Hiking with the Goofball

Gibson and I went for a pretty long (12 mile) hike / climb yesterday. We headed out Oh-Be-Joyful Creek into the Raggeds Wilderness. We got kind of a late start but I still thought we might try to gain Oh-Be-Joyful Pass and if time and weather permitted try to summit on Richmond (about 12,500 ft). We made really good time getting up to Democrat basin in about 2.5-3 hours but were disappointed to see the pass trail covered in snow. Rather than risk a nasty fall (I was wearing glorified sneakers) on the exposed pass I decided to push as high on Richmond as possible before being turned back by snow. We got to within a couple of hundred feet of the summit, ate lunch, and then proceeded down. I decided to have a little fun on the way down so I took out my poncho, made a makeshift sled, and glissaded about 1000 or so feet back to the basin floor. Gibson thought this was for his benefit and tried to ride down on my head. Here's some pictures from our 5 hour day:

The mellow valley hike along OBJ Creek. Richmond is the rocky summit on the right in the distance.

Here's the view of Democrat Basin from its entrance.


Gibson enjoying the wildflowers in the basin. He probably hiked 5 times further than I did.

Looking South once we had entered the basin. The prominent rock peak is Garfield and the snow covered saddle to the right is Star Pass. I am planning on doing a loop over that once the snow melts.

A view of the summit of Richmond from our lunch spot and high point on the hike. Too much snow to make the summit without decent boots...Next time.