After a full day of looking for the trailhead for Mount Rexford and being intimidated by dark stagnant clouds when we finally did find it, Michael and I decided on a simpler alternative: the southern route on Tomyhoi Peak. The day before was almost comical. We'd relied on incorrect elevations, but more damningly, I had somehow come under the impression that the turnoff for the Rexford trailhead was the second left turn not the right. To make matters worse, at that second turnoff, the incorrect elevations were right on. "The trail should be right here! Here's the hairpin turn and we're at 2820 feet of elevation. Where is this trail!" We also ended up biking (thankfully we used bikes on the long washed out logging road) into the U.S. in our search for the trailhead. In the end, we chalked it up to experience. At least we now know where all these trailheads that we'll be using in the future are. After a nice dinner at Pizza Hut in Chilliwack, we drove back through the border (and I lost my passport - I still don't know how), got on to the Mount Baker trail and headed for the Twin Lakes road and the Tomyhoi Peak trailhead. We were following the Beckey guide which mentioned 2.4 miles and 2460 feet of elevation once turning onto the road. Well, we passed that seeing no signs of a trailhead. Here we go again. "We're going to have all our trailhead troubles rolled into one trip this weekend", we thought. We continued on and soon were at the trailhead for Tommyhoi Lake, Gold Run Pass, and Yellow Aster Butte, well beyond where Beckey's book described and the trailhead that I'd remembered from my infamous trip to American Border Peak. We decided to at least pull over and throw the bags down and get some sleep and then try to find the trailhead by light in the morning.
We awoke to a clear morning, though we had big dropplets of dew all over our bags. This morning was significantly colder than previous summer mornings. Fall is on the way. We calculated the distance to the rumored trailhead in reverse, hopped in the car, and headed out. At the exact elevation, we saw an abandoned road that turned into a trail. Our mileage, however, looked to be a little off. With self-doubts magnified after the previous day's difficulties, we still decided to try it. The trail soon constricted down to a small path and then became enveloped in brush, wet brush at that. I took the lead blasting through wet blueberries, ferns, low-growing evergreens, and other typical Cascadian foliage. After twenty minutes of this, I stopped just before a set of soaking bushes, reluctant to go on. Michael expressed his doubts. I didn't want to turn around and try yet another trail. Instead of giving up, we pressed on and vowed to make it to old growth and out of the brush within 10 minutes or call it a day. I did feel confident that this trail would lead us somewhere. After all, due to our mileage calculations and the fact that we were trending east a good bit, meant that we must at least be between the desired trail and the Gold Run Pass trail. If anything, this trail ought to lead us somewhere. So, we would continue on or die in the process.
Well, within a minute we were indeed in old growth forest that started climbing steeply. The trail was easily travelled. We learned later that this route has been abandoned (duh) and all trails start at the Gold Run Pass trailhead. We pressed on, only losing the trail once in a section ripe with many "green spirits". Back on a solid trail in deep forest and after passing a few small creeks we suddenly emerged onto a heather meadow with small ponds. At this point we knew we were on the right track. Maybe we could indeed salvage a good weekend after this incredibly bumpy start and our climb off Tomyhoi would not be a "Tommy Boy". We continued on passing a rocky cliff on the right and ascending steeply until we emerged onto the lovely Yellow Aster meadows. Across the vast expanse to the northeast, we could see the bulk of American Border Peak and straight ahead of us, we saw Tomyhoi. Behind us, the views are expansive. You can see Mount Baker and Mount Shuksan in all their alpine glory. This is a great spot to just hike to, perhaps stay the night, and then head back. There were people up here doing just that - we saw three tents scattered around.
A trail before us wended its way steeply up the base of Tomyhoi for about 400 feet. The slopes then became more gentle. The Tomyhoi massif is very large and resembles a Colorado Peak in some ways. It was a nice change of pace - for once we weren't hauling a rope, gear, shoes, helmets, and so on. Our day packs were very light, holding a little more than food, water, and a jacket. As we climbed higher, the views opened up even more. We could see to the Cheam range in Canada and southward to the Pickets where we'd been three weeks earlier. The trail meandered along and we passed a large flock of ptarmigans. Careful counting revealed no less than eight around the trail. Higher up, we had to drop down the first and most significant notch. We dropped perhaps 300 feet then climbed steeply up to slopes that were more broken and covered with scree. The trail continued to be in great shape. Below, we were able spot at least two other climbers on the mountain. We could see the summit in the distance. As we followed the trail up to the ridge, we encountered a party of three who gave us route information. We couldn't stay on the ridge crest since it cliffed out. Instead, we'd need to climb along the top of the bergeschrund. Well, we had no ice axes or crampons. We'd have to see how this would work out.
Climbing along the bergeschrund was actually tricky without crampons or ice axes. It would have been easy just to scamper along the crest, but we had to scoot and stem our way along with rock on the left side and snow on the right side with a hole in the middle. It wasn't too hard, just more annoying knowing that without the gear it was so much slower. The end of the snow scrambling featured a steep finish to level snow. There were big cups in the snow which made it much easier than where we'd just come from. Continuing to stem on rock and snow got us to the top without incident. Here we could get back up on rock and scramble up to the ridge 40 feet above. We cut along the back (left) side of the ridge on a nice trail along a ledge to another notch. An easy downclimb got us to the base of the final scramble. It looked steep but turned out to be easy 3rd class scrambling (maybe 4th if you're using the Colorado standard - OK, enough jabs). We then were looking for a fifty foot gable. "Just what exactly is a 'gable'?", we asked. We knew it had something to do with a house (siting "The House of the Seven Gables") but were a little embarassed that we didn't know. Well, it turns out we correctly identified it. We travelled along the right side of a small formation that resembled a long roof. In fact, the definition of a gable is: "n. the vertical triangular end of a building from cornice or eaves to ridge." And that's the story of how we learned the meaning of "gable". Above the gable, at a prominent ledge, we got on the ridge crest and scrambled easy slopes to the top.
We enjoyed great views around. To the rugged beauty of the North Cascades to the south to the logging roads and clear cuts of British Columbia to the north. We could see our original objective, Mount Rexford and the Nesakwatch Spires, in the distance. I think this view made Michael more excited about them. Perhaps we can hit this area in October if we're lucky enough to get a spell of Indian Summer the way we did last year on West McMillan Spire. After a long lounge on the summit, we headed down. We were debating which way to go on the return. We could do a little extra and hike out Yellow Aster Butte trail to the trail head that we slept at and hitchhike down to our car below. We did see a trail that no doubt led there so we decided to give it a try. We were moving pretty fast and still had a good amount of daylight. We decided to throw in a quick hike up Yellow Aster Butte as well, which gave us good views down into Tomyhoi Lake. The return trip along the trail the runs into the main trail just below Gold Run Pass was a delight. The trail is a fun and gentle path along open slopes affording excellend views the entire way. When we arrived at the junction, we decided to run up real quick to Gold Run Pass. Heck, why not throw in a couple more hundred feet of elevation! It was all just for another view! On the way down, we stopped and chomped on some excellent huckleberries. Some fishermen passed us along the way and we struck up a conversation. They kindly offered to give us a ride back to our car. The hike out was uneventful other than it was extremely FAST. Those fishermen could move! Though travelling at top speed, I got left behind by about a minute or two. We enjoyed a bumpy ride in the back of a pickup down to the abandoned "Keep Cool" trailhead where our car was parked.
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