Hawkins Mountain

On 5/7, 12 scramblers (including 6 students) enjoyed glorious views from Hawkins Mountain.

Before I describe the trip further, 2 warnings to leaders contemplating this trip. First of all, Google puts the Last Resort more than a mile south of where it actually is. Second, if you want this to be a good snow scramble, you don't have much time left; the snow is melting fast.

We started near the Big Boulder Creek TH, but went cross-country approximately SE up the rounded ridge that merges with other ill-defined ridges into a better defined ridge at around 5200'. Most of the rest of the trip was on the ridge except to stay on the snow below (west) of a rocky portion of the ridge before the false summit. This route worked well, although it was hard to avoid trampling the kinnikinnick on the lower portion.

We saw no one except (unfortunately) a couple of snowmobilers near the top. We only heard their noise briefly, though, and the views made up for everything. There wasn't much in bloom yet, but there were a fair number of yellow bells in one gravelly area where the snow had melted plus some calypso orchids down low.

One person injured her knee near the top, and on the way down, below the false summit, that injury contributed to a slip on the snow, followed by a well-executed self-arrest. She was able to manage the rest of the descent OK, although with some pain. I'll send a more complete report on this to the Safety Committee.