Home»All Photographs»2015 Hikes»Mt. Romulus 10-10-15

I headed down the 22X Highway this morning, not knowing exactly which hike I was doing. Despite grey skies to the west, I headed for Mt. Romulus instead of staying in the foothills farther south. I decided to believe the forecast of "late afternoon showers", and started off on my bike, headed for Mt. Romulus backcountry campground. There, I would stash my bike (after two river fords) and continue on foot.
I ascended into a large basin of shale and rubble, when my legs developed a bit of cramping and spasm. This often happens when there is a long bike approach (I have monsticeps for hiking, but puniceps for biking). I slowed my pace a bit and took a few short breaks to rest the muscles, and all was fine.
From the brown shale col, I was expecting a short ridgewalk to the summit. Upon reaching this col, I was surprised to see a lengthy traverse followed by quite a distance and elevation gain remaining. The time was early and the weather cooperating, so I went on. Scrambling up this ridge seemed steep at first, but I tried a recent technique of simply progressing until I am uncomfortable with one particular move, then turning around and backing off with confidence. That never happened - the terrain was fun scrambling to the traverse portion. A tiptoe along the traverse leads to the top of a broad summit ridge, where you lose some more elevation, just to gain it back again. The summit cairn is your reward shortly beyond.
The wind started kicking up and weather was slowly approaching, so I took a few photos, had a bite and started down. On the lower slopes, it began to speckle rain, giving the forest a lovely fall scent. After fording the river again and changing to bike gear, I was on my way. Almost.
About a minute into the 11 km bike ride back, I rode over a branch that caught in my rear derailleur and completely cracked it off my frame. There it hang, from my chain. I removed it with the toolkit I had, but unfortunately couldn't get the pin back in the chain, and was forced to remove it too. The rain was coming steady now - I decided to move on. So I walked my bike up the hills - luckily most of the trail out was flat or downhill. On the flat parts, I straddled the bike and skateboard-style pushed with one leg, and the downhill parts were a riot (no fun lost there - I still had brakes, so I rode these sections as I normally would). I got back to my vehicle shorty after dark with the delay. But to get a 2800 m peak on October 10th? I'll take it.