31.05.2015
Six hearty souls out for what became the longest sustained bushwhacking I have ever done.
We drove up the A-600 from the Ashlu River Road and parked at a switchback about 1/3 of way up the A-610. There was one very harsh rocky section on the A-600 and again another on the A-610. I would highly recommend a high clearance 4x4 to get all the way to the 4x4 parking area. We saw some evidence of what must have been a heavily modified off-road vehicle more than 2 km in past the 4x4 parking... impressive considering it mastered the washouts that I would think would have been impassible.
The main trail is easy to follow, so easy in fact that we completely missed the flagging that cuts up and to the right just as you enter a densely treed section... (oh wait, that's right there was none!! we discovered this on our way down following orange flagging from the lake - I threw down some pink flagging here to get you to the start of the orange flagging)
We crossed a creek and the trail began to head downhill, so we backtracked 50 meters and just started heading up, eventually running into what seemed random flagging... this is where the fight began... bashing our way through the brush for a couple hours to finally come out on a rock strewn slope directly under Coin Peak. We contoured the mountain for another 20 minutes and popped out about 20m above the lake.
The original plan was to peak Coin from the col but everyone was knackered from the bush bashing so we opted to circle the lake and top out on a knoll SW of the lake to take in the views and lounge like lizards on the warm rocks.
The snow starts at the lake and it is pretty solid... not much post holing, and no need for snowshoes.
We spent 45 min or so relaxing and then made it our prerogative to find the start of the flagging and try to stick to it... no easy task... I am sure much easier in winter with good snow coverage on all the Mountain Ash and slide Alder.
Our decent went without a hitch, but at times it felt like we were a sweeper team descending in parallel looking for a missing person... aka the next piece of flagging tape.
Battle scars, grit, determination and smiles all around on a well earned round of high-fives back at the vehicles. I will be back to complete this and explore out towards Jimmy Jimmy... but maybe not before next winter ;)
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Have fun and stay safe!
Regards,
Rex
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