Sun, Jun 16 2013 - Apgar Mountains (Highpoint) (View Original Event Details) Coordinator(s): Larry Hiller Participants: Larry Hiller, Brian Kennedy, Tim Anderson, Laurel R. Vielle, Frank Wesolovski, Jason Wilkes, Don Scharfe, Colleen Scharfe

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On a sunny Sunday, we hiked the trail for about 4 miles to the saddle, before cutting off-trail and taking a direct line to gain access to the ridge. From there, it’s a Class 2 hike up, over, and down the numerous intermittent bumps along the ridge to reach our objective. For most of the way, we had our choice of walking upon either a band of consolidated snow still hugging the NE aspect of the ridge or upon the adjacent ribbon of vegetation.

The views of course were extraordinary -- a panorama of peaks from Long Knife in the north to St. Nick in the South -- and the wildflowers were abundant. The thrill of the day occurred as we crested one of the many small bumps on the ridge. We surprised a young mama grizzly and two yearling cubs who had been relaxing in the snow. Before we could even think about grabbing bear spray, the bears skedaddled, dropping down into the trees towards the North Fork.

Having reached the highpoint, we were tempted to continue on the side ridge, dropping directly down towards the Camas Road. Although that route out would have been much shorter, we had been warned about all the downfall, making the last half-mile to the road very tough going. Consequently, we retraced our route back out. That entailed regaining a lot of vertical on a pretty warm day. The climb was well-worth the effort. We figured about 14 miles R/T distance and total vertical of approximately 5200 feet.