Trip Report - Windy Peak

We took a trip out to one of our favorite backpacking, camping and hiking spots, the Lost Creek Wilderness. It's fairly close to town and is a huge area to explore. This time we had our sights set on a campsite we had scouted previously, known (to us) as Camp Waldo. The name arises from the fact that when we first saw the site last summer, there was a red and white striped hat on a post near the fire pit.

Our second goal was to make a summit attempt on Windy Peak coming from the rarely used South approach. To give ourselves ample time for the summit bid, we left town after work on Friday night and drove to our launching point, the Wigwam Trailhead.

On the dirt road approach, shortly past Wellington Lake, we came upon a wash out in the road. Being in my relatively low to the ground Subaru sedan with its summer tires, we scouted the depths and after much deliberation decided to go for it. We made it across without too much trouble and pressed on. A couple miles later, we found another wash out. This one proved longer and deeper with some big ruts. After checking the GPS, we decided to park the car and add a couple miles to our hike via the road, rather than risk getting stuck.

So long Scoob!

Extra mileage. Stupid race car.

The extra distance wasn't too bad, being road miles and we hit the Wigwam Trailhead just before dusk. After adjusting our packs a bit, we hit the trail in search of Waldo. Not long after we began hiking, the sun set and we clicked on our head lamps. Fortunately the trail is well groomed and we only lost it once. Although I did manage to soak my feet in the river slipping off of a rock about a mile from the campsite.

Low clouds, as we approached the trailhead.

The trek to the campsite is just about exactly 4 miles from the trailhead, but we had added another 2.3 miles by abandoning the car on the road. By the time we set up camp, ate and got our sleeping gear sorted out, it was after midnight and we were dog tired.

Trailhead to campsite.

Getting to bed later than expected meant getting a later start the next morning. We didn't start our day trek until after 10:00 on Saturday. The plow up and around the mountains was steep and rocky. We watched a mild thunderstorm approach through the valley, and debated turning back, but it looked like it was going to miss us, so we pressed on. The hike crossed several boulder fields and a nice mountain top meadow surprised us.

Approximate route from camp to peak.

We finally reached the peak sometime around 1:30 that afternoon. The view from the top was awesome and it was indeed a little windy up there!

Looking back the way we came.

The boulders that make up top of Windy Peak.

 On our way back down, we ran right into the storm we thought had passed us. It started out mild enough, then cranked up and brought down some small hail on us. It got bad enough that we finally sought shelter in a small cave. It was dry, but a tad too cozy.

We're just friends, I swear.

Looking out the cave. The white on the ground is hail stones.

It tapered off a bit and we started out again. On the last, and longest, hill down it really started pouring. Thankfully no hail on this side of the mountain. There wasn't a lot of lightning, but we did get one good shot when we were high up that was close enough to feel the pressure in my ears. Fortunately, we made it down without incident, aside from being soaked down to our underwear. We literally looked like we had jumped in a swimming pool with all of our clothes on.

The hike to the peak covered about 5 miles, out and back, with an elevation rise of roughly 3000'. The total trek from car to peak and back was a little over 17.5 miles and just under 4000' elevation gain.

The big picture. 8.75 miles and 4000'.

It's a good bit of exercise, but worth the effort. Just be sure and bring a vehicle with some decent ground clearance.