North Sheafman Ridge High Points, Bitterroot Mountains

Castle Crag, on the descent from the Sheafman Ridge High Point, 8652.

This past Saturday was glorious. I had big plans for the day: I've yet to get into the Mission Mountains this year, I'm ashamed to say, and was hoping to get an early start and spend a long day up in those brutal and awesome mountains. But things happened, and it wasn't until after 9am that I got out of town. I trust that I'm not alone in this: sometimes, despite the fact that everything appears to be lining up for a perfect day, a wrench gets thrown into the engine and everything grinds to a halt. Moreover, in my experience, that wrench is usually thrown into the engine by me.

Anyway, with a late-ish start, I had to back off my ambitious plans, and opted to instead go down the Bitterroot, to Sheafman Canyon, just west of Corvallis. If you haven't been, I recommend Sheafman. It's a short canyon, and you start about 1000 feet up from the valley, so the walk in to the lakes at the back of the drainage is only 6 miles with 2000 feet of elevation gain. There is also a magnificent peak at the back of the drainage called Castle Crag, which I highly recommend to peakbaggers. 

This time, to do something new, I opted to climb the high points on the north side of Sheafman Canyon, Peaks 8650 and 8652. About four miles in, you leave the trail and head north to Peak 8650, then walk the ridge west to Peak 8652, and finally, on down to Knaack Lake at the back of the drainage. For a detailed description of the route, see Michael Hoyt's "Bitterroot Mountain Summits," and you can view my GPS route here. This is a really nice, rugged outing, with lots of rock hopping and a bit of class 3 climbing. It's a good one if you're looking for solitude and physical challenge not terribly far from a trail head. 

We gained the ridge too far to the east, got cliffed out, and had to descend this cute in order to make our way to 8650.

Looking west into the Bitterroot. On the right is Castle Crag.

There's a goat barely visible on the skyline. It was big and curious.

Looking north from Sheafman ridge.

Pudge and Castle Crag.

Peak 8650 from 8652.

Panoramic photo from 8652 with Castle Crag in the middle.

Trusty companion, Pudge. It was a challenging day for him with all of the rock hopping.

Looking back at 8652 on the way down to Knaack Lake.

Pudge cooling off in Knaack Lake with Castle Crag above. This would be a beautiful spot to camp.