Okanogan County Highpoint Trip Report
North Gardner Mountain
Date: July 16, 2004
Author: Dean Molen
North Gardner Mountain ranks as the 20th highest in the State of Washington but it is relatively unknown to
all but a few. Only those who chase those mountains that are among the 100 highest or those who are trying to
get the Washington County highpoints, are apt to know of this mountain's existence.
West of Winthrop, the trailhead starts at 2900 feet but heads almost immediately downhill, losing a couple
hundred feet before it starts going uphill. However, the first few miles contains several other downhill
stretches which I truly hate because it means you have to regain the elevation lost twice. Once on the way
in, and again on the way out. It is the kind of trail you'd like to forget as it plods endlessly for 11 miles on
its journey to Gardner Meadows, located at 5650 feet. On a hot day, these miles can be brutal so it is best to
tackle them in the early morning or in the evening when it is cooler. Fortunately, the trail does come to
water on a couple occasions and gives you a chance to tank up or to soak your feet or your hat, you decide.
With the temperature climbing steadily and my speed declining in direct proportion to it, we made it into
Gardner Meadows after 5 plus hours from the trailhead. Why 5 plus? Well, we left at 7a.m. and it was after
12 but I didn't look at my watch when we reached the end of the trail at Gardner Meadows. As a result, I
have to guess at the time and if I'm guessing, I'll err in my favor to make it sound more like I can still hoof it
up the trail with the best of them younger folk. Seriously though, we were in the range of 5 1/2 to 6 hours
and thats a good time on a hot day when you are toting a pack full of high priced and fancy gear.
G.I. Joe tent, G.I. Joe sleeping bag, G.I. Joe pack, G.I. Joe food and even G.I. Joe TP (very rough indeed).
Nothing but the best unless you get your high quality gear at Wal-Mart.
After setting up camp (we found two campsites there close to running water),
we had some lunch and a little nap, since we had arrived at the
trailhead in the wee hours of the morning. There was just room for one tent which worked out fine since
that's all we had. My two-man Stephenson tent that I bought in 1970 and it is still in fine shape. Downed
timber is all over the place as a big fire went through this area at least a decade ago and so we tried to find a
spot with no widow makers that would nail us in the night. We used the afternoon to nap, filter water,
explore and to eat. My plans for doing the summit on the same day went out the window with the heat.
Fortunately it was cool in the area where we camped since the trees provided wonderful shade and we spent
most of the evening watching the deer frolic in the nearby open area.
At 5 a.m., we were up and moving, heading directly up the slope across from where we camped.
Thinking that we headed in the right direction, we ended up on top of Gardner Peak's main ridge which really wasn't
our goal but up seemed the way to go. In retrospect, we should have gone up about a thousand feet and
then contoured to the west to hit an upper basin. Whatever, maybe in our hearts we wanted Gardner too but
that was never one of my goals, only North Gardner. The slopes up were a real pain as the last thousand
feet to the ridge line was mainly loose scree. It was often two steps up and one step back and was tiring to
say the least. We were very close to Gardner's summit and it was a mere walk to go over and grab it. I
found it distressing to look across the big gulf of space over to where North Gardner was as that meant we
still had a lot of work to do. We made our way down the ridge line and it was slow going as you kind of
had to pick your path, sometimes going up and over a gendarme and sometimes skirting them when possible.
Finally we made the correct ridge and started on our way to North Gardner. I have no recollection of the
time at this point as I had become totally engrossed in making careful steps and maintaining proper balance
with my trekking poles. I even forgot to take pictures, which always haunts me after I come home from a
trip and realize how many picture opportunities I let slip by.
It was slow going but at least it was upward toward our goal. Once again, there is no real path much of the
way but it is relatively easy to pick your own way. Sometimes we'd clamber over the top of a gendarme,
sometimes we would be able to skirt them. I finally started taking some pictures and before long Dennis was
well ahead of me. I looked up towards the summit and there he was, shooting pictures of me laboring
upward. Believe me when I say I do labor in the heat. When I finally joined Dennis, he had already been up
on the loftiest point for a good 20 minutes. At this time I looked at my watch and it was just past 11 a.m. so
had taken almost 6 hours to get here, granting that we had a time consuming detour over to Gardner first.
Wonderful views were to be had in all directions although a haze was pretty dominant towards the south
west where we found out via phone call from the summit that a fire was going near the Icicle Creek area.
To the southwest we could still see Glacier Peak and to its left (east) Bonanza peak. We thought of Bob
Bolton being on top of Bonanza and found out via a phone call to a friend that he had summitted on Thursday.
Today it was Bob Packard's and Edward Earl's turn to do so, both of whom are county highpointers.
It was interesting to think that ten years had gone by since John Roper was the first to do all
of Washington's county highpoints, and then two Bob's complete the state
on the same mountain two days apart.
I made the usual phone calls from the summit, first to my wife to let her know I was successful and then a
friend in Twisp, and then I tried to get hold of Bob B. and then, and then and then. Yeah, I'm one of those
irritating guys who uses modern technology from every summit. It is important to call my wife as this is the
way she can share this activity with me when I'm away from her. We had lunch, read the register (which is
buried fairly deep in the cairn so don't give up looking for it) took pictures, rehydrated with what water we
had left (three quarts were barely adequate) and at 12:30 started back down. I enjoy a leisurely summit if no
storm is threatening and on this day we had superb weather, even though it was hot, about 85 degrees on the summit.
We had the company of tons of insects, so many in fact that many of my pictures were ruined by them.
Still, it was nice to look north into Canada, west to Baker and Shuksan, Silver Star, and more than I can name.
The beauty of these north cascade mountains are breathtaking because they are rugged and so numerous.
Reversing our climb up, we carefully made our way back down. Now understand, there is nothing technical
about this mountain, mostly class one or two, but you don't want to twist or break an ankle nor make an
unplanned rapid descent. It took as long to get back to the ridge line as it did to get up to the summit.
From there we were looking down on a high plateau where we counted over 35 mountain goats.
A great scree slope that allowed us to boot ski 1100 feet was a welcome way to lose altitude quickly.
After getting back down to the green area, we made our way along a nice stream for awhile as we dropped
another thousand feet of elevation. The last thousand feet was the worst as we had put our selves into the
burned area where trees were down everywhere. It was slow going but eventually, around 3 p.m. we made
it back to our lone tent in Gardner Meadows. Taking some time to pump water and tend to getting our
camp packed up and put aboard our suddenly heavy backpacks, we left Gardner Meadows at 4 p.m.
Amazingly, it took us 4 1/2 hours of non stop effort to get back to the trailhead and our vehicle.
The trail is BORING and I had a sense of deja vu over and over again as one spot of the trail
looked like the previous one. However, eventually we hit the last uphill and tired but happy
we headed down to Winthrop to try and score some dinner.
The next day, thunderstorm activity would have put the Gardners off limits to us so we picked a great day,
heat or no heat. Also, some could combine a climb of Abernathy if they add another day to their time up there.
Abernathy is also one of the top 100 in Washington.
Climb statistics: 28-29 miles round-trip and nearly 7,000 feet of gain
(including ups and downs of the trail and doing Gardner).
Special gear needed: None at this time of year.
Earlier in the season, ice axe and crampons may be necessary.
Also, a HUGE thanks to Jay and Roberta who sent information, maps and provided us with a place to
stay(and shower) after the hike when we were tired and hungry and rather sweaty.
Thanks to both of you angels.
photos