Date Hiked: October 22, 2207

Conditions: The Sawtooth Range countdown is completed: Four, Three, Two… ONE! Now after all those reckon trips we are ready for a single day quintet attempt next year… maybe! Sawtooth Number 4 can be a real pain (albeit a short one) but overall the Sawtooth Range only real challenge is distance as more often than not we traveled relatively open forest again while climbing Number 1 from Averyville. Inge, Mike and Sean did come to enjoy what may have been the last day of 2007 exceptional summer. This time I wisely parked the car at the parking lot, a good thing since the previous Friday evening downpour had significantly modified the bed of the “road”. Walking the first mile is probably faster than driving anyway and in no time, we had reached 2.6-mile further the start of our four miles bushwhack, a mostly direct and exactly South-West direction towards the summit hugging at the start the eastern flank of an unnamed bump South-East of Alford Mt. As we were moving from one county to the next (2550’ elevation) the forest became tighter and scratchy but reopened as we reached the next “major small drainage”. By 11AM, at the 2690’ elevation, we were resting, eating and pumping “delicious teeth water” on the shore of Number 1 main drainage which flows into Cold Brook. The woods were wonderfully open, it was now comfortably warm and we only had to fly another .75-mile. We raced up along the brook for a quarter mile before petering out to a more human speed as the effect of the combine effect of the now hot sun and steep incline hit the as always over-confident team of professionals bushwhackers. We obviously hadn’t spend enough time in the tent the days ahead! We traveled the first .6-mile to the 3550’ in about an hour and the last .15-mile which involved 350’of ascent in a mind boggling 35 minutes. Thankfully it was mostly open or we would still be out there. The bee-line route from the very last drainage to the summit leads to a knoll like structure which is a mix of very steep ledges edged by deep moss and trees that are just as we were hanging for dear life. Needless to say it was great fun but we chose a slightly more eastern route down the first few hundred feet of elevation. The summit area was open as well but it appeared harmfully tight and much steeper on the South side of the summit ridge. In recent years the high point of our mountain of the day has been cleared to open great Southern views, probably the best one of the Sewards and Santanoni Ranges with tiny Duck Hole shinning in the sun at the foot of Sawtooth 3 and the delicately pretty Sawtooth basin ponds at our feet. We of course left the summit sign but gone are now the canister and the two trail makers! Once again on top of the world, thanks to Sean, we all feasted on all sorts of coconut goodies for lunch part-two while getting a fashionable tan. A mere 45 minutes later it was time to head home. Again we crossed more than a dozen pretty stream, all of the exact same size no matter what the maps tells, so much that at each one we wondered if we had gone full circle! At least we know now that on the Northern side of the Sawtooth Range there is “drinking” water everywhere and having already visited Number 2, 3, 4 and 5 we know where all of that liquid gold ends and spreads… The end of the day found us exhausted and treated us with a magnificent bright yellow sunset lighting the burnt orange beech leaves as we walked the last mile out. It was a spectacular ending, no doubt we will be back in the Sawtooth Range next year but only from the North.

Submitted by:Christine