As is often the case, one hiking trip leads to another for me. On 2/27/16, Leesa and I climbed Good Luck Cliffs in the Ferris Lake Wild Forest. As we were driving on Route 10, we noticed a peak with substantial open rock on the summit, just a little east of Route 10.
I determined that the summit was Sherman Mountain. I went there today to check out the mountain as well as neighboring peaks (Trout Lake Mountain & Chub Lake Mountain). I parked at a parking area on Route 10, just south of Chub Lake.
Rev and I began a bushwhack to Chub Lake and before we even got to the lake she had found a deer leg (it's getting to be a common occurance). She carried it for a couple minutes then found a place to bury it.
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| Chub Lake. Trout Lake Mountain in the distance. |
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| Chub Lake, looking NE. |
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| Zoom view of the rock on Sherman Mountain from Chub Lake. |
After reaching Chub Lake, we went east along the south shore and found a designated campsite there. We continued east and found a herd path heading just east of north. I followed it since it was heading the direction I wanted to go. It was heading towards a small unnamed pond. When I got reached the pond, I found a split in the herd path and someone had made signs.. One sign pointed NE towards Trout Lake Mountain and said "McMartin". The other sign pointed NE and said "Lost Hunter".
I was quite surprised by these signs. I continued on the herd path towards "Lost Hunter", or Sherman Mountain. I reached the base of a series of cliffs and the herd path appeared to end. I went around the right side of the cliffs and continued upward.
As I was reached the top of the cliffs, I was disappointed to find that there was no good viewpoint. It was thick and the rock was a vertical cliff below. There was no open rock to stand on and take in a panorama.
I continued upward and passed through some thick spruce and thick witch hobble. At the last col before the true summit, there was a long beaver pond that I bypassed to the right.
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| Beaver pond in the col to the west of the true summit. |
At last, I reached the non-descript summit. There were no views and nothing of interest. Just quiet woods.
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| The summit of Sherman Mountain. |
I returned to the herd path split and took the other path which started in the direction of Traout Lake Mountain. This path quickly petered out, but it wasn't hard to climb the open ridge. This one was much more forgiving. Still not much for views, but a nice walk none-the-less.
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| Rev found a deer carcass. |
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| A straight grained dead cedar. |
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| Rev on the summit of Trout Lake Mountain. |
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| A nice little grassy knoll just before the summit of Trout Lake Mountain. |
I went back down Trout Lake Mountain, then checked out a small point on Chub Lake which showed signs of use by campers.
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| An obviously used camp spot on Chub Lake, but there is no camping disc here. |
Lastly, I climbed Chub Lake from the west being climbing though a draw until I reached another herd path. This one turned out to be a rock climber's path which lead to an impressive rock wall that is used by rock climbers. The herd path went past the cliffs and wrapped around to the north side of Chub Lake Mountain, then to the summit. Not much to report here either. The rock walls were interesteing though.
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| It was obvious that this wall receives a lot of rock climbing use. |
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| Looking at Sherman Mountain from Chub Lake Mountain. |
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| The top of the rock climbing cliff on Chub Lake Mountain |
On the way down I followed the herd path all the way back. It led to the parking pulloff where I had parked.
Hike Distance: 8.8 miles
Hike Time: 6 hours
Total Vertical Gain: ~2200'
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| The route (Click image to enlarge) |
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