Day 37 of Lupe’s 2017 Dingo Vacation to the Yukon & Alaska!
8:54 AM, 47°F at the lower part of a two-tier pullout along the Dempster Highway SE of Surfbird Mountain – The promise of those hopeful pink glowing clouds late yesterday evening had come to naught. After a fitful night’s sleep, Lupe woke to fog and light mist. Not what SPHP had been hoping for, but the Carolina Dog seemed happy enough, despite her sore right rear paw. She eagerly explored the bushes, sometimes hopping about on 3 paws.
After her morning romp, and a leisurely breakfast of chili, English muffins, and cheese, the American Dingo was ready for the day’s main event. Though the light mist had ended, the sky remained overcast. Fog cloaked the mountaintops. Conditions weren’t really very promising. Nevertheless, Lupe and SPHP left the two tier pullout, heading S on the Dempster Highway in the G6. (10:49 AM, 49°F)
When the highway crossed the East Blackstone River, Lupe wanted to stop briefly to check it out. The river was lovely, and though not far from its headwaters, already a good-sized stream.
Loop made another stop in the North Fork Pass area. The lower slopes of Goldensides Mountain (6,000 ft.), her peakbagging objective for the day, were in view. Discouragingly, clouds hid the summit.
(Note: To see topo maps after clicking on any mountain link in this post, switch from CalTopo to MyTopo at upper L on the Google dynamic map.)
If the weather stayed like this, there wouldn’t be much point in climbing Goldensides, but maybe the sky would clear up later on? At the very least, Looper could take the 1.5 km trail to a couple of viewpoints S of Goldensides Mountain. She would still be below the cloud cover, and ought to be able to see something.
Lupe and SPHP drove S looking for the turn to the Goldensides trailhead. A side road appeared near kilometer 74. That had to be it! The side road went E up a hillside, arriving at a small parking area next to a fenced microwave tower roughly a kilometer from the highway. A sign confirmed that Lupe was at the right place. (12:00 PM, 46°F)
The Goldensides trail was in good shape and easy to follow. From the very start, Lupe was surrounded by beautiful fall foliage. Before long, Looper was getting views down the North Klondike River valley. She could see the Tombstone Interpretive Centre down there.
At first, the trail gained elevation slowly. As Looper continued onward, she began climbing more steeply, but still at only a moderate pace.
Lupe was well along the trail, when she came to a fork. A side trail to the R led to a nearby rocky hill. This hill is the first main viewpoint along the Goldensides trail. Naturally, Loop went to the top of the little hill to check it out.
Loopster could see the main Goldensides trail heading E toward another hill not too far away. The official trail ends at the second hill, which is the final viewpoint. When SPHP was done taking in the scenes from this first hill, Lupe continued on to the last one. Coming down off the first viewpoint, she stopped next to an interesting column of rock.
Lupe reached the end of the Goldensides trail less than an hour after leaving the trailhead. From here, she could see more territory farther up a valley to the E.
At the end of the Goldensides trail, Looper had gained nearly 700 feet of elevation. The summit of Goldensides was another 1200 feet higher. To get there, the Carolina Dog would have to scramble up the steep S face of the mountain.
The S face didn’t look too bad. Lupe could probably do that! While the sky remained completely overcast, the good news was that the clouds had lifted somewhat. The top of Goldensides was no longer in fog. May as well go for it!
The Carolina Dog left the end of the Goldensides trail heading straight for the S face of the mountain. As the slope became steeper, she began climbing toward the NW. The idea was to get up on a long SW ridge that looked a bit easier than a direct assault on the S face.
Lupe climbed and climbed. The mountain got steeper and steeper. At first there were helpful lanes of vegetation to follow between the rocks. Higher up, it was nothing but rock.
Loop is a great scrambler. She had no trouble at all. She had plenty of time to look around at the views as SPHP struggled to carefully pick a way up the mountain behind her. Most of the dark rocks were stable, and smallish to medium sized.
The climb was steep, but not scary. Lupe finally did reach the SW ridge she had been aiming for. She was already very high on the mountain.
Peering over the ridgeline, Loop made several discoveries. First, the other side of the ridge was even steeper. She would be best off staying right on the ridgeline, or on this SE side of it. Second, she could now see a long way N beyond North Fork Pass to the East Blackstone River valley.
Third, and most importantly, the summit of Goldensides Mountain was still considerably farther away than expected. Fortunately, it looked like getting there would be easy, if Loopster could reach a smoother ridge seen NNE of her present position. It wasn’t possible yet to see how hard that might be.
Climbing NE along the ridgeline, Lupe found a path. Others had been here before! That was reassuring. Loop must be on the right track. It was starting to look like getting over to the smoother ridge to the NNE wasn’t going to be a problem.
The American Dingo hadn’t traveled far along the SW ridge when SPHP realized she was rapidly approaching a massive rock formation on the ridgeline ahead. How was Loop going to get beyond that? Suddenly, what had seemed easy was now worrisome. The informal path Loop was following led straight toward the rocks.
The path went right on up to a high point next to the rock formation. Looking over the other side, there was no path, only a rock strewn slope dropping steeply away. To the SE (R) was a tall, straight, solid wall of rock. Was this the right way?
This had to be it, didn’t it? If Loop could get down from here to the rocks at the base of this wall, she could easily scramble back up the other side to the easy terrain leading toward the summit. She only had to safely descend 25 or 30 feet. Looked like it ought to be possible, if none of the drops were too high.
Loopster and SPHP started down. Eh, not too bad. At one particularly high drop, SPHP had to ease down first, then help Loop get down, too. That was it. Cake! Well, almost. Anyway, Lupe had made it over this rocky little pass. Henceforth known as Dingo Pass, of course!
Once safely over Dingo Pass, Loop had to scramble across a boulder field at the base of the wall of rock. No big deal. She soon got beyond the boulders, and arrived on a smooth gravel hillside.
The Carolina Dog had reached the lower end of the smooth ridge she had seen upon reaching the SW ridgeline. Ought to be easy going from here! In fact, Lupe could see some sort of tower or antenna ahead. Maybe that was the summit? If so, she had it made. Easy, squeezy all the way!
Lupe made for the tower. Before she even got close, it became apparent the tower or antenna or whatever it was, was not at the summit. A higher hill came into view farther NNE. Two knobs of rock could be seen up there, perched along the W edge. Maybe that was the summit? Before heading over there, Lupe went to the antenna first.
It doesn’t take an American Dingo long to inspect a little antenna and a solar array, not when there is a lofty summit to get to nearby! Loopster sniffed around the antenna for a minute or two, then it was off to the higher hill. It wasn’t as far away as it looked. As Lupe approached the top, she could see that the two knobs of rock were actually large cairns.
Yes, this was it! The highest natural rocks were at the N end of the hill. Lupe stood at the true summit of Goldensides (6,000 ft.)! Grand views all around. Too bad clouds hid all the higher peaks, but at least the top of Goldensides wasn’t lost in them. Looper could see a lot, despite the overcast sky.
The top of Goldensides Mountain featured not one, but three cairns. The largest was closest to the true summit. Not content with merely standing on the highest natural point on the mountain, Lupe clambered up on the biggest cairn, too.
Loop visited the two smaller cairns, too.
For a while, Lupe stayed busy exploring the summit area. Eventually, though, she decided to take a break down by the second largest cairn.
While Looper relaxed, SPHP admired the views in all directions.
When the Most High Exalted Dingo of the Arctic Sisterhood was done resting up, she was ready to get back into the picture. The first thing she did was to return to the true summit.
After nearly an hour up at the Goldensides summit, Lupe started down again. She would have to go back the same way she came up.
The return trip was uneventful and, of course, stunningly beautiful. The cloud cover had lifted quite a bit over the past few hours. SPHP wished the sun would break through, if only for a little while, but it never did. After a time consuming descent of the S face waiting for slowpoke SPHP, Lupe made it back down to the Goldensides trail. The rest was easy.
Once Lupe got back to the trailhead (5:38 PM, 54°F), SPHP drove her back around to the NW side of Goldensides again. This time Looper had a clear view of the mountain.
Beautiful Goldensides was the last mountain Lupe would climb in the Yukon in 2017. Soon the American Dingo would have to start for home. Yet one more big adventure awaited her in Tombstone Territorial Park. Tomorrow she would take the Grizzly Lake trail to see Mount Monolith (7,000 ft.).
Related Links:
Surfbird Mountain, Oligvie Range, Tombstone Territorial Park, Yukon Territory, Canada (9-4-17)
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