Sun, Jul 9 2006 - Mt. Furlong (View Original Event Details) Coordinator(s): Larry Hiller Participants: Larry Hiller

Steve Berg and Ken McDermott joined me for the climb on a sunny Sunday. The plan was to ascend Furlong, continue around the ridge above Tranquil Basin and climb Devil's Hump as well, but we had a group energy crisis. Ken and I had participated in strenuous climbs the preceding day and Steve was still rehabilitating from knee surgery. It was not difficult to talk ourselves into simply enjoying the summit of Furlong and the view of the basin. After we tarried a bit on the peak, we retraced our route down the Edna Creek Trail to complete a short, but enjoyable climb.

In September I returned with Linda Soper and her dog, Emily, to the same spot. The previous year we had found a bumper crop of huckleberries along the trail traversing beneath Furlong. This year the late summer drought had taken its toll and the crop was sparse. Reaching the Tranquil Basin ridge, we continued around to the far side of the basin, scrambled to the top of Devil's Hump and then to the next high point to the east. We didn't want to retrace our route back to the Edna Creek Trail and we were not confident of finding a good way to intersect the Devil Creek Trail below. We opted therefore to return to the saddle east of Devil's Hump, wrap around to the north side and drop down to the highway. Although that's often a recipe for disaster, it worked out. We passed through some beautiful, high meadows, crossed a ridge, got into some moderate bushwhacking (the alder kind) and then hit a dry, solid rock stream bed that delivered us to the highway. The downside was that we had to walk the road for about three miles back to the vehicle. Other than that, it was a nifty loop route.