These photos were originally posted on my old site. If I ever started writing a journal entry, it has been lost to time. I have kept the captions in the gallery as I originally wrote them. I’ve added captions on the photos I’ve included inline to support what’s written here, which is a summary of the hike (with some additional reflections) as I remember it (25+ years later in January 2025).
I had spoken with JC, who let me know he had cut a path through the dense brush (which I had prior experience with) that allowed easier access to the ridge line beyond Indian River falls. My brother and I got off to a somewhat leisurely start (considering our ambitions to traverse the ridge back to Verstovia). We were probably on the trail sometime after 9am.
We didn’t have trouble finding the cleared trail. Considering the story I heard about it’s creation (he ran up late in the day to help a friend out with a goat), I was surprised at how thoroughly the path had been cleared. (As it turned out, perhaps a little too thoroughly for our purposes.)
When we reached the end of the trail, we were faced with wet cliffs, which we made an attempt at, but ultimately decided they were impractical/unsafe to climb. We dropped down and skirted around them to the right. We managed to navigate our way at the base of the cliffs until finding a steep (but not cliffy) shoot where we crawled up through krummholz hemlocks and reached a more gentle slope that took us up on the ridge.
In a subsequent conversation with JC, I learned he had inadvertently cleared too far up, and the correct route was to not go quite as high up, but take a left to go around and on the ramp-like slope.
Once on the ridge, progress was straightforward, at least to begin with. Visibility was mixed, with clouds alternately lifting then lowering. I was concerned about staying on the ridge line, since I knew it dropped off quite rapidly on either side. When there were steep sections on the ridge and visibility was limited, I was especially wary.
The worst of these I don’t presently have clear memories of, but conversations with others who have navigated the ridge, suggest that it’s particularly unpleasant. My caption on the photo above (left as I originally wrote it) hints at the challenge.
I stopped to take pictures of some wildflowers that were part of a wet meadow area in the saddle between the steep section and Arrowhead Peak. At the time, many species were new to me, so I was not generally surprised to see something unfamiliar. However, in hindsight, one was pretty unusual. I think it was Pedicularis sudetica, a species I have yet to find otherwise. I occasionally harbor thoughts of getting back there to look for it again (and who knows what else), but so far haven’t made it.
The clouds had dropped again, so visibility was very limited. Jonathan and I reached a summit that didn’t seem quite right, but we wondered if it might be Arrowhead Peak and we stopped for a picture. A few steps later, we had dropped only a few feet and discovered the slope trended up steeply again. In the days of phones with maps, this confusion would not likely have happened, but that wasn’t to come for some years.
We experienced a brief break in the clouds on the actual summit of Arrowhead Peak.
Making our way down from the peak, we were quickly back into the clouds. Although parts were steep and a little loose without much to hang onto, I don’t remember it being too bad overall. By this time it was after 7pm, and given our pacing it seemed unlikely we could make it back to Verstovia before dark. We figured it would be easier to navigate Indian River trail in the dark than try to find our way along the ridge and around to Verstovia Trail without lights. We dropped down on the ridge which helps define Billy Basin.
My only memory from that part of the trip is seeing old equipment (a big hunk of iron) in a stream. I assumed it was left over from the Billy Basin mine, and have occasionally entertained the idea of going back to look for it, but haven’t yet done so. I think it was after 9pm and getting dark by the time we arrived back at the campsite where Jonathan had been camping (and I joined during my relatively short 3 week visit to Sitka this summer).
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
