I've long looked at the Dry Creek area of the mountain as a potential powder stash, and credit goes to Tony D who hooked me up on the secret little hunters path that snakes up to the otherwise trail-less alpine valley.
The hike started by crossing Dry Creek on a shaky cottonwood that Rach said "No way!" to.
On the way back I demonstrated proper cottonwood bridge crossing technique for the camera. Video Courtesy R.S.
We bushwhacked up through a dense hemlock forest whose loamy floor was bursting with insects.
Out of treeline the growth was head-high and the bugs only got worse.
Getting higher, we got a view or Axis Peak.
Can you see all the bugs? I'm not promising I didn't just eat one. Photos: R.S.
We stayed high above the creek. Photo: R.S.
Before we eventually leveled with it and crossed to get to a knoll we camped on.
A flock of a half dozen sheep or more was grazing on a nearby slope.
Camp, with the rock crusted Axis? glacier pouring into the tarn.
The bugs were absolutely nuts, and of course, neither of us brought dope. Rach thought she'd film this nice sunset scene, but unaware that she had the record button down, I decided to opine on what I hoped the cold night air would do to the blood thirsty fiends. Video: R.S.
We enjoyed it anyway, but look how swollen our eyes and faces were getting.
The next morning we charged up a central rib that lead to Right's summit.
Rachel is in this picture for perspective. Axis peak and a tarn that marks the top of Dry Creek.
Wrong Mountain, seen from Right's summit.
North, to Summit Pass from the summit.
Crescent Lake visible below us, a drop of Kenai lake in the distance and Andy Simmons Mountain in the far distance.
A view into the top pf Axis glacier with Peak 5106 in the distance and the Harding Ice Sheet beyond that.
Cooper Landing.
On the way back down we cut off a herd of sheep, possibly the same group that grazed near our camp. We also spotted another herd several miles distant on a rib of Wrong. What a treat.
Good perspective. Photos: R.S.
Dropping back down into Dry Creek's alpine valley.
Marmot.
Looking back toward camp.
A great view of Right Mountain from across the Dry Creek alpine valley.
Back down in Cooper we took a tourist photo at the Kingfisher Roadhouse before mowing down well deserved burgers. We laughed to ourselves at how people who saw us take this photo, and ate on the Kingfisher's outside deck enjoying the same view, had no idea that the cute couple next to them had just been up there. The summit peak is the one to the far left with patch of snow underneath.
