A jolly yellow elbow and a sassy hex

Date: 2005/09/17 to 2005/09/18
Trip type: hike
Elevation gain: approx. 3,525 feet (approx 1,074 meters)
Round-trip distance: approx. 32 miles
Car-to-car time: 1 day 5 hours 32 minutes
USGS Quads: Cle Elum Lake, Davis Peak, Teanaway Butte
In Areas: Teanaway, Cle Elum River Area

Trip Report

Note: no water at all on the ridges.

I parked at the Hex Mountain trailhead (#1340.1) on Corral Creek Road and hiked east on Corral Creek Road and then Road 113 to the Yellow Hill trailhead, my car couldn't have handled Road 113 but it's good mountain bike material. I turned onto the road that leads to the trail to Yellow Hill, pretty uninspiring stuff here, it's a steep trail heavily traveled by dirt bikes.

After passing Elbow Peak I noticed point 5920+ and decided to take a short detour and check out the summit. It was a walk-up to a nice, rocky summit with loads of exposure on the east side, when I got home I discovered that it is unofficially named "Humerus Hill".

When I arrived at the summit of Jolly Mountain, I found two mountain bikers there before me, the first people I had seen all day. The summit of Jolly Mountain has a nice half-circle rock wall that breaks the wind nicely, I bivvyed here. It was a great summit to sleep on, the full moon was out so whenever I awoke at night I could stand up and have 360° views of the surrounding peaks, which included the Stuart Range, Hawkins Mountain, Daniel, Mount Hinman, Bears Breast Mount, Chimney Rocks, Rainier, and many local peaks.

The next day I enjoyed the hike from Jolly to Sasse Mountain, much of the time I had nice views of the impressive peaks to the NW. Sasse Mountain was a disappointment, it was treed in with a campfire circle on the summit. But Hex Mountain and high points south of Sasse were gratifying and provided me with many stops for snacks and views. Trail 1340.1 down from Hex Mountain was a bit of a mess, motorcycles have chewed it up a bit.

References

Travel Times

Car-to-car time: 1 day 5 hours 32 minutes
Ascending time: 7 hours 52 minutes
Descending time: 6 hours 27 minutes
Driving back time: 1 hour 57 minutes

2 hours 16 minutes ascending from Corral Creek/Hex Mountain trailhead (2,905') to Yellow Hill trailhead (3,460')
5 hours 36 minutes ascending from Yellow Hill trailhead (3,460') to Jolly Mountain summit
6 hours 27 minutes descending from Jolly Mountain Summit (6,430') to Corral Creek/Hex Mountain trailhead
15 minutes driving back from Corral Creek/Hex Mountain trailhead to Last Resort Restaurant
1 hour 42 minutes driving back from Last Resort Restaurant to lower Queen Anne