Days 42, 43 & 44 of Lupe’s 2017 Dingo Vacation to the Yukon & Alaska!
9-10-17, 7:09 AM, 45°F, E of Vanderhoof, British Columbia – Time to scoot! Lupe was on her way home. With her successful ascent of Harvey Mountain in Babine Mountains Provincial Park near Smithers yesterday, her adventures in Canada were concluded. Only one big adventure left to go on this Dingo Vacation, and that would be in Montana, more than 1,000 miles away.
SPHP drove E on Hwy 16. A fuel stop in Prince George, then Lupe was seeing new territory heading S along Hwy 97. Pretty country, but a far more populated region than staying on Hwy 16 would have been. Lupe liked this route well enough; she had cows and horses to bark at. SPHP preferred the more secluded, remote feel of Hwy 16. Still it was fun to see something new.
The drive went on all day. Lupe escaped the G6 at a few scenic breaks along the way. She saw the Thompson River a little N of Spences Bridge.
At Spences Bridge, SPHP turned E. Hwy 8 was winding, narrow, and far less traveled. Lupe visited the Nicola River. The river was running low.
The quiet, slow pace ended at Merritt. Traffic zoomed S along Hwy 5A, then E on Hwy 97C over highlands before dropping down to a junction with Hwy 97 again. SPHP drove S along the W shore of Okanagan Lake. The huge, long lake was beautiful, but this area was all citified. Traffic was bumper to bumper all the way to Penticton.
S of Penticton, Lupe needed relief from the G6 again. She found it at a park at the S end of Skaha Lake in Okanagan Falls.
Lupe left Canada near Osoyoos. While the Okanagan Lake area had been thriving and overrun with people, N Washington State looked dry, deserted, desolate. Night fell along Hwy 20 E of Tonasket putting an end to Looper’s travels for the day.
9-11-17 – Last night there had been stars in the wee hours. Even the moon was out. For a month and a half, Lupe had scarcely seen them in the far N. The night sky made a good impression, but Lupe woke to find herself in Mordor.
Across Washington, Idaho, and into Montana, the farther E the Carolina Dog went, the browner and yellower the world became. Only the tinder dry forests somehow remained green. Had even a drop of rain fallen on this parched land since Lupe left home at the end of July? Didn’t look like it. The day was hot. Smoke filled the air.
Are you scared, SPHP?
Not at all, why would I be scared?
You never told me we’d be going to Mordor!
Oh, yeah. Looks that way, doesn’t it, Loop? Guess you’ve figured it out. Peakbagging Mount Doom ought to be a spectacular end for your 2017 Dingo Vacation to the Yukon & Alaska, don’t you think?
Mount Doom! Are you crazy? I thought you might have something special planned for my last adventure, but Mount Doom? I don’t mind telling you, I am a bit scared. Do you have it?
Have what?
Don’t be so coy. You know what I mean.
Actually, I don’t.
Do I have to drag it out of you, SPHP? The ring! Do you have the ring?
What ring?
The ring of power!
Oh, that. Why yes, I think so. Should be in the glove box, unless I left it on the nightstand at home, or maybe it was in that box of odds and ends I took to the Salvation Army before we left.
You took the ring of power to the Salvation Army? You can’t be serious!
Maybe. I don’t remember for sure, Loop. Anyway, what’s the difference? What good is having a ring of power? They haven’t been perfected yet. Nearly all of them have serious manufacturer’s defects. You can never use them, and they just cause endless trouble. Why, even recycling them is a major pain. Look at all the inconvenience Frodo had to go through.
Well, if you didn’t want the ring of power, SPHP, you could have given it to your dearest Dingo, or at least put it up on eBay, and have gotten something for it. Maybe you don’t care to have a ring of power, but they are in high demand from what I hear. They’re all the rage! A ring of power would have brought a pretty penny on eBay, I bet. Besides, here we are, well into Mordor now, and you don’t even know what you did with it. Everyone else that’s got a ring of power is obsessed with keeping track of it. But not you, SPHP. Oh no! You can’t be bothered with such trifles can you? How can you be so absent-minded? We are going to need that ring of power when we get to Mount Doom!
Oh, I suppose you’re right, Loopster. Remind me to look for it when we get to the Mount Doom trailhead. Don’t worry. It’s probably in the glove box, like I said before.
By nightfall, Lupe was back at King’s Hill Pass in the Little Belt Range, the same place she’d spent the first night of her long journeys.
9-12-17 – A bright morning. This was it! The last adventure! SPHP drove 2 miles NE from King’s Hill Pass to a R (E) turn off Hwy 89 onto USFS Road No. 3328. The dusty road wound N through the forest, and was fine for several miles. Looper rode with her head out the window eagerly watching for squirrels.
SPHP made a wrong turn onto USFS Road No. 3356, eventually realized the mistake, and returned to No. 3328 again. A couple miles farther N, and No. 3328 deteriorated to the point where SPHP would have turned back, if there had been a decent turnaround spot. The stony roadbed was beating the poor G6 to death.
Fortunately, No. 3328 improved going forward. At Jefferson Creek, Lupe reached an intersection. SPHP didn’t have a map of the area. A sketchy route description SPHP did have said to keep driving N on No. 3328 to a sharp bend in the road at Chamberlain Creek.
Once at Chamberlain Creek, the G6 could be abandoned. Lupe would then climb the forested slope to the E, and arrive up on a broad, open ridge a little over a mile S of Big Baldy Mountain (9,177 ft.). A short stretch of 4WD road would take the Carolina Dog to an obvious trail to the top from the SW. Seemed easy enough.
No. 3328 went W from Jefferson Creek. The road went a mile, curved N, then headed NNE. About 2 miles from Jefferson Creek, the road turned sharply W. No signs, but a quick inspection confirmed the existence of a small creek. SPHP stashed the G6 at the widest spot along the narrow road. Lupe was on her way!
Staying well S of the creek, Lupe left the road climbing E up a forested slope. The stream soon angled N. Lupe continued E.
The forested slope was steep, and rocky in spots. For some mysterious reason, heavy equipment had mowed down wide swathes of the forest, then left the dead trees piled up in the openings. Lupe worked through several such bands of destruction before getting above the highest one.
After gaining 700 feet of elevation or more, the terrain finally leveled out. Lupe arrived up on a wide saddle.
Nothing looked right! The saddle was completely forested. No open ground, no 4WD road, no trail, no sign anyone ever came here! Big Baldy Mountain wasn’t even in sight.
Lupe and SPHP searched for a trail. Nada. Higher ground was SW or NE. To the SE, the terrain dropped away on the other side of the saddle. SPHP made an arrow on the ground out of big sticks. The arrow pointed W where Lupe had come up. Maybe the arrow would come in handy later on when trying to find the way back?
Big Baldy Mountain was almost certainly somewhere N of here. With the arrow in place, Lupe headed NE through the forest. She was soon gaining elevation steadily, though not as rapidly as before. After a little more than 0.25 mile, a meadow of dead grass and scattered dead trees could be seen ahead.
Lupe headed NNE through the meadow. When she reached the shade of a live tree, she was ready to for a break. It was hot and sunny. The Most High Exalted Dingo of the Arctic Sisterhood was no longer used to such a climate. She eagerly lapped up water SPHP provided, then took it easy, panting in the shade.
Close to this live tree, a road was coming up a long slope from the SE. For a 4WD road, it was in surprisingly good shape.
With any luck at all, this was the 4WD road that would take Lupe to the trail up Big Baldy Mountain. Before following the road, Lupe crossed it. She headed N until she was high enough to see what was beyond this broad ridge she now seemed to be on.
Oh, yeah! There was Big Baldy Mountain (9,177 ft.)! No mistaking it.
Big Baldy was farther away than expected. SPHP must not have driven far enough N on USFS Road No. 3328. That little stream Lupe had started up by couldn’t have been Chamberlain Creek. No matter. Lupe had a longer trek in store, but certainly a doable one. Puppy, Ho! Onward!
Lupe and SPHP returned to the 4WD road, and began following it NW. The road climbed gradually, entered a stretch of forest, and emerged back out onto open ground. Lupe could see King’s Hill Pass from here.
The road curved around the W side of a barren hill, then headed NE. Big Baldy Mountain was in sight ahead. Lupe passed through both forested and open territory on the way down to a saddle leading to Big Baldy.
After crossing the saddle, Loop arrived at the start of the trail to the top of Big Baldy Mountain.
The first part of the trail wound up through a pine forest. The trail was dusty, eroded, and had lots of loose rocks. Lupe enjoyed the shade of the forest as long as she could. She had already seen that, soon enough, she would be up where there wasn’t a tree or bit of shade to be found.
Where it left the forest, the trail was steep and consisted entirely of small rocks. Lupe began the long, sunny part of the climb. At first, there were still occasionally a few trees where a Carolina Dog could take a shady break. Higher up, Lupe roamed a barren slope. Near the summit, progress became easier as the rate of climb steadily decreased.
Big Baldy Mountain looks like a huge dome from the W. However, when Loop was almost to the summit, she discovered that the mountain drops sharply into a big canyon to the E. From the edge, Lupe could see Rhoda Lake 900 feet below.
The summit of Big Baldy Mountain (9,177 ft.) was a large barren area strewn with smallish rocks. A crudely constructed cairn was at the high point. A metal box rested on the cairn weighed down by a single rock. Nearby, an old wooden sign giving the elevation as 9,175 feet stood close to the E edge. A white structure with solar panels and an antenna completed the man-made items atop the mountain.
Since it was only mid-day, Lupe and SPHP lingered at the summit. Lupe had plenty of time to sniff around and check out the views. She drank water, devoured Taste of the Wild, and in general lazed about.
The air was somewhat smoky from distant forest fires. The views weren’t as clear as they might have been, but the smoke wasn’t too bad. Lupe could see many of the higher peaks of the Little Belt Range.
The most impressive view was actually the one of Rhoda Lake.
So, where’s Mount Doom, SPHP? How far away is it? I’ve looked in every direction, and I can’t even see it from here. Why didn’t we park closer?
This is it.
What do you mean? This is what?
This is Mount Doom.
Don’t be ridiculous! This can’t be Mount Doom! Where’s the impossibly craggy summit, the thick smoke, the intense heat? It’s warm out alright, and a bit smoky, but nothing like Mount Doom will be. Where are the bubbling lava streams and dark swirling clouds overhead? Where are the constant lightning strikes and all the rumbling earthquakes? Where are the explosive eruptions flinging fire and brimstone everywhere?
Hmm. I suppose you’ve got a point, there, Loopster. Two theories. Either we’ve come when Mount Doom is dormant – mountains can’t carry on like that all the time you know – or I got the route description to the trailhead messed up. In that case, this is some other peak.
Dormant! Mount Doom isn’t dormant! We’re at the wrong mountain. This doesn’t look remotely like Mount Doom. Neither does anything else around here. Sometimes I think you only pretend to be able to read maps. Did you even bring a map? I’ll bet you didn’t. Sheesh! Well, what do we do with it then, SPHP?
Nothing. You were right. I didn’t bring a map.
Not the map! The ring of power! What do we do with the ring of power? Just fling it over the edge and hope it lands in Rhoda Lake?
I suppose we could. Smeagol found a ring of power in a pond once, which had been a good hiding place for it for a long time, but I don’t think my arm is strong enough to throw the ring all the way to Rhoda Lake, unless it takes some mighty favorable bounces. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. The ring wasn’t in the glove box.
Wasn’t in the glove box? So you don’t actually have the ring of power with you?
No, not really.
Lupe thought for a moment.
Well, maybe that explains it, SPHP. Perhaps you were right. Maybe Mount Doom only goes nuts when the ring of power gets close? Since we haven’t actually got the ring with us, the mountain could be just disguising itself as this innocent looking big hill. There’s magic in Mordor, you know. Maybe the mountain is dormant and under a spell, just waiting for the ring to come closer?
Oh, I think you’ve hit upon it, Loop! That makes perfect sense! Or maybe it’s the power of the ring that causes the mountain to go crazy? Either way, it explains why nothing is happening here at the moment, which is for the best, anyway.
Ha ha! Mount Doom sure had me fooled, SPHP! What a disguise! I’m not used to dealing with magical places. Anyway, I’m kind of glad. This isn’t scary at all, and now we’ve peakbagged Mount Doom! There’s some bragging rights for ya! We don’t have to tell anyone the mountain was like this when we came. Let them think whatever they like.
Don’t sell yourself short, Loopster. You’ve been to plenty of magical places on this Dingo Vacation. We both have.
Since Big Baldy Mountain was the last big adventure of Lupe’s grand 2017 Dingo Vacation to the Yukon & Alaska, the American Dingo thought SPHP ought to open that metal box on the summit cairn. No doubt it contained a registry, and she wanted SPHP to enter her name. May as well leave proof that she had actually climbed Mount Doom!
Loop also wanted to check up on her friend mountaineer Jobe Wymore. Had Jobe ever been to Mount Doom? According to his ascent records on peakbagger.com, Jobe has been all over the place. Had he really done all that stuff? If so, he’d probably been to Mount Doom, too.
SPHP was happy to comply with the Carolina Dog’s wishes. The metal box contained not 1, but 3 registries. Lupe’s name got entered in the most recent one, then SPHP searched to see if Jobe had been here.
Tons of people had been on top of Mount Doom. Loopster was amazed! Who would have ever guessed? SPHP searched and searched, but wasn’t finding Jobe’s name. Then on about the last page SPHP checked in the last of the 3 registries, there it was.
Lupe was happy that SPHP put her name in the registry. She was glad SPHP had found Jobe’s name. She wasn’t the least bit surprised that Jobe had been here, too. He sure does get around! Jobe was on the up and up. No doubt about it. What a modest guy, though. He’d never even mentioned that he climbed Mount Doom, but maybe Mount Doom had been dormant then, too, so it hadn’t seemed like such a big deal?
After close to an hour on Big Baldy Mountain, the inevitable end was drawing near. Lupe returned to pose on the summit cairn a final time. The last picture on the last summit of her 2017 Dingo Vacation to the Yukon & Alaska! The Most High Exalted Dingo of the Arctic Sisterhood tried to look indomitable, all noble and serious like. Even though Mount Doom wasn’t anywhere near the Arctic, it was a legendary peak.
Lupe was satisfied. She started down Big Baldy Mountain on the way back to the G6. It was a bittersweet moment for sure – sad to think her epic adventures culminating with an ascent of Mount Doom were all over, but good to be going home, too.
The arrow of sticks SPHP had made back down at the forested saddle was still there. Lupe did find it. She headed down the steep slope to the W, and eventually reached USFS Road No. 3328 again. There was the G6, just down the road a little way. (3:22 PM, 80°F)
At Jefferson Creek, not wanting to brave the worst of USFS Road No. 3328 again, SPHP tried going W on the intersecting road. USFS Road No. 267 had a zillion annoying speed bumps built into it, but proved to be a much shorter and far superior route back to Hwy 89.
9-13-17, 1:50 AM, Black Hills of South Dakota – The long drive was over. A weary SPHP parked the G6 in the driveway. Two minutes later, Lupe was trotting into her living room. All was quiet and dark. Nothing had changed. Everything was as she’d left it. SPHP flicked on the kitchen light. The Carolina Dog was ready for a drink of water, and a bite to eat.
While SPHP was distracted dishing up her Alpo, the Carolina Dog snuck up the dark hallway to the bedroom. She leapt up on the bed, then carefully and excitedly sniffed the top of the nightstand. A few moments later, Lupe sighed.
The ring of power wasn’t there.
Mount Doom
At first he could see nothing. In his great need he drew out once more the phial of Galadriel, but it was pale and cold within his trembling hand and threw no light into that stifling dark. He was come to the heart of the realm of Sauron and the forges of his current might, greatest in all Middle-earth; all other powers here subdued. Fearfully he took a few uncertain steps into the dark, and then all at once there came a flash of red that leaped upward, and smote the high black roof. Then Sam saw that he was in a long cave or tunnel that bored into the mountain’s smoking core. But only a short way ahead its floor and the walls on either side were cloven by a great fissure, out of which the red glow came, now leaping up, now dying down into darkness, and all the while far below there was a rumour and a trouble as of great engines throbbing and labouring. The light sprang up again, and there on the brink of the chasm, at the very Crack of Doom, stood Frodo, black against the glare, tense, erect, but still as if he had been turned to stone.
“Master!” cried Sam.
Then Frodo stirred and spoke with a clear voice, indeed with a voice clearer and more powerful than Sam had ever heard him use, and it rose above the throb and turmoil of Mount Doom, ringing in the roof and walls.
“I have come” he said. “But I do not choose now to do what I came to do. I will not do this deed. The Ring is mine!”
– from The Lord of the Rings, Return of the King, by J. R. R. Tolkien
Big Baldy Mountain trailhead notes:
Low clearance vehicles – Take Hwy 89 about 5 miles N from King’s Hill Pass to a R (E) turn onto unmarked USFS Road No. 267 only 0.25 mile N of milepost 34. (A large pullout is along the same side of Hwy 89 just N of this turn in the event it gets missed.) USFS Road No. 267 passes over (no ford) Jefferson Creek close to the highway. Follow No. 267 4 miles E to a L (N) turn on USFS Road No. 3328. Follow No. 3328 another 4 miles to Chamberlain Creek. Park here (wherever, Lupe never got this far) and climb the ridge to the E to arrive at the saddle close to the start of the trail up Big Baldy from the SW.
High clearance vehicles – It may be possible to drive right to the start of the trail SW of Big Baldy. Take Hwy 89 about 2 miles N from King’s Hill Pass to a R (E) turn onto USFS Road No. 3328. After 2 miles, a very sharp bend to the R (S) at an intersection puts you onto USFS Road No. 3356 (unmarked). 2 miles on No. 3356 brings you to the top of a ridgeline and another intersection. Go L (N) on USFS Road No. 251, following it 3.5 miles to a “Y”. Bear L (N) onto USFS Road No. 3300. The trailhead at the base of Big Baldy is about 4 miles N on No. 3300. Lupe did not explore this whole route. All distances are approximate. Intersections may not be marked. In general, remain up on the ridge after reaching No. 251, and head N staying W wherever possible.
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