonework and other improvements from bygone decades. The trail
weaved through the forest and rock in a non-direct manner. Sometimes I followed
it, other times I lost patience and went more directly up, but it was neat to
have found another of these lost trails that are sprinkled throughout the
range. I never did see Lost Lake, having skirted it to the south, out of sight,
though others reported passing by it. In the drainage above the lake there is
a hanging valley
with a lush meadow that made for a pleasant crossing. On the
other side the going gets steep again as one makes their way to the main crest
where the trail (now long lost) goes over the saddle between Cirque Mtn and
Hunewill Peak. I ran into
Sean Reedy just before the crest and then
Rob Houghton a little later as the three of us were making our way up
the very
steep ridgeline that featured no small amount of frustrating
sand. It was after 9:30a when we
topped out on an intermediate summit,
Peak 11,663ft, less than half a mile
from Hunewill. It fell just short
of the prominence required to qualify as a bonus peak, but it did have a neat
little register that had been left by Barbara and Gordon back
in 1981.
It had a dozen pages in the small notepad that was cut in half in typical
MacLeod fashion. After putting it back in place, we descended nearly 300ft to a
broad,
sandy saddle with Hunewill and climbed the boulders and rock
to Hunewill in 20min.
We were hardly surprised to see Sean already there (probably sitting around for
an hour or so), but Michael was with him
as well, sporting his grin that says,
"What took you so long?" He had taken a more direct route up to Hunewill, and
despite the steepness and great amount of sand to plow through, it had proven
to be a faster route. We had also expected to see Eric and Mason who had planned
to start early from Buckeye Creek in order to reach Hunewill around the same
time as us. They were no where to be seen and later we would find that their
route had been more difficult than they had guessed. Chris Henry eventually
joined our group to
make six. As we were discussing bonus peaks, it
seemed that everyone except me wanted to stretch the day a bit longer by tagging
one or more extra peaks. Most wanted to continue NE along the ridge
to Victoria Peak while
Rob was thinking of going to Cirque. I had been to all of these already and
didn't feel the love necessary to tackle them a second time. So after about
20min atop Hunewill (which has a very
fine view overlooking Northern
Yosemite across Robinson Creek), I bid the others farewell as I headed back.
I used Michael's more direct route
for the descent, a nice bootski down 3,000ft
of sand and rock over the course of a mile. I tried to avoid the brush below,
but somehow found myself entangled in the heavy stuff for about five minutes
before stumbling out
onto the trail again. Others reported much better
route-finding, either avoiding the brush altogether or finding the old trail
where it weaved neatly through the heaviest brush. As I was making my way back
along the trail over the next hour, I was regularly getting passed by members
of the Clovis HS cross-country team, both boys and girls. They were in the area
for a training camp and were finishing an eight mile run to Barney Lake and
back. I returned
to the parking lot
by 12:30p, a six and a half hour effort.
I changed into swim trunks to take a brisk swim in the lake before settling
down at a picnic table on the grassy lakeshore to enjoy a beer and await the
arrival of the other participants. About a dozen came in during the three hours
I hung around.
Sean
was the second to arrive, a full hour after I'd returned.
By going to the bonus peaks, the others had essentially spotted me a full hour's
lead on the Yellow Jersey. The bigger competition would be for the Polka Dot
Jersey, or King of the Mountain, with six participants doing four or more
bonus peaks, three of these (Scott, Mason, Eric) managing five to share the
lead.
Later in the afternoon we reconvened at the Whoa Nellie Deli at the junction of US395 and SR120. Beers and mango margaritas complimented some well-earned food while we joked and recapped the day's adventures. Hours later we dribbled away to various motels, cars or tents where we planned to spend the night. I drove up SR120 with a number of others to use an old section of road to park five of our cars for the night. With occasional traffic up and down the road, it wasn't the quietest of spots, but it would do. We were heading into Yosemite the next morning and this was only about 10min's drive away...
Continued...
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