Pend Oreille County Highpoint Trip Report

Gypsy Peak

Date: July 22, 2005
Author: Ben Knorr

I awoke at the Mill Pond campground to intermittent rain. Immediately I couldn't find FR 22, perhaps because I didn't have a suitable Washington map with me. I lost my notes from this, so I'll do my best to cover.

I turned on a road just before FR 22 that was labeled as Highline Road/Clark Creek Lane. I followed it for a few miles until I found a junction with FR 2212. I was confused as to how I got here (thinking that FR 22 didn't exist!) but I continued on based on directions from Dean Molen and Bob Bolton. Everything turned out well and just as described -- the final few miles are high clearance type rolling roads with occasional deadfall. Like Abercrombie the day before, I saw no other vehicles at the trailhead.

I traveled on the Gypsy ridge trail for about 0.85 mile or so (then it started raining) and missed the uphill note in their trip report. At about 1.1 miles or so, I turned up the hillside and started some light bushwhacking through the wet bushes to the ridge. Once on the ridge, I saw that the ridge went up and down a lot. My suffering was greatly exaggerated because of the rain, mind you. I crossed 6617, side-hilled on the west side of 6853, then went over 7133 and 7033.

Gypsy first came into view on 7133. Ugg! I was climbing up a boulder field and had my rain hood over my head. Tunnel vision was all that could describe my line of sight. I raised my left leg wrong, right into a sharp rock. My knee got a deep cut about in the shape of a Phillips head screwdriver stab-mark. Within a few minutes, my left shin was a bloody mess. Lucky for me, I wore black socks so at least I had that going for me! I came to the top of Gypsy, and wallowed in the crappy weather, blowing wind, bleeding knee, and lack of spectacular views. Oh well. I didn't come this far to avoid a mountain because of weather, as long as I would likely survive the trip!

I started down without patching myself up since the rain was still blowing hard from the northwest. After re-crossing 7033 and 7133, I took a break in a brief pause in the weather. The waterproof tape and gauze held up for at least 30 minutes, most of the way back to the car. I ended up going up over 6853 on the way back this time, which was a neat experience. The weather had improved just in my area for long enough to see some sights from the top of this little summit. I descended the hill just to the east of 6617 and found the trail back to the car. Whew! The mosquitoes wasted no time, once the wind died down, to retrieve what blood I had left.

Just minutes after getting back into the car, an intense downpour started and followed me all the way to Sullivan Lake Road. After turning left back on Sullivan Lake Road, I saw FR 22 right away seemingly less than a mile down the road. Duh. I headed towards Priest Lake to clean up and see my old house, then onto Sandpoint for dinner.