Timber Mountain, Telegraph Peak, Thunder Mountain

17 July 1994

By: Joe Young

Leaders: Stag Brown, Joe Young

Fourteen hikers participated in this outing to the 3 Ts. One participant, Akeemi Nakamura, was an exchange student from Japan who had hooked up with us through the auspices of Daphne Sturrock. She came with mountain climbing credentials and proved to be a very good hiker.

Although the weather had been hot lately, an upper level low pressure area developed Saturday, and as a result skies were overcast until 3 pm and temperatures were pleasantly cool.

At the Baldy carpool point, drivers were instructed to proceed to the end of the road at the ski lift. We arrived there just as the lift operators were ready to open the locked gate. We then consolidated into three vehicles for the short shuttle to Icehouse Canyon.

We began our hike at 8:30. Stag led all day. The group enjoyed the cool waters of Columbine Spring, several of us dumping out water and replacing with water from this dependable (and apparently Giardia free) source.

We arrived at Icehouse saddle at about 10:40, lingered a while, then headed to Timber. Reaching the summit at approximately 11:30, we were gratified to find a register can and register, fully intact. We stayed just a short time on Timber.

One hiker checked out on Timber. The remaining thirteen of us headed over to Telegraph. We took our longest break of the day on Telegraph, and even this one wasn't very long. Stag preferred to take more frequent but shorter breaks throughout the day. No register was found on the summit, so I placed a shiny red can with water resistant register and mechanical pencil on the summit. I hope it lasts a while.

We arrived on the pristine (not!) summit of Thunder at about 2:40. We didn't bother to look for a register. Stag led us down a "Stag route", scrambling cross-country underneath the ski lift to Thunder, then taking the road to Baldy Notch, where we arrived at 3:30 pm.

Most of us paid the $3 for a ride on the lift down to the cars. A few die hards preferred to scramble or hike the trail.

After the short shuttle to Icehouse, the group dispersed.

This was a pleasant day of hiking with a congenial group. Thanks to Stag for doing all of the leading.