Mount McLoughlin

Sky Lakes Wilderness, Rogue River- Siskiyou National Forest

July 21st, 2012 Obsidians Climb


**Submit your photos/comments to romick1@comcast.net

* Bob Kaminsky - Obsidians Climb Leader
* Dave Beardsley
* Roy McCormick
 


Trip Report:
I was happy to see clear skies forecast for this trip up Oregon's sixth highest peak after thunderstorms forced the cancellation of my planned Mount Baker Obsidians climb the previous weekend . Dave, Bob and I enjoyed a sunset dinner of cold sandwiches east of White City near Agate Lake and promptly headed to camp at the trailhead where we were pleasantly surprised to find (1) no other campers and (2) very few mosquitoes. A 0600 start up the trail got us ahead of most of the expected crowd and we arrived at the 9,495' summit at 0930. Cloudless and calm, we enjoyed a leisurely break on top and found quite a few fulgurites in the summit rocks. On the way down we passed over a hundred folks headed up, including a group from the Klamath Falls National Guard unit. We arrived back at the (now packed) trailhead parking lot at 1320 and had an uneventful cruise home. Congratulations to Bob on his first lead with the Obsidians.


** Please note that the target photos are large .jpg files (~2MB). Click on thumbnails for full- sized, unedited images **

Photo credits: (rk): Bob Kaminsky. All others are Roy McCormick (rm)

rm photos are not copywrited. Please feel free to save and use. (Right click... Save as...)


GPS TRACK


 
     
Gearing up at o'dark hundred (rk) Signing in  First view of Lake of the Woods 
 
     
Mt Shasta Bob headed up  Rock garden
 
     
 Dead Whitebark Pine  Penstemon  Looking up toward summit
 
     
Last stretch The top (9,495') Success! (rk)
 
     
Drying my feet off on warm rock (rk) Fulgurite is where lightning strikes the rock and melts the surface
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgurite
Fulgurite patterns were present all over the summit
 
   
Our Leader Looking down the east side Another fulgurite pattern. This peak is quite the lightning rod!
 
Foreground: The Watchman (left) & Llao Rock with Mt Thielsen behind it. The Three Sisters are in the far distance.  Part of a wall from the USFS fire lookout that was once on the summit. There were lookouts on McLoughlin from 1917 until 1955.
 
   
Interesting wood chunk on summit. Tree or part of the lookout?  Like most Cascade peaks, McLoughlin is a rubble pile. Headed down... 
 
   

Volcanic dike

More Whitebark Krummholtz Great patterns
 
     
Looking back up the route  Here comes the National Guard.  Blue-Staining Bolete. Thanks for the id Dave!
 
 
Summit Panorama 

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