22 September 2017: Mount Jefferson

With my hiking friends having kids lately sometimes I go a long time between getting out there with them on the trails. Bishop X was making a return to the trails after such an occasion, Mr Lovegoat and I were glad he suggested a route to the summit of Mount Jefferson that is on the “Terrifying 25” list: the Capos Ridge Trail.

History: As the third-highest peak in the state Mount Jefferson is a stop along the open-face portion of the Presidential Range, named after Thomas Jefferson. The Caps Ridge Trailhead is the highest trailhead in all of the whites, sitting at 3009 ft.


Peak Elevation: 5712 ft
Net Elevation Gain: 2703 ft
Trail: Caps Ridge Trail
Length: 5.0 mi
Time on Trail : 0900
Time off Trail: 1430ish


The return of Bishop X was long-awaited after he had another kid – and this trip was a fun one to come back on! He suggested the Caps Ridge ascent to Jefferson – while the terrain is as rugged as the rest of the whites, this offers a very short route to the summit. Mr. Lovegoat has his entry covering a lot of this trip’s features (Link). Not far into the trip is an open rock with some interesting pothole looking erosion, which I have been told is related to glacial activity a long time ago. The Caps ridge would classify as a rather technical hike, with lots of little scrambles over or around the cap stones along the way. At one point I was vaguely reminded of my trip a few summers back to Angel’s Landing in Zion National Park.

Once I broke out of the treeline and seeing how much further the peak was, I had a feeling that I was in for some sun exposure and noted how ill prepared I was for that. I covered up as best as I could but still got a bit roasted. The summit offers grand, panoramic views, and we lucked out on getting a clear day for the day we chose to go out on our adventure. After having our lunch on the summit area, we made our descent and made up for my sluggish pace up the mountain. I usually do truck down the trail at the end of the day, knowing that gravity is in my favor so long as my joints hang in there.

After the hiking was done, Mr. Lovegoat said we should go check out this cliffdiving thing he had noted on the maps when driving up. His post has video of that. I did not partake but I guess it was refreshing on what turned out to be a warm day in late September. Oddly I only took about 6 pictures the entire day, which i attest to sun exposure.

Photos:

Mt. Jefferson 22SEP17

This entry is slightly backdated from later in 2017.